For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk. 19:10)
Beloved brethren! These merciful words that we hear today in the Gospel are spoken by God become man about the sinner whom God’s righteous judgment had pronounced lost, but who was sought out by the power and grace of redemption, and numbered by it among the saved.
The sinner, Zacchaeus, was a publican with seniority over
other publicans. He possessed significant wealth, as the
Gospels relate, hinting about the way he obtained that
wealth. “Publicans” were what they called tax
collectors. It was tempting money! The sparkle of gold and
silver charms the eyes of Adam’s descendants
infected with sinfulness, and where money passes from hand
to hand, abuse almost inevitably creeps in. Publicans were
for the most part prone to extortion. When extortion
becomes a passion it allows itself all manner of coercion
and oppression against one’s neighbor. Then the
passion of deceit and hypocrisy comes to the aid of the
passion of extortion. From this combination comes the
tendency towards captiousness, latching onto every trifle
under the pretext of relentlessly fulfilling the laws,
inventing guilt for the guiltless, exerting every effort
to create an appearance of justness to conceal this
inhuman oppression and cruelty against one’s
neighbors. Because of this behavior publicans were
horrible to the people, and held in contempt by moral
people. Zacchaeus was a chief publican; his abuses were
greater than those of his underlings. There is a reason
why the Gospels point out that he was rich! He became rich
unrighteously—his sin was extortion. His
soul’s illness was filthy lucre and the
mercilessness and lack of compassion that comes from it.
Because of his serious sins and criminal disposition of
soul, Zacchaeus was called “lost”. Not
people’s light-minded, often mistaken condemnation
called him lost—God Himself pronounced this judgment
upon him. Zacchaeus had become a hardened sinner; in order
to amass wealth through abuses one has to do so
persistently and for a long time.
The reason for Zacchaeus’s sinful life consists in
what is also the reason for the sinful lives of many
today: following generally accepted behavior, and either
ignorance or merely superficial knowledge of God’s
Law. Publicans were usually drawn in by the vice of greed,
and so was Zacchaeus. The majority of the Judean
population contemporary to Jesus was preoccupied almost
exclusively with earthly well-being, striving mainly for
material enrichment and worldly success. At that time, the
Law of God was most often studied according to the letter.
Temple services were performed mostly to satisfy ritual
practice, and good deeds were performed superficially and
coldly, mostly for the sake of appearances and effect upon
public opinion. Zacchaeus was also content with this. He
lived like everyone else. Even now you often hear people
say, “I live like everyone else.” This is a
vain justification, a deceptive consolation! The word of
God announces and commands something quite different.
Enter ye in, it says, at the strait gate: for
wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to
destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Mt.
7:13–14). The strait gate is the scrupulous,
conscientious study of God’s Law in the Scriptures
and in life; the narrow way is activity wholly directed by
the Gospel commandments.
Zacchaeus led an ordinary life at enmity with God and the
world, and arranged for himself what worldly wisdom would
call a well-to-do situation, not without importance and
glamour, yet spiritually he was a lost sinner, already
consigned to eternal languishing in the dungeons of hell,
while at the same time the Savior of the world was walking
the earth within the territory of the twelve tribes of
Israel. Zacchaeus was seized by the desire to see the
Lord, and he proved the sincerity of his desire with
action. The Lord, the seer of hearts accepted his wish,
and deigned to visit Zacchaeus in his home. The sinner was
enraptured with joy when he saw the Lord coming to him,
and the sins became loathsome to the sinner; from love his
heart lost its attachment to the fruits of a sinful life
and the corruption of riches. Standing before the Lord,
the seer of Hearts, Zacchaeus said, Behold, Lord, the
half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken
any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him
fourfold (Lk. 19:8). In this promise consists the
recognition of his sin, repentance, and correction united
with great self-denial. Zacchaeus admits his cupidity and
resolves to make amends for oppressing his neighbors by
rewarding them abundantly. Zacchaeus admits his greed and
resolves to cleanse himself, to sanctify his property and
his heart with abundant almsgiving. The Lord is quick to
accept Zacchaeus’s repentance. The Lord pronounces
concerning that sinner who only minutes before was among
the ranks of lost outcasts, This day is salvation come
to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of
Abraham (Lk. 19:9). Zacchaeus was a descendant of
Abraham according to the flesh; only by God’s
judgment and only because of his good deeds does he become
an adopted son of Abraham. The word house can be
understood as Zacchaeus’s soul, into which salvation
has come after his repentance, which cleansed his soul
from sin. The Lord’s words can also relate to
Zacchaeus’s family, who, at the example of their
head and with his same self-denial entered, as it often
happens, into true knowledge of God and a God-pleasing
life.
All who saw that the Lord visited Zacchaeus’s house
murmured with indignation, considering it inappropriate
and debasing of the Lord to visit such a sinner as
society’s common opinion held Zacchaeus to be.
Incomprehensible to fleshly minds was and still is the
mystery of redemption, which heals all human sins with
equal power and ease, both the little and the great, and
wrenches sinners from any destroying abyss, no matter how
deep that abyss may be. For such an amazing work, faith in
a Redeemer and sincere repentance is demanded of a person.
The murmurers murmured because they did not understand;
they did not understand because God’s work was
wrought before their very eyes—a work that is
unfathomable to human reason unenlightened by grace.
Explaining the unfathomable, and revealing the boundless
power of redemption, the Lord said, the Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost. Having
taken humanity upon Himself, God, whom man neither sought
nor called, came out of His own inexpressible goodness
to seek and to save the human race, lost because of
its alienation from God. He came to seek and to
save every person drawn to destruction by sin, if only
that person would not reject God, Who seeks and wishes to
save him.
The Holy Gospels can be compared to a mirror. Each of us
can see, if we so desire, the state of our soul reflected
in them, and find that all-powerful healing offered to us
by the all-powerful doctor, God. The God-Son calls Himself
the Son of man, because He took on human form and
lived among human beings, not differing in appearance from
them in any way. This is the result of infinite divine
love and inexpressible divine humility. The Son of
man—we’ll say in the manner of
humans—had the right to forgive all of
people’s sins as One Who brought Himself, the
all-perfect God, as a redeeming sacrifice for mankind; and
as the One Who destroyed all human sins, of both little
and great significance, at an immense, immeasurably
significant, redeeming price. The judgment of the Son
of Man over people, as we see in the Gospels, is
completely different from that of ordinary human beings,
who judge their neighbors out of their own
righteousness—a righteousness rejected of God and
corrupted by sin. The Savior has justified all sinners who
received redemption through repentance and
faith—although other people condemned them; and to
the contrary, He has condemned all those who have rejected
redemption by rejecting repentance and
faith—although people considered them righteous, and
deserving of respect and reward.
We have seen today in the Gospel mirror a sinner given to
the passion of greed, acting out of this passion by unjust
tax collection and a multiplicity of offenses against his
neighbor. We have seen this sinner, condemned by people,
justified by God for his faith and true repentance. This
is a consoling, encouraging scene! And as He faithfully
promised, the Savior still abides among us; He still heals
our souls wounded by sin. And His Divine ordinance has not
passed away: The Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost. Amen.
19 / 02 / 2013
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