RESTORATIVE JUSTICE #1: Zaccheus Pays Reparations
Luke 19:1-9
Restorative Justice Series #1
Trinity United Methodist Church, Providence, RI
September 2, 2001
Rev. Anne Grant
Introduction to scripture:
Has anybody here climbed a tree recently?
It’s not something adults do very often.
Children love the story of Zaccheus, because he’s a wee little man.
He has the same problem children do when there’s a parade:
They can’t see over all the adults, and they just hope someone tall will lift them up
on their shoulders, or let them come to the front of the crowd.
But nobody would have made a space for Zaccheus,
because everybody hated him.
Zaccheus was a tax collector, and no ordinary tax collector.
He was the head tax collector for that area.
Tax collectors were regarded as worst kind of sinners . . .The lowest liars and cheats--Unworthy to be called children of Abraham, who was the father of the Jewish people.
The Jews had some good reasons for hating tax collectors.
Tax collectors worked for the enemy, for the occupying forces of Rome.
To be a tax collector one had to bid for the franchise
Like you would bid at an auction with the franchise going to the highest bidder
In order for him to regain his investment he had to increase the tax.
This gained tax collectors the reputation for being notoriously corrupt
They also became quite wealthy at expense of their fellow Jews.
Tax collectors were collecting taxes for a foreign power
By this activity they were supporting Israel’s occupation by an ingodly empire.
Tax collectors were traitors to their community and their God.
And because they worked with Gentiles, they were considered unclean.
No religious Jew would associate with them.
So Zaccheus was pretty lonely.
No one would make space for him to see Jesus.
And so he runs ahead to a tree and climbs it.
In the mideast, it was unusual and undignified to see a grown man run,
especially a government official, But he runs and he climbs a tree— just like a child,
which is just the way Jesus wants us to come to him—like a child.
Watch what Jesus does, and watch how Zaccheus responds.
Readers’ Theater: Jesus & Zacchaeus Luke 19:1-9
1. NARRATOR: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was so short. So Zaccheus ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see better, because Jesus was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him:
2. JESUS: Zacchaeus! Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today!
3. NARRATOR: Zaccheus hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said,
4. TOWNSPERSON 1: He’s gone to visit that sinner!
5. TOWNSPERSON 2: What did he do that for?
6. NARRATOR: But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
7. ZACCHEUS: Half of everything I own I will give to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone of anything, I will pay it back four times over.
8. NARRATOR: Then Jesus said to Zaccheus:
9. JESUS: Today salvation has come to this house, because you, too, are a son of Abraham. For I came to seek out and to save the lost.
TEACHING: Zaccheus, Reparations, & Restorative Justice
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,
"Zaccheus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."
It didn’t matter what all the others thought about Zacchaeus.
Jesus saw hope for him.Zaccheus scrambled down, and people grumbled,
but Jesus went to the tax collector’s house.
When we look at some people in RI and in the world
who are getting rich off of other peopleand keeping them in poverty,
we sometimes consider those rich people hopelessly lost,
just like the Jews in Jesus time considered Zaccheus hopelessly lost.
We don’t want to bother with them.
We talk against them.
We may march and demonstrate against them.
But Jesus reached out to Zaccheus and that despised life was changed
and not only his, but all those people he had been cheating—
Their lives were changed.
NOTICE THE ENDING: Zaccheus not only paid his debts,
He said if he had cheated anyone out of anything,
he would pay it back four times over.
Notice the mercy of God as Jesus brought people together
around Zaccheus’ table. Our message today is
Don’t BLAME, Don’t SHAME Come to the Table!
(TRANSPARENCY: REPEAT with them)
Representatives of 166 nations gathered in Durban South Africa Friday
to launch an ambitious U.N. conference against racism and discrimination.
And it’s a shame that our nation, as the leading democracy in the world,
has not sent an official delegation. Why?
Because our president is afraid of the political ramifications of any talk
there either against Zionism in Israel, or for reparations—
payments to be madein some small way to repay the huge debt
many of us believe this nation owesto the descendants of slaves for
246 years of unpaid labor
The President has decided that our first African American
Secretary of State Colin Powell should stay away from Durban…
ironically on the advice of another African American advisor, Condeleeza Rice.
I’m sorry to saythere are a lot of Christians in this country
who don’t think the United Stateshas an obligation to pay REPARATIONS
or even to offer a public apology for the EVIL of SLAVERY.
Even though I never owned slaves myself,
as a white person I have benefited every day of my life
from the proceeds of the slavery that helped build this nation.
