When Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down;
for I must stay at your house today.”
-Luke 19:3-5
Have you ever stayed at someone else’s house before? Of course you have. Even the younger ones in our families have probably spent the night at a friend’s or relative’s home on occasion. I used to love to go and spend a Friday night at a friend’s house and stay up late and all that.
My friend Greg loves to tell the story about staying over one night at one of his friend’s homes. Greg and this guy he was staying with played soccer together in college down in South Carolina. And Greg went with his friend back to his parent’s house one weekend to get away from his dorm room for a while and to have a change of scenery for a bit.
His friend had a much younger sister who was about seven or eight and she was pretty involved in acting and had even been in a few movies here and there. And Greg tells the story of spending the night there and sleeping most of the next day away and being lazy and not even getting cleaned up. He took a nap and didn’t wake up until almost supper time. When he woke up he realized that it was about 7:00 pm and so he stumbled down the stairs to see what everybody else was doing and to try and find some supper. And you know how it is when you first wake up from a long nap, you’re kind of in this state somewhere between sleep and awake. And Greg makes his way down the steps and he looks over on the couch and he sees this very “pretty woman” sitting there on the couch with his friend’s little sister. Thinking he was seeing things, he goes back upstairs and talks to his friend and says, “Dude, I gotta stop taking naps. I could swear that I just walked down the steps and Julia Roberts was sitting on your couch.” To which his friend said, “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you she was coming over for dinner tonight.” Greg then tells about how he punched his friend in the arm because here he was meeting Julia Roberts looking like he spent the last two weeks on a desert island.
It turns out that Greg’s friend’s sister had been in a movie with Julia Roberts and they had become friends and she would come over from time to time. But I mean really, who just forgets to tell their college-aged male friend that Julia Roberts is going to be sitting on the couch downstairs and that she’s going to have supper with them that night! Greg jumps at every chance he gets to tell the story about how he walked down the steps and Julia Roberts just happened to be sitting on the couch. I imagine it would be slightly surreal to sit across the table from someone famous and pass them the Hamburger Helper and the green beans in a subdivision somewhere in South Carolina.
In our gospel lesson this morning, another famous guest shows up at the home of an unsuspecting individual named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a rich man, he was a chief tax collector which meant that he didn’t do much of anything. He had others who were engaged in the real work of going around and collecting the taxes from people. He would have put in a bid to Rome for the privilege of collecting taxes. The tax collector would pay all the taxes of that region up front, and then re-coop their money from what they collected from the people in that region. And they were free to collect more than what Rome required—that’s how they made their profit.
And this rich and powerful man heard that Jesus was coming through the town. He had probably heard about the miracles he had performed and the teachings he had been spreading around the country. But as rich and powerful as Zacchaeus was, he was pretty short. If I was making a movie of this story, I would cast somebody like Danny DeVito as Zacchaeus. So, to see Jesus he climbs up in a tree. And as Jesus walks by he spots Zacchaeus in the tree and tells him to hurry down because he’s going to stay at his house and eat some Spaghetti-O’s with him that night.
I imagine Zacchaeus was feeling a little bit like my friend Greg at this point. He hurries home and has the house prepared for Jesus. I can’t read this passage and not hear that song about him I learned in Sunday School as a little kid. “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the Lord walked by that day he looked up in the tree. And he said, ‘Zacchaeus, you come down. For I’m going to your house today. For I’m going to your house today.’”
I think I would have an easier time preparing for Julia Roberts to come to my house than the Son of God. I mean, what would you do if Jesus was coming over to your house tonight? If you’re anything like me, you’d probably try to make your house look a little more holy than it might be. I highly doubt that any of us would welcome Jesus into our houses just like they are right now.
Most of us would be terrified at the prospects of Jesus coming over for supper. That would be just too out of the ordinary for most of our minds to deal with. But the sad reality is that Jesus graces our tables with his presence all the time, and especially when we gather around his table as we will do here in just a moment. It’s rare, if ever, that a famous celebrity will just show up in your living room one day. Yet Jesus is present with us all the time—whether we’re ready for him to be or not; whether we’re tax collectors or prostitutes; whether we’re Pharisees or foundry workers. And many times we spend far too much time in trees looking at Jesus and far too little time on the ground serving him.
I came across a poem that I think about quite a bit, especially when I’m doing some chores around the house. It’s called simply “If Jesus Came to Visit.”
If Jesus came to visit would you have to
change your clothes before you let Him in?
Or hide some magazines, and put the Bibles where they’d been?
Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?
And I wonder if the Saviour spent a day or two with you,
would you go right on doing, the things you always do?
Would you go right on saying, the things you always say?
Or would life for you continue as it does from day to day?
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you go?
Or would you maybe change your plans for just a day or so?
Would you be glad to have Him meet your closest friends?
Or would you hope they stay away until His visit ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on?
Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone?
It might be interesting to know, the things that you would do,
If Jesus came in person, to spend some time with you.
“When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus hurry and come down;
for I must stay at your house today.’”
I just can’t believe that Greg’s friend didn’t tell him about something as significant as Julia Roberts coming over for dinner. The least he could have done is told him a few hours ahead of time so he could get himself properly cleaned up for the occasion. When somebody famous is coming over, you need to tell your friends. Friends, Jesus is coming. Get cleaned up. Amen.
