God Looks Up at Us!

 

Today's Gospel is a perfect Gospel story for reformation Sunday.

It says everything that Martin Luther wanted us to know about God.

The Reformation is the moment when theology changed in the Church.

It is the moment when things shifted from what we do, to what God does for us.

In this story, we could focus on Zacchaeus.

We could talk about what made him go out to see Jesus that day.

We could talk about him climbing a tree.

We could talk about how he changed his ways after this encounter.

But the story is really not about Zacchaeus.

In fact, all Bible stories are not really about the people in them.

They are stories about God.

Stories about how God interacts with us.

How God uses grace and love to entice us to faith or change our lives.

We usually make the mistake of focusing too much on what we do, and not enough on what God does.

More than anything else that is what the Reformation was about.

Luther wanted people to focus on what God was doing for them, instead of people focusing on what they could do to please God.

 

And in our story this morning there is an important moment that happens.

Jesus is walking down the road and he looks up.

He looks up to see Zacchaeus in the tree.

Why is this important?

Well, when we think about God we usually think of God looking down on us.

We think of an old man with a white beard sitting on a cloud looking down and looking for ways that people are misbehaving.

And then thinking of elaborate ways to punish those who have done wrong.

 

What we get in Jesus is the opposite.

We get a God who looks up at us.

Who searches us out.

Who finds us in the place we find ourselves and invites us to a different place.

Notice in the text that Jesus doesn't stop and chastise Zacchaeus.

He doesn't stop and say, "Zacchaeus how dare you steal money from people!"

Instead, Jesus stops and invites Zacchaeus to a meal.

 

I have been thinking a lot about Jesus in our story this morning.

How it changes drastically how we think about God and ourselves.

How we desperately need a God who looks up to us, and not down on us.

We need a God who helps us grow with invitation rather than scolding.

 

This week I went out to eat for lunch with someone every day.

(I have said this before but it needs saying here. At least half of my job is eating lunch with people."

And every one of those lunches was about life and the difficult things that we face.

About losing someone we love, about trying to raise children, about trying to navigate relationships at work, about paying bills, about trying to do the right thing.

Life is so complex.

It is beautiful and wonderful, but also so difficult.

Do we need another person in our lives to tell us what we are doing wrong?

Do we need another voice in our heads telling us that we have failed in some way?

Do we need another tally of the ways that we have not lived up to some expectation either of others or ourselves?

 

I would argue that we don't.

Most of us know that life is hard and that we haven't quite got it figured out.

I am going to guess that Zacchaeus knew that he was not well-liked.

I am going to guess that he knew that he wasn't living up to other people's standards, or God's standards.

I am going to guess this because he went out to see Jesus that day.

He was looking for something.

But the way that Jesus interacted with him.

The way that Jesus invites him to a meal.

The effects are so much better than being told by another person that he has failed.

 

I am wondering if you ever had a moment or moments like that in your life.

Moments where you know you messed up, and you knew it was your fault.

But instead of judgment and condemnation, someone offered you grace and mercy.

 

It has happened many times in my life.

One time when was when I was in college.

There was this semester when things in my life were not going so well.

I had lost my grandfather and was grieving that loss.

There was this college chaplain who was new and she was not easy to get along with.

I was not doing well in my classes.

I was partying a lot.

I am not sure why it was all so out of control, but it was.

That semester I think I got two Cs and two Ds.

It wasn't good.

I really thought my parents were going to be really upset.

Instead, they were compassionate about it.

They wanted to know what was going on, they wanted to talk about why things didn't look good.

We talked about things.

When I went back to school I went to the chapel one night by myself.

And I prayed that God would be with me that semester.

I prayed that I might come out of the fog I was in.

I heard God reply to me that it was going to be ok.

I heard God invite me to come down and get back on track.

That semester I made the dean's list.

Grace and mercy are better than ridicule and the law.

 

My parents and God looked up at me in my tree and invited me to come down.

They invited me to do better.

I think this is what the Reformation was about.

It was about knowing the God we have in Jesus Christ.

The God who walks among us.

The God who knows our weakness.

The God who looks up and invites us to a meal.

The Reformation was about faith in a God of grace, instead of one who is burdening us with the law.

As Martin Luther once said, "The law says 'Do this', and it is never done. Grace says, 'believe in this' and everything is already done."

 

We have enough people in this world that look down on us.

We have plenty of people that tell us we are no good or don't live up to some standard.

We are judged all the time.

It is nice to know that God is looking up at us.

 

As we move into the unknown future with all of its complications.

As we move through life, with all of its challenges.

I think it is even more important to remember what Jesus taught us, and what Luther remind us of.

Because when life is complicated one way we often try to control it is by making new laws, and by bemoaning the fact that other people are not doing the right thing.

It makes us feel better sometimes to think we can control people by simply making them feel bad about themselves.

 

But Jesus has shown us that God is not interested in that.

God looks up at us.

God finds us in our tree.

God says, "Hey I have been looking for you. Come down and let us talk about it over a meal."

And through that grace, we find our footing.

Through grace, we find the people God has called us to be.

May God continue to find you.

May we continue to celebrate and give thanks for that life-changing grace.

Amen