Righteousness + Mercy

“Righteousness + Mercy”

April 6, 2025 Cobleskill United Methodist Church

Pastor Anna Blinn Cole

Luke 15:1-7

Fifth Sunday of Lent 

Jesus and Zacchaeus

19He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ 9Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

We’ve had a set of hands as our focal point for the season of Lent.  This black and white image of the hands has hung here on our altar for the entire season.  And up here has been an evolving spectrum of color.  The hands have the source of much conversation among all of you all.  What exactly is happening here. We twist our hands around to figure out what kind of configuration these hands are actually in and we realize, it can’t be done with the two hands on your own body.  Several of you have told me about your aha moment… when it was that you realized it’s not your own hands that can make this shape.  It’s two hands from two different people coming together that make this shape.  

These hands and the spectrum of colors that exist between black and white have come to symbolize our journey this season.  This Lent we’re exploring opposing ideas, extremes, and searching for the spectrums that actually exist in between the opposite ends.  We’re taking what’s usually black and white looking for the spectrum of color that exists in between.

This week we are set up to explore the binary of righteousness and mercy.  Two ends of a spectrum that could be posed as opposites.  

On one end you have righteousness.  The conviction of being morally right or justifiable.  When you know deep in your heart what is right because it meshes with what you know to be true about God.  It’s a conviction.  It’s a hardness. It’s a strong persuasion of what is right and it’s not easily swayed. 

On the other end of the spectrum: mercy.  Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to otherwise judge or harm.  A charitable approach to wrongdoing.  A leniency.  A softness. A bent toward forgiveness. 

On one end of the spectrum we have a hard conviction of what is right and on the other end of the spectrum we have a softness toward compassion in spite of wrongness.  Do you see how different these two are?  Where is there room for these two to co-exist?  Both are biblical concepts but the gulf between them feels huge.  How are we supposed to be both hot in our moral anger and quick to forgive and show compassion?

It's time to meet Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus has a bit of a reputation, and it’s not just because he’s the star of a cute song from our childhood.  His reputation in Jericho, his hometown, was anything but cute.  The Bible tells us right away.  He was the chief tax-collector…and he was rich.  This was not a good look for Zacchaeus.  By collecting tax on behalf of the empire, Zacchaeus also put himself into a position of power from which he could extort money from his fellow townspeople.  Zacchaeus was Jewish like the rest of his town, but for whatever reason Zacchaeus felt like he needed to separate himself from his community, and he did it by standing over them as an extortionist.  Though he was a short man, he stood over people like a bully. 

For reasons we can understand and relate to, the people were hot with righteous anger about Zacchaeus.  He represented everything they believed to be wrong: The Roman Empire’s occupation of their land. The ability of the powerful to take from the poor.  One of their own brownnosing with the elite to lift himself above the rest.  

And it was into this town and this situation that Jesus walked.  He was just passing through.  But everyone wanted to see him.  And if everyone else wanted to see, well of course so did Zacchaeus.  But because of his height, he didn’t have a clear sight line.  So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree, the story goes.  Zacchaeus finds a way to get above everyone else, again, so he has the best view of Jesus.  When Jesus gets to the tree where Zacchaeus is and looks up, he must have surprised people by speaking to the man perched in the tree. And this is what he said: “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I’m coming to your house today.” 

The community gathered below the tree is horrified.  Excuse me?  Jesus is going to him.  He’s going to his house?  The tax collector?  The man who’s extorting us for all we’ve got?   

But something had happened.  Something had changed.  And it started with what Jesus had said to this man hovering above them all.  Jesus had called Zacchaeus down from his high place. Zacchaeus thought he needed to be above everyone else… in the tree, in the hierarchy of power and wealth, in title and position.  But Jesus called him down from the tree and more, importantly, down from his posturing.  Jesus called him back to earth.  Jesus told him to come back to the level where his people were standing.  Jesus called him to come home.  

Something in Zacchaeus changes.  When Jesus speaks to you, directly.  When Jesus calls you by name out of your high and mighty place and tells you to come down, something has the potential to change drastically within you.  

Jesus was giving Zacchaeus an invitation into a moral moment.  This wasn’t just about getting out of the tree.  This was about reconciling his superiority complex and recognizing how much wrong he had done.  Jesus spoke prophetically to Zacchaeus and called him by name out of the high place he thought he deserved.

Zacchaeus was caught.  But Zacchaeus was also simultaneously called out and invited in.  I’m not sure how long he thought about what to do while sitting in the tree, but when he made his decision the scripture says, “he hurried down.” He dropped down to the ground where he found himself standing side by side with the people he extorted.  And he said this remarkable thing to Jesus (and really all of them): “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

What did he just say?  The crowd stopped grumbling and just stared.  Who was this new man that just came down from the tree?  

Jesus speaks into the silence: “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”  Jesus says salvation has come. Salvation which means restoration, wholeness, and healing.  But salvation has not come to Zacchaeus as an individual, it's come to the “house.”  The restoration has come to the community as a whole, not just the man.  

So here’s the thing that I think is important for us to think about.  The people who grumbled about Zacchaeus weren’t wrong.  They had been harmed by this man’s actions.  They felt betrayed.  They had a right to be righteous.  

AND, Jesus knew the community was broken by this pain.  He knew Zacchaeus needed to be called out and he knew he needed to be invited in.  This mercy was the only way to bring restoration to the whole.  Jesus knew it was possible to have both righteousness and mercy.  In fact, he knew both were needed.  We have to be able to differentiate between right and wrong.  And we also must remember that it’s in community that we are made whole.  When people are not whole, it's because they have separated themselves from community.  In Zacchaeus’ case, it was his own love of power and wealth that separated him.  And Jesus could see it.  The mercy Jesus showed him was in the invitation: Come down from there, Zacchaeus.  You’ve lost yourself in your own greed. Come back down.  You need your community and your community needs you.  Neither of you will be whole until you’re all whole. 

This is a really beautiful piece of artwork that Lauren Wright Pittman made for this story.  She researched the type of tree Zacchaeus climbed and found it to be the sycamore fig tree. There is a fascinating meaning behind this art, and  two things stand out to me.  The place where Zacchaeus is holding the tree has wilted. This is his effect on his community. 

The artist goes on to say, “His actions were destructive and oppressive to his own community. The crowd is correct in grumbling about him; their anger is righteous,” but also, in this artist’s rendition, Jesus offers his hand as a sign of mercy. As if to say: I’ve called you out and if you want to come back down, here is my hand.  When you come down from that tree, everything begins to heal.  

Mercy is not a concession of who is right or wrong.  It’s a recognition that we will all never be whole until we recognize that the power of the people is in their power to grow the movement.  Calling people out without also inviting them in does actually heal the divide.  Healing doesn’t come through righteousness.  Healing comes through the extension of mercy.  

The honest truth is, those perched above us may never acknowledge our hand.  They may spit on our hand. But if we truly believe the opposite of their bullying behavior is the extension of mercy, then they will never have a chance to know what it’s like to be part of the whole unless they’re called out AND invited back in.  

In the midst of so much betrayal and hurt, it can feel like grumbling in self-righteousness is the only option.  But it’s not and sometimes we need divine intervention to understand the value of our community.  We are stronger together.  When we come together on the same level and stand side by side, we begin our healing.  A community that stands together, marches together, sings together, cries out to God together, and weeps together is a community that constantly seeks to draw those who have been separated back in.  Let us not forget the power of our own invitation to community to heal the divide.  Our community has a richness to it that has healing power.  Jesus knew that.  And he tells us to channel our righteousness into a mantra of invitation: stand with us, not over us.  

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Anna