A cousin of mine has spent yearstracing the family lineage as far back as he can…
He made a connection several years agothat an ancestor on my mother’s side
actually came over on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact.
That and $1.25 will get me on the bus.
But the truth is, I have benefited.
Unlike Africans, my European ancestors were free.
Their experience – however hard –
Was nothing like that of the slaveswho were brought here in chains
in the sickening holds of countless ships--many of those slaving vessels
registered and owned right here in Rhode Island.
UNLIKE THE AFRICANS my European ancestors
were allowed to get an education.
UNLIKE THE AFRICANS my European ancestors
were allowed to get legally married and build stable homes.
UNLIKE THE SLAVES, they were allowed to take jobs and earn money
and own property and pass it all down to their children and grand children and great grands, right down to me.--generation after generation of building something
that was not stolen from them.
The laws of this land said slaves couldn’t do those things.
And the benefit of all those generations of white AMERICANS
has multiplied over the years.
Our nation owes an enormous ECONOMIC debt to the descendents of slaves.
More than two hundred years ago ---
during debate over the Constitution that brought this nation together,
The founders recognized that there would be no nation
if they forced the question of slavery.
The slave-holding states would pull out and the union would collapse.
Two hundred eleven years ago, in 1790,
when this nation was being established
the United States Congress debated how slavery could be ended
and one of the problems they faced was the high cost.
They never worried about paying reparations to slaves.
What they worried about was the high cost of paying the slave-holders
if their slaves were set free.
If the country had paid $200 for each slave in 1790,
it would have had to raise $140 million dollars.
But the entire federal budget that year was only $7 million dollars.
[Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers/The Revolutionary Generations (NY:Alfred
A. Knopf, 2001), p. 106.]
When leaders like Washington and Jefferson
counted the cost and particularly the political cost,
they just kept silent on a subject that brought great harm to us all.
Slavery isn’t even mentioned in the Constitution.
The very next year, in 1791, a man who was not a politician,
Robert Carter demonstrated that it really was possible
for slave-owners to do the right thing
and he drew up papers setting free all of his 453 slaves.
[reported on public radio, WRNI, September 1, 2001]
Today, our president, just like Washington and Jefferson
is afraid of any talk about any kind of payments for slavery.
It’s fascinating to see how UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Seems to be speaking the Gospel to both sides.
To the rich nations, who have been the slave-holders and colonizers,
Kofi Annan is saying: Deal with the tragic legacy of slavery.
To the poor nations and who have been victimized,
he’s saying don’t be blinded by bitterness.
In his opening remarks, Kofi Annan urged conference participants
to refrain from "mutual accusations" and instead to unite against all forms of discrimination. "Mutual accusations," Annan said, "are not the purpose of this conference.
Rather than pick on any one country, let us admit that all countries
have issues of racism and discrimination to address."
He’s doing exactly what Jesus did with Zaccheus,
exactly what we have been called to do as Christians:
Don’t BLAME! Don’t SHAME! Come to the Table!
Say it with me: Don’t BLAME! Don’t SHAME! Come to the Table!
I had the joy of attending a Pastors’ Assembly this week in New Hampshire.
It was at a place on a breath-taking lake and forest.
Bishop Hassinger was there, as were a number of other pastors and their spouses.
We heard a lot that I’ll be sharing with you for a long time to come.
One of the speakers was a Mennonite mediator, Elaine Enns,
talking about getting victims of crime and their offenders to sit down together,
not to blame, not to shame, but to come to the table.
It’s called RESTORATIVE JUSTICE.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE is a very different model from
when we want to have the police arrest the offender,
And the judge condemn them and take them to prison and throw away the key.
That’s the kind of justice many people want, retributive justice,
Punishment: Blame them and shame them.
Only problem is, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t make the victim feel safer,
And it doesn’t keep the offender from doing the same thing all over again.
Elaine told us about two 14-year-old boys in Fresno, California, John and Kevin.
They got bored one day.
They decided to ride their bikes to the highway overpass.
And when they got there, they picked up some rocks,
and decided to toss them off the overpass into the traffic below.
It didn’t take long for one of the rocks to hit a car.
Glass exploded. Brakes screeched. Cars and trucks swerved to a stop.
The boys were stunned. At first they froze.
Then they ran for their bikes and rode away.
But people had seen them and called the police,
Who picked them up and took them off the Juvenile Hall.
