21 Pentecost, November 2, 2025
From Observer in a Tree, to being Grounded in Salvation
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4
Psalm 119:137-144
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Luke 19:1-19
Around 1970, my dad had an office at the San Francisco Airport. Sometimes, if he had to go in on a Saturday, my sister and I would go with him, spending the day running around one of the largest international airports in the world as if it were our own indoor playground. We spent the day calling each other on payphones, playing on the escalators, and watching all the different and unusual people coming or going.
What I loved the most was watching folks arriving, to be enthusiastically embraced by people who loved them. Grandmas, friends, children and sweethearts joyfully greeting each other with warm hugs, sweet kisses and of course occasionally, the awkward handshake. Sometimes people screamed or cried with joy when they spotted their special person. Often that made me cry too.
To get a good view, my sister and I used to stand on those tables attached to the seats where people wait at the gate. We stood on the tables because we were little, no one seemed to mind.
One day I was standing on the table watching the people greeting their loved ones when I caught sight of something amazing. I saw walking out of the tarmac a wonderfully tall, very handsome, young black man, dressed in formal navy blues, holding his white sailor cap in one hand and a duffle bag in the other. He peered expectantly into the crowd. He seemed confident and nervous at the same time. Within a moment, a beautiful young, white woman ran to him and jumped up into his arms. They kissed the way young lovers kiss, her legs wrapped around him.
Anxiously, I looked around. It was 1970 after all. Suddenly I was afraid of the crowd, I was relieved that no one seemed to notice this young interracial couple engaging in public acts of affection. It felt like a miracle, as if God’s Grace surrounded and protected them from potential grumbles in the crowd. I was impressed by their boldness. I think that their love was all that mattered at that moment. They were the magic, while I was the witness.
I imagine that Zacchaeus would relate to my story. He didn’t climb a tree to be a part of the joy; he wanted to see it.
We can all imagine what it feels like to want to know God but to be held in place by fear of not knowing, of judgments or grumbling of others, or painful fear that one will be deemed undeserving.
We all know what it is like to remain diffident, millions of people who remain on the outside looking in, despite our longing to be a part of the journey.
When Jesus called Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, out of the tree and invited himself into Zacchaeus’s home, Jesus had just moments ago entered Jericho. On the journey into town, Jesus spoke to the crowds, clearly outlining the many kinds of difficulties and obstacles that can create a barrier between people and God.
For context, in Luke 18, the previous chapter to Luke’s story of Zacchaeus and the sycamore tree, Jesus told a parable about an unjust judge who eventually passes down a fair judgment to the persistent widow.
Then Jesus goes on to preach about the pitfalls of trusting one’s own righteousness. He compares a prideful Pharisee to a humble tax collector, concluding that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and the humbled will be exalted.
Jesus then preaches that whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
The next character is a rich man who tells Jesus that he follows all the laws, but Jesus tells him that unless he sells all he owns he cannot follow Christ. The young rich man can’t do it and goes away sad. And finally, the last character before we meet Zacchaeus in Jericho is a blind man outside of town, who shouts out for Jesus to have mercy on him and Jesus cures his blindness so that he can see.
To recap, we have an unjust judge, a persistent widow, a prideful Pharisee and a humble tax collector, children, a lawful but fearful rich man, and a boldly faithful man who was once blind but now can see. Each character represents a unique aspect of human nature, and the conditions God sets before us to be saved.
In a way Zacchaeus is all of them.
When Jesus calls for Zacchaeus to come down from the tree to host him for the night, it is not only Zacchaeus who is shocked, so is the crowd. They grumble because Jesus was acting scandalously in his association with a tax collector. Because even before 1970, people were, and are, judgmental. Today Christians judge each other and grumble about whether one Christian denomination is as righteous as their own. Is this so different from the crowd grumbling about Zacchaeus hosting Jesus in his home.
Scholars have noted that there are two biblical translations to how Zacchaeus responded to Jesus’s call. Older translations read that Zacchaeus stands up with Jesus, promising that he is a good man who gives away half of what he owns and if he over charges someone he pays it back fourfold. Our lectionary/New Revised Standard Bible and most newer translations state that Zacchaeus is in a repentant position to Jesus, promising “he will” change the way he does his business so that he will no longer cheat anyone and become worthy of the Kingdom.
Does Zacchaeus’s repentance harken back to the unjust judge who only does good because he is forced to do so under pressure? Or is Zacchaeus’s promise a contrast to the young rich man who could not give up his wealth? It appears that Jesus spoke of the humble tax collector as a foreshadowing of Zacchaeus’s redemption.
Can Zacchaeus’s whimsical choice to climb a sycamore tree to see Jesus, be reminiscent of an innocent child climbing a tree to see the world beyond what a small child can see? And like the blind man who came to see, what did Zacchaeus come to see?
There is wonder and joy, and hope and excitement in the phrase, “Come and see.”
Come and see.
Whether Zacchaeus defended his worthiness or sought repentance, the point is that Jesus sees him up there witnessing, called him down and invites him into salvation. That is how Zacchaeus became a part of everlasting justice. He was invited to be more than an observer that day, he was invited to be the host and center of joyful experience. Zacchaeus is living inside Psalm 119:14: I am small and of little account, yet I do not forget your commandments.
The crowd may be unjust, self-righteous and fearful. The crowd will continue to grumble, but God sees in us what the crowd doesn’t see, and He sees in others what we don’t see. Like Zacchaeus, we are joyfully called to come down from our tree and make a place for God.
Psalm 119 sings out in joy that God’s Way is the perfect place of belonging and as hosts to God we live a life in longing delight.
Being called out of the tree is reflected in the Psalmist’s love song to God, of belonging, of being transformed, and of understanding judgment, righteousness, and justice in a new way that is different from the crowd.
Your word has been tested to the uttermost, and your servant holds it dear.
Regarding the couple in the airport, I hope they stayed together, despite the crowd, and are today happy grandparents.
When I was a child, I stood on a perch, watching them being in love. I don’t think they saw me, nor would they have any reason to remember me if they did; however, it was a transcendent experience because while I was too young to understand, I came down from that table with a new worldview.
That is God granting understanding, that we may live.
I am confident that like Zacchaeus, Jesus calls us down from the sycamore tree everyday asking to be invited into our home, our lives and our hearts.