Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 19:1-10   Up a Tree   Luke is a Gospel of fascinating stories: the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, the afterlife adventure of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and, of course, the story of Zacchaeus, a man forever enshrined in song as “the wee little man.”   But while the other stories are all parables told by Jesus, the Zacchaeus story is the tale of an actual encounter.   Zacchaeus was not a character created by Jesus, neither was his story a fragment of divine imagination.      This is the real life story of a real man.   A rich man.   A business man.   A wealthy adult human who, in this story, is discovered up in a tree – in public – not exactly the place one might expect to find grown man of means. Zacchaeus climbs a tree by a crowded street and his favorite sports team did not even win a championship, which I think might be the only acceptable circumstance under which an adult human ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 19:1-10 Seeing Miracles Where's the miracle? Before Jesus entered Jericho he had done some pretty spectacular works – showstopping stuff. He healed lepers. He restored the crippled. His touch made the sick well. He cast out demons and renewed tortured minds. He even raised the dead, brought dearly departed people back to life. And just before today's story, in the previous tale found in Luke's Gospel, Jesus made a blind man see. And when he wasn't performing some miraculous healing, Jesus was blowing minds with his profound teachings. He told brilliant parables. He bestowed timeless wisdom. He challenged the entrenched religious and political systems in clever and often devastating ways. But now he walks into Jericho and he sees Zacchaeus. And no one is miraculously healed. And there is no amazing sermon. But there is some controversy – which is, I guess, the other thing Jesus does well ...