Last week, I spent a very hot, humid week with almost 40 children and about 20 youth leaders during a church summer camp. I led our story station and had the wonderful opportunity to sit around a “campfire” and tell stories of Jesus and his ministry. Throughout the week, we had bible alert words and phrases, those words or phrases that we use a lot in church, but that the children might be less familiar with, like hospitality, unleavened bread, the Great Commission, and salvation. These are all big words and the stories helped us to understand them. One of the words, salvation, is one we tend to avoid in the United Church. It's one that has been used in a number of ways by different churches and not always in very healthy ways. One of the stories from the week, helped the children to understand what it might mean to be saved.
The story of Zacchaeus can be found in the gospel of Luke. Zacchaeus was a small man (traditionally described in a popular children's tune as a 'wee little man') and a tax collector. Tax collectors tend to get a bad rap in the bible, and not just because they collected taxes. Most tax collectors during that time were also corrupt. How I explained it to the children was to imagine that someone owed $200 in taxes. Zacchaeus would go to that person and tell them they had to pay $400 and then he would keep the extra for himself. This is how he became rich and this is why the people called him a sinner.
This is also why Zacchaeus, who had climbed a tree to see Jesus coming above a crowd of people, was very surprised that Jesus walked through this crowd of people to the tree he had climbed, told him to come down and then told him that he wanted to come to Zacchaeus’ house. Why would Jesus, this person that crowds lined up to see, this rabbi who taught about God and healed people, want to spend time with a sinner like him? Jesus went back to the house of Zacchaeus and this small action changed the life of Zacchaeus forever. Zacchaeus promised to give half of everything he owned to the poor and he promised to give back to those he cheated four times the amount he had taken from them. This is the action of a changed man, the action of a man who was saved.
In simple language, salvation is to save, and we call Jesus our saviour for good reason. Jesus in our lives, if we are open to it and willing to do what Jesus calls us to do, can totally transform our lives, can cause a sinner to turn from his ways, or cause fishermen to drop their nets and follow him, or inspire people from all around the world to become baptized and follow him. When we let Jesus into our lives, we don't know what might happen! One thing you can count on though is the salvation that Jesus offers is always there for each and every one of us, no matter how unworthy we think we are.
I heard some lyrics the other day from one of my favourite artists right now, a band called Imagine Dragons. In a song called Next to Me, they sing, “I always let you down, you’re shattered on the ground, but still I find you there, next to me. And oh, the stupid things I do, I’m far from good, it’s true, but still I find you next to me. Thank you for taking a chance on me. I know it ain’t easy, but I hope to be worth it.”
Messages like these hit home, as we make mistakes, as we live with regret, as we struggle to feel loved and worthy. I can imagine Zacchaeus feeling all of this and the surprise of having Jesus want to come to his house and be his friend, even though he had done so much to hurt others, even though so many others hated him. Jesus brought this salvation to Zacchaeus. If we can take that step of welcoming Jesus in, we might also experience some of that salvation. May it be so.