Well, normally, they’d go before a judge
And be sentenced to something like our Training School.
Once that happens for many, their lives are changed forever,
locked in a downward path.
The difference for these two 14-year-olds, John and Kevin,
Was that some people of faith had worked in that area to set up
an ALTERNATIVE SYSTEM OF JUSTICE.
They call it CONFERENCING.
What that means is that everyone involved in a crime
comes together with a mediator.
Elaine was there to mediate.
Kevin came with his mother and father.
John came with his grandmother, a younger brother and an older sister.
Both of the boys were sorry. Mostly they were sorry that they got caught.
But they were sorry.
And they were willing to meet the next day with the Smith family—
the ones who had been in the car.
Elaine said the hardest part was getting the Smith family
to meet with John and Kevin and their families.
They had been traumatized, and they didn’t want to meet these boys.
But Elaine tried to help them understand why it could bring healing for them
And that she would guide the meeting very carefully.
Finally they agreed, and the three families came together.
The Smiths brought their daughter and her little girl and her baby,
Who had been in the back seat when the rock smashed the window.
The first thing that happened was that John’s older sister
offered to take the Smiths’ grandchildren outside and play with them.
It was a kind gesture that helped to begin the healing right there.
Elaine gave John and Kevin a chance to say what had happened.
Why they did such a thing--they were just bored.
They were looking for something to do.
Then Elaine asked the Smiths to tell their story.
They had been driving in a funeral procession.
When the rock hit, they thought someone was shooting at them.
After all this was Fresno, and there might be snipers on the highway.
They were terrified.
Their grandchildren were screaming in the back seat, the baby in her infant seat,
and every inch of exposed skin had little cuts on it.
Twice they had paid professionals to vacuum out their car,
But the children still got little splinters of glass cutting them
every time they rode in the back.
Once Kevin and John understood what they had done,
Elaine had them meet with their families and come up with a plan to make restitution,
and then their family presented that plan to the Smiths.
Kevin and John would work to pay the cost of the repairs and any medical bills–
several hundred dollars.
They would perform additional community service.
To make it clear that they understood the seriousness of what they had done.
Elaine asked the Smiths if there was anything else they thought the boys should do,
and finally they reached agreement.
Kevin and John’s families agreed to hold them accountable,
to make sure they fulfilled their part of the agreement.
And everybody in the room signed the agreement.
Then Mr. Smith did something no one expected.
He walked over to John and Kevin and said to them,
"You’re good boys, and I forgive you."
And everyone in the room started to cry.
Doesn’t that sound just like Jesus?
"Zaccheus, you are a son of Abraham!"
No matter what those religious people say, I can see that you’re a good Jew!
That’s RESTORATIVE JUSTICE—
not just restoring the victims for what was taken from them,
but restoring the offenders, welcoming them back into the community—
not locking them away so they can grow more and more isolated and shamed and bitter.
And lifting off of the victims that huge burden of anger.
Can you imagine Mr. Smith going through the rest of his life
Enraged every time he drove on that highway and remembered
What these two teenagers had done?
That’s what would have happened if he refused to come to the table.
How much better that he was able to see:
You’re really good boys!
How much better that he was able to say:I forgive you!
Restorative Justice.
We want to look for opportunities to train members of this congregation
To serve as mediators just like Elaine, to help bring people together
around the table:
Not to blame, Not to shame, But to welcome them to the table.
If any of you feel God nudging you—
and you want to learn more about being a peace-maker, a mediator,
please let me know.
So we’ll know who to call if training opportunities come.
The secret to becoming a good mediator is to learn never to blame and never to shame.
But to get people to the table, just like Jesus did.
Just like Elaine Enns did.
Just like Kofi Anan will be doing every hour of this week.
As we become more active in issues of social justice like racism,
like economic injustice that we’ll talk more about
like calling for the Living Wage,
like welcoming world leaders in the effort to reform the World Bank
and to forgive the debt of developing nations,
we need to learn how to bring people to the table.
We are coming out of slavery to our own desires
to blame and shame and punish people,
Our own desire for retribution.
God is going to teach us how to reach out to offenders,
those who are despised like Zaccheus, those who cheat their workers,
those who don’t pay a Living Wage while they themselves are getting rich.
God is going to show us how to bring them all to the table,
both the victims and the offenders.
And God will restore us and lead us all out of slavery together.
Let’s prepare our hearts now to come to the table.
SONG: Lead On, O Cloud of Presence (The Faith We Sing, #2234)
COMMUNION
