GOD'S SEARCH FOR MAN

Our scripture lesson this morning told the story of a

favorite New Testament character. Every child knows the song
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about Zachéins: A little man was he’ amd he climbed up in a tree;
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the Lord for to see and sam so on, It's an appealing little stdry

one that easily lends itself to our imagination./ But a’closer look
at the details of Luke's account will show that the story is much

more than pretty and appealing: that indeed it includes the major elements

of the Christian faith.

The story takes place in Jericho, a magnificant wcity in the day
a HES
of Jesus. It was called the city of palms: the air filled with the

scent of Roses from the gardens of Herod Archetaus: / the_streets were
crowded with merchants milling among booths of exotic goods. There

were Pilgrams, stopping off on their way to Jerusalem and traders

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preparing to embark on caravans acrossx the desert. | It was a Roman
city, administered and taxed by those who had been appodnted by Rome:
and it was a Jewish city. / It was the conquest of Jeriicho by Joshua
centuries before that had given birth to one of the most popular
Hebrew stories. The majority of the population were Jewish: and in
Jericho, as in any other Metropolitan area where the evidence of

Roman domiance was most obivious resent and hatred between dgsus

and Raamm Raamms Romans ran high.
The first personality in the story is Zacheius. I have not
called him the subject of the story because he is not: he is the
object./ The subject is the second personality- Jesus cnrter. | zache =

we are told, was the chief tax collector in Jericho and he was wealthy.

It isn't always a good idea to add too much speculation to the Bibilical

narration: but in this case we are Justified to do a little. The name

4. is very definitely a Hebrew name, meaning pure and righteous:

and so we are sate in assuming that Le Was a Jew ./ seconary he was

the chief tax collector - this we hat us even more, [ As you probably

know, Rome was clever enough to hire local citizens to do the menial =
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jobs of administering their provinces | it CGaeerved MBKE man power
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and tkey knew that the natural resent people show when forced to pay

taxes to a conquering power would be quickly eeeueeeer es to those

loeal citizens who were emp loyed by that power./ Thusly, the job of

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tax collector was profitable but unpopular. / Technically the name of

the position was Publican, a word that appears quite frequently in

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the pages of the Nr. / The Jews assoc ilate-Publicans with Sinners of

the worst sort: they axe lumped together with thieves, mustek murderers,

adulterers and extortioners. A gee@modern illustration to understand
a Awe Jeu wari
the utter comtempt deees had for a publican. be the patriotic frenchmen's

hatred of the Viany regime ; a regime under the leadership of _Marshall

— weet a
Petain m8@ chose to cooperate with 1 the Nazis rather than resist

after the fall of France.| The @aelic temper is easily aroused byitno
word, even today does the job like Vicky or Petain
Zaccheus was a publican; it was his job to collect taxes from

all the Jews in Jericho,

Rome, as an added assurance that the populance
would hate the tax collectérs, heaped irony upon insult by paying

no real wages for this unpleasant task. | Instead they allowed

teers

the publican to overecharge as much as possible; it was in_ this

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manner that he made his Living. | Luke tells us that ZAcheus was a

tax eollectors and as if to completely explain the man adds the two

words "and rich," /And so again we are safe in assuming that Zachaeus

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over charged for ll he was worth and on the burdens of his countrymen

became quite gen leny. | seating all this together we come to the perfectly

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logical onclecusion that Zaccheus was the most hated, most despised
a
man in all of Jericho. That he had friends is unlikely; if he did
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they were lmembers of the same wretched profession; that he lived

in constant danger is sure.

it was this poor man that Luke reports as wanting to see

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Jesus. A good pmax question that is always asked is CWwhy was Zaccheus

there.? Why would he want to see Jesus?")A guick answer is curiostiy.

