THE W5 OF LIFE GROUPS
“Fitting In”
Scripture / Text: Luke 19:1-10
INTRO
One of the more awkward experiences of my life as a kid were the times we played sports, whether organized in a school gym-class or the field across from our house. Everyone lined out single file and two team captains would stand opposite the rest of us and pick their players. As the picking got down to the last two or three of us we were feeling the same thing – we didn’t want to be the last one picked. It was interpreted as no one really wanted you on their team but since you’re the only one left you ‘defaulted’ to the team whose turn it was to pick the next – and last – player.
It’s hard fitting in, yet it is critical to our well-being. Motivational speaker, Simon Sinek says it well. “Our desire to feel like we belong is so strong that we seek it out. This is what gangs offer a teenager in the inner city. With no strong family unit and no strong school bonds, a young, disenfranchised man or woman will join a gang to feel like a part of something. That sense of belonging is important to us because with a sense of belonging, with a sense that we are surrounded by people who understand us and see the world as we see it, we feel more comfortable. We feel safer. We’re even able to form bonds of trust much easier.”
This takes us to our text for the morning. Let’s begin with Jesus. There are several references in the gospels where we read that Jesus was “passing through” (19:1) somewhere. He didn’t live there or work there. He didn’t have friends there or have an evangelistic campaign and tent meetings. But somehow in the normal reality of being a man on a mission and connecting with people, he arrived in towns and cities to do what he came to do and the result, when he left it, was very positively different than it was when he arrived.
As we begin our journey, the first lesson is probably the most obvious. The world is full of
1. Lonely, Hurting People
It’s lonely being rich. I don’t speak from experience but I speak from a conversation with someone who might not consider himself rich but he certainly has a lot more money than I can imagine having. People look at you differently he said. Most people avoid him because somehow they think he’s different and doesn’t relate to them. All they see is the expensive suit or his BMW. They don’t see the man and consider that he has needs like them, the need especially for good friends.
Zacchaeus was lonely. He was rich but unhappy. Unfortunately it didn’t help the situation any that being at the top of his game involved a lot of robbery and extortion as he overcharged the people on their taxes and make a fair sum of money after paying the authorities. One could appreciate why he didn’t fit in or was less than appreciated. I suspect though his not fitting in didn’t start with his lucrative business. It didn’t help that Zacchaeus was short and the jokes probably were as many and hurtful as one can imagine, as adolescence saw his peers growing up but he had stopped growing. I picture him something like the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings. It’s possible that the boys who beat on him on the playground now beat on him in his efforts to see Jesus. Sometimes people don’t need a reason to be unkind, they just “are”; once a bully, always a bully. Zacchaeus may have had a lifetime of not fitting in, of being pushed around and been the object of cruel jokes and bullying.
The band’s lead-in to the sermon with the powerful song, “People need the Lord” often leads us to think of people with less money or property or clothes than we have; or people sleeping in cardboard boxes, standing in line at the food bank or the people given soup from the Response Unit. We often don’t associate people needing the Lord as people who are overwhelmed with the work load of everyday life and CEOs; or people living with fear for one reason or another. We don’t remember those who hide their pain behind their laughter. We discount the importance of remembering those who behave as if “wrong seems right”. The song really speaks to the generations of people who live in suburbia as much as on the street, driving fancy cars as well as those pushing a grocery cart in the alley. It represents those who are paying for their kids’ university.
In every pew in this church there sits a broken heart. Everyone here has a story, a story that carries pain, loneliness or both. All of us need a safe place, a place where we are accepted for who we are, with our pain and hurts and our need to belong and connect. Our Life Groups will be forums for us be accepted and appreciated for who we are, as we connect and grow with others who are like me in the ground level need for friends, confidants and supporters and cheerleaders now and then!
Jesus comes alongside and teaches us that even though the world is full of lonely, hurting people,
2. Everyone Matters
Probably the only thing stranger than Jesus “passing through” and affecting everyone, is the repeated examples of the type of people he invested in. He engaged people that others tried to avoid – a prostitute, beggars, Samaritans, crazy folk (they were known as demon-possessed), people with diseases, deformed people and tax-collectors (avoiding tax-collectors I get!).
So Jesus is just “passing through” (19:1) Jericho. Sources tell us that Jericho was known for its palm trees and world-famous balsam groves. Some say you could smell the perfume miles away and it was what Dr. William Barclay says was referred to as “The City of Palms”. Lucrative business meant taxes for the government. Lots of taxes and Zacchaeus was a tax-collector for the Roman government. He was at the top of his game. Some of you will remember the Sunday school days of singing, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man…”
It was this thieving, short man who heard about Jesus “passing through” and he wanted to see Jesus. He was no different than anyone else, probably wondering at times, “There must be more than this”, to quote Michael Jackson’s song. But then, who wouldn’t want to see Jesus? Who wouldn’t be just a little peaked with interest because of the controversy around him and the amazing miracles he was known to pull off? But one could appreciate Zacchaeus’ reasons even more than most. Jesus had the reputation of spending time with tax-collectors (Zacchaeus must have the thought, “that’s me”) and ‘sinners’ if you will. As his curiosity peaked his attempts to see Jesus were golden opportunities for the crowd to block him. They took sheer delight in disrupting this short man’s view or passing along a kick in the shins or a dig in the ribs now and then.
But, being the strategist and opportunist he was, Zacchaeus outsmarted everyone, ran ahead to a tree whose branches extended outward, almost from the ground all the way up the tree and so he scampered up the tree. It not only allowed him to see but it provided a haven from the abuse he was enduring.
