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Linda McCloud,
seminarian
The Joy of Repentance Some occasions are so joyous that we simply must celebrate them with a feast – weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, repentance – wait – did someone say “repentance?” How did repentance get on this list? Has somebody been hacking in my computer?
Well, now that repentance is out on the table, let’s talk about it. Repentance is something that Episcopalians do openly. It’s all over the place in our prayers. Twice during a usual Sunday celebration of the Eucharist, we pray for the forgiveness of our sins – Once during the Prayers of the People, and again in the Lord’s Prayer, just before we receive communion.
We talk about forgiveness of sins when we say the Creeds, probably because we agree with our Psalm for today, “Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away!”[1]
God offers us forgiveness of our sins as a wonderful gift so that we can stand tall on level ground and go forward with our lives with nothing holding us back. We can sleep at night, because we don't have to play chess on the ceiling.
If we think we don’t need to repent, I remind us of that well-known prayer, “Lord, I have been really good today. I have not wronged anyone, or thought ill of my neighbor. But now, Lord, it’s 5:30 in the morning and I have to get up out of this bed and get on the freeway and go to work, and I’m really going to need your help.”
To help us think about repentance, we turn to our Gospel passage in Luke and meet one particular sinner who joyously repented. He lived in the ancient city of Jericho.
When Jesus spoke about a city that is set on a hill and cannot be hid – he was not talking about Jericho. On the contrary, Jericho claims the dubious distinction of being the lowest spot on the surface of the earth – more than a thousand feet below sea level.
Jericho has remained important throughout its long history because it’s an oasis on the back side of the Judean desert.
It’s known in the Bible as the City of Palm Trees, but in today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel, we hear that it also contained a sycamore, a type of fig tree.
To this place, Jesus came on a mission. Jesus was traveling south from Galilee and had set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He had told his disciples that he would be killed there and would be raised from the dead on the third day. This was Jesus’ last stop before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He was very much in need of this oasis, and Jericho was very much in need of Jesus, because Jesus went after outcasts, even if he had to go out of his way to find them.
In Jesus’ time, Jericho would have been a very important city to the occupying Romans, and they would have needed a trustworthy and loyal person to collect the tax on this toll road. So what - if that person made a little extra money in the deal? So what if that system was oppressive to the poor? That seemed to be the way this business was conducted, and some citizens of Israel – some of the children of Abraham – cooperated with the occupying forces.
That’s how Zacchaeus gets into our story. If Jericho is the lowest city on earth, Zacchaeus could have claimed the “dubious distinction” of having the lowest job in the city – that of being a tax collector for the Roman government. And not just any tax collector, but a chief tax collector. He had others collecting for him, and that’s one reason why he is classified as “rich.”
It seems that the higher he climbed in his business, the lower his reputation sank in the eyes of his fellow Israelites.
So by the time Jesus met him, Zacchaeus was considered to be lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut. The people from whom he collected taxes probably held him in contempt. Can’t you just hear them hissing his name – Zacchaeusss, the taxxxx collector.
But Jesus did not feel that way about him at all. Jesus had come to offer him the gift of forgiveness.
Just before Jesus entered Jericho, he had healed a blind man who was sitting by the roadside begging – had given him back his sight. As we can well imagine, this caused quite a commotion, and since news travels fast in a small desert town, Jesus’ reputation preceded him into Jericho.
Zacchaeus might have wondered, who are these people, and will they be coming through the toll booths? Better check this out. But the crowd was surrounding Jesus.
It was at this point that Zacchaeus scrambled up the now-famous sycamore tree.
But Zacchaeus was up a tree in more ways than one.
Because he had participated in a corrupt system that oppressed the poor, there would have been social consequences to his behavior. He would have been one of those outcasts from the community, because his ill-gotten wealth was tainted. So he would have been thought of as “unclean,” even though very name means “clean” and “pure.”
But the presence of Jesus commanded so much response from the depths of Zacchaeus’ soul that Zacchaeus put himself in a position to look Jesus right in the eye and say, “I’m sorry. I repent.”
Very early in their meeting, Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house for the celebration of his repentance. Even rushed him. “Hurry.”
God knows a repentant sinner when God sees one, and God is hungrier to spend time with us than we are to spend time with God.
Also, Zacchaeus’ grateful acceptance of Jesus’ gift of forgiveness resulted in his cleaning up his act, living up to his name. He had a fresh awareness that he was created in the image and likeness of God, and since God has great concern and compassion for the poor, suddenly Zacchaeus did too. He was also willing to make generous restitution to those whom he had wronged. This would have set the stage for him to be restored to his community, in reconciliation with his fellow Israelites.
Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus was a very happy experience for both of them. It caused joy in heaven and in the presence of the angels, because when we repent, God casts our sins as far as the East is from the West.
An ancient Christian custom in the baptismal rite dramatizes this result of repentance. In the early church, those about to be baptized would have made a 180-degree turn, which is the true meaning of repentance. They faced west when they renounced Satan, and then they turned and faced east as a symbol of their repentance and new life in Christ.
It’s expected of us that we will get so good at repenting that it will become automatic – second nature to us. Even in our confirmation covenant, we have the question, “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?” and our Response is a resounding “I will, with God’s help.”
One of my favorite communion hymns says, “I come with Joy to meet my Lord, forgiven, loved and free, in awe and wonder to recall his life laid down for me.” [4]
On this joyous occasion of the Holy Eucharist, I call on us all to do what we do so well. Repent! And let the celebration begin.
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