But I don't think Zaccheus, already the object of heaping scorn and

ridicule, would risk more of the same by being associated with one

who was so violently opposed by the Jewish hierarchy--just out of
curiosity. / He wanted to see Jesus, and he wanted to badly enough to climb

a tree. Tnere is Mute Ullal: CusiOSsuy iterc., SKXRXEXXMAKXXKXAKX

This was a man who was sesparare, | tavvec ang seort. i ot heaped

on a man long until that man begins to show the effects. Zaecheu:

had rejected the tradition of his nation,

all the heritage of the people ot Israel; ne naa isolated himself

he had cut himself off from

from family, friends and countrymen; all in order to fatten his wallet.

a man who was continually conscious of hateful stares; this was a

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lonely man; a man who had trouble looking at himself in the mirror.

—t ————

He_ could not have helped but know that Jesus had a reputation

for associating with men like AimseLt. | His friends were the poor, the

fisherman, he ate in the homes of sinners; he befriended a woman

who had been a blatant prositute; as a matter of fact one of the
twelve who were always with him had been a hated tax cOllector,

Zaccheus wanted to see Jesus because here was hope. / Here was a man

who had helped men pick up the pieces of their lives and start anew.

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4Aaccheus was estranged from life--Jesus was a hope to get acquainted

again,

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Where Jesus passed the place where Zaccheus sat perched in a tree

he looked up and said "2, make haste and come down; for I must stay
at your houe today." } We can imagine the astonishment on Aaccheus's fate
He had come looking ftto- Jesus, but Jesus had found him./ Luke

reports that the crowd was displeased that Jesus should associate withl
such a man, | He Zives us only a brief report of the conversation but
leaves us with the cnnelusion that Z. did start anew; that something

important did happen in his empty life; that salvation did come into

his house,

The reason I have spent so much time elaborating on this tiny

segment of scripture is that I think it is one of the most profound,
most applicable incidents in the whole pipe. / Tt deserves more than
our children's songs--for I see tin it a perfect analogy to cultural,

sociological and theological issues that are critical today. / Tn

Z. I can see a micro-cosm of humanity; in his search for Jesus the

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eternal quest of man for an ultimate; and in Jesus" discovery of

———— ewan oe

Z. the uniqwuely new message of Christianity,

among other things. /Margaret Meade, in .3gziiest Studies of the oldest,

purest civilization» existant today, has confirmed our suspicions
that there has never been a culture, never even a tribe of people
who did not have some gwareness of a supreme being. | Apparently man

is born with a built in sensitivity to his own finitude--to the fact

that he is not infinite; and conversely that there is an infinite and

eternal,./ Every civilization known to us; from the most primitive

aboriginees to the sophisticated culture of Greece, has had its own

way of expressing that sensitivity./ Down through the centuries the

search has continued. Men have tried to establish the existence of

God mathematically. | Thomas Acquinas, pushing Aristotelian logic much

further than Aristotdle would have darwd; proved thax to himself and to

sea wed has

the scholastic philosophérs that God exists; and from there “went on to

prove many other wonderful things; such as how many angels can dance

on the head of a og kany this search continues. In great universi-
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ties scholars still arch for the ultimate in Philosophy, in art and

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music. | Men still say ci am looking for God. ») Even inside the

Christian church men pursue God, trying to ) tie hi him down in a set of

t—(‘(‘“‘“‘ és SS tric cin,

doctrines, a certain ritual or a way of life / Not very long ago I

read the promotional mterial of a prominent church in this area and
cameacross the slogan( "Help us Help you find God, ') The search that

4. joined continues today; and as long as there is man; there will

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be an emp ty space inthe life of man that will be filled with something.

—

Z.'s natural quest for God, for meaning and depth to life was

accentuated by the fact that he was exceptionally wretched. There can

be no doubt that he had filled the space with money. Money wa was his

ultimate, he had willingly sacrificeieven his self respect to get it.

Just as the fact that man is searching for God is true; )so is it true

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that man will find something to fill the gap, even if it is not God.