Jesus does what is characteristic and ‘odd’ about him. When he reached the spot where Zacchaeus was he stopped and looked at him. When was the last time someone looked at him, not just glanced his way but really looked at him? And not only looked at him but spoke to him? Not with an edge in his tone or an attitude or swear word because they were annoyed at him because of his trade but with genuine interest and concern for him. I wonder if that was a moment when time stood still. Someone thought he was worth a loving glance. Then, Jesus does the unthinkable, as he had done so many times before. He decides to spend time with the rift-raft. Go figure! Reverend James Hastings edits in The Speaker’s Bible Commentary by saying, “The story of Zacchaeus’ conversion is one of the clearest illustrations of the method by which Christ wins {people}. It is a description of the love of God in action. The method He used throughout had His characteristic touch. It was the method of saving friendship…which broke down barriers of resistance and suspicion, and made a way for love…”
Jesus befriended him!
We were not posted here very long before Glenys and I coined a phrase that captures what we think of you. We felt this way from the first time we met and have felt this way for the last five years. I think it should be an addendum to KCC’s current motto of "Embracing our community with God's amazing love” by adding the phrase “Because you matter”. We’ve seen that so many times, not just toward us but toward many, many people in this fellowship, an attitude that says that KCC is a place “Where you Matter”. No, it’s not perfect, it can’t be. And I know there are those who would disagree with my assessment but that often comes down to unreasonable expectations. But there’s a lot here to celebrate! And as we continue to befriend one another we need to aim to become better at it.
Life Groups will help us do that. As we connect in these small forums we’ll get to know one another more – and better – and begin to empathize with one another’s needs and struggles and lives. That is so critically important because you matter!
This leads us to the final point and quite naturally flows into it. If we’re going to befriend one another, as in really, genuinely move into one another’s neighbourhoods,
3. We must make it Personal
As we come back to Zacchaeus we see his life changed because he encountered Jesus. I become excited so that my Newfie tongue wants to take over and speak so quickly you won’t understand a word I’m saying! Are you ready for this? Zacchaeus didn’t get saved at church, he got saved at home! He probably didn’t go to church because he wouldn’t have felt welcomed there. No one would have spoken to him or showed him where he could find the washrooms or pour him a cup of coffee. And most likely no one would have sat with him because who wanted to be seen with him?
No, it got personal because Jesus took the initiative to get away from the crowd and sit with Zacchaeus, one on one, at the kitchen table or in the living room, and talk life. Jesus met Zaachaeus on Zaachaues’ terms of comfort and security. Only then would Jesus gain an audience to make the pitch.
We cannot make the most difference in peoples’ lives in a 90 minute window on Sunday morning. We need forums that will allow us opportunities to talk real life, to build relationships and get to a place of being able to trust other people. These elements of small groups are critically important because here are dangers of just having a Bible study group or a small group get-together. A small group pastor highlights the problem in a conversation he had with Christian Counselor Larry Crab about small groups. The church in question was very familiar with small groups as it was an integral part of their church structure. The pastor said to Crabb, “We’ve got to move to another level. Good things are happening in our groups, but not what most needs to happen, not what I somehow know could happen. We arrange our bodies in a circle, but our souls ar sitting in straight-backed chairs facing away from the others.”
We’re not aiming to create more programs or forums for people to be busier than what they are already. No one needs that. No one wants that. The extent that we make our Life Groups a safe haven and a forum to support one another with life and spiritual development, is the extent of our effectiveness in achieving the aims for which Life Groups are being created.
If I were to try to summarize the whole purpose of Life Groups I think I could said it in four words which is the final point to be made,
4. The Purpose is Change
The meeting between Jesus and Zacchaeus brings about the unexpected; the never-imagined-or-thought-possible outcome. Zacchaeus changed his ways! Let’s read 19:8 together…
This act of confessing his crimes and making restitution is not a small matter. When a thief voluntarily confessed a crime the law required 1/5th payment of the theft. But if someone committed a robbery that was violent and destructive and proven guilty, the law required they make restitution by paying back four times the amount of what they stole. This is the position Zacchaeus took. He went beyond the law to a position of grace and he took the position of one who had committed a violent and destructive crime, paying back four times more than he had stolen!
Jesus uses the transforming moment to drive home his message one more time as stated in verse 10, “the Son of Man (referring to himself) came to seek and to save what was lost.” Dr. William Barclay sheds interesting light on this statement and says, “We must always be careful how we take the meaning of this word lost. In the New Testament it does not mean damned or doomed. It simply means in the wrong place.” The wrong place represents any experience or time in our lives where the ebb and flow of our relationship with God is disrupted.
How many times have any number of us been lost, or have been in the wrong place? Some people are there right now. We’ve had or are having experiences where God is squeezed out of the situation or decisions or priorities. Sometimes it is not even intentional. It just IS for whatever reasons. The purpose of Life Groups is to help us get on track when we’ve lost focus and direction and then to keep us on track. There is a very real sense where all of us need salvation experiences every day, whether we are saved from getting off track or saved by being brought back on track.
CONCLUSION
- The truth is, life is a tough place that isolates us as we try to work through pain and loneliness. People are struggling to ‘fit in’ and feel completely alone.
- We have to take genuine interest in one another because everyone matters. We’re family – and that’s not a cliché.
- If we’re going to genuinely care about one another, we have to get personal and connect deeply.
- What a dreadful realization if we are to learn that people had to “join a gang” so to speak because there was nothing at the church.
- We must take to heart, Hebrews 10:24, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