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today; simply pane Bee a are a ae hie erninn ttre —womsthterg-ot

theiy—own iiking for—ted_in—their tives. | There is a space for an ultimate

“~y but we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can fill se That the

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acquisision of material goods is the ultimate in many of our lives

is news to no one. / We try to give depth and meaning to our lives by

reading, listening to good music, by keeping active, by living life

every golden drop of Lt, a say those who study us, "we haven't

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we
filled the gap: tee still find an emptyness and meaningfessness about

can't face ourselves, what we are, what we have done with our lives;

strangely ely enough we are still in the wretched predicament of z./ And
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0, on goes the search, and the estrangement and the failure--

for when we set out to find God, to find meaning and direction in life

Scale te Zz

we will fail.

Now this may seem like a strange Statement to be coming from

a pulpit; for many people come to church for precisely this reason--

to find nd God--to find a peace <P To get inspiration | The church, in many
cases, has allowed itself to become the agent of this self deception
as illustratated in the little slogan I quoted,

But, returning to the scripture lesson, Z. did not find God. | He

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was found by Jesus Christ .| This is the very essence of the Christian

gospel. ] Man in his hopeless sin, wallowing in vanity and pride,

striving to find meaning to life simply cannot find God, i God_ cannot

be proven by human logic; God cannot be bottled up in theology or

philosophy, true peace of heart _is not something we _can win if we

try hard enough. / mam can never successfully complete his search,

And in our inability God finds us. [tats is what t happened to Z. This

is what we cdlebrate in a few short weeks, God has invaded the _Sphere

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of our life and confronted us face to face} found us in Jesus Christ, his

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only son. /i we can do it alone, if we are SEhe to find God there is

no re4l]l reason to begin next Sunday as the period of expectation,

Chesitiantty fr from all of the rest of the world's religions. Indeed —

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puts Christianity above religion; for Jesus Christ was not just

a leader of lmen, Pioneering the brave search for God--he was God--a

man going in a different direction from all the rest; a man whose

very presence was the event of God finding and redeeming man,

The difference this truth makes to us and to the Church is tremen-

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dous, [xe means that we come to church--not to look and find but to

be found, [tt means we pray--not so much in verbal request but in quiet
listening, | Lt can, in fact, change our entire lives, in gbting up

eis search for God we will be discarding that which probably has
probhibited him from finding us,

This was the experience of St. Augustine in the fourth cent. /

He hag tried in every possible way to find himself, to see some meaning

in life./ He read classic philosophy till he could read no more,

He completely emersed himself in theatrical arts./ These having failed

he lived a life of debachery and degeneracy with gusto./ And_when

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he had hit bottom; when he was so sure that life had no meaning, that

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if there was a God he was irrelevant--when he reached this point he gave

up the search, | then it was that the answers came--and Augustine was

found by God.
{ @When first I knew Thee,@ wrote Augustine, "Thou didst raise
me up, that I might see there was somewhat for me to see, though as yet
I was not fit to see it.¥
As you can easily see, it is easier for the Church to Say that it

has the answers; that herein is where you will fina aoa { Lt is_ helpful

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to our collective ego to hear that if we look hard enough we willl
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find aoa. | The church has found itself in difficulty on the past when it

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has had the courage to announce the opposite--that God finds man and that

there is not much we can do alone, [ put this we must do for it is what

happened in the event of Jesus Christ./ One thing, however, we tend to

Overlook, Z. was found by Jesus Christ; his life Was renewed when "is

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eee the yes of our Lora. / This would never had occured had he not

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Ghembeked that tree. Z. had made himself conspicuous and obvious--

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he had put himself where the love and grace of God would reach him,

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This we need to aay also:-The Church of Jesus Christ--is where this takes

piace. / We need to know that we cannot, by our own efforts find God;

but we also need to know that God will not find us--in bed on Saundy

morning ./ There is some thing _wWe can do--not to Fina God--but in putting

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ourselves where he can come to us=~ Whe our ears are sensitive, where.

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our hearts and minds are voluntarily laid open; wher @ne has ordained

that his word Should be heard,

ZA. was a funny little man--but in his story we see the very

essence of Christianity. /Let us heed his story; let us give up our
a ee

ce searching for meaning and allow our God to find us / Jexus Christ

brought salvation to the house of Z./ It is ours also--if we will but

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allow his search to be complete.

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