Year C
Season after Pentecost
Proper 26 (31)
What I Am Learning
Jesus is passing through Jericho when he sees Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, who has climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of him. Tax collectors were despised as collaborators with Rome and exploiters of their neighbors. Yet Jesus stops, looks up, and calls Zacchaeus by name: “I must stay at your house today.” The crowd grumbles, but Zacchaeus responds by pledging to give half his possessions to the poor and to repay anyone he has defrauded fourfold. Jesus declares: “Today salvation has come to this house.”
Within Jewish Tradition
Hospitality was central to Jewish life, and repentance meant concrete action: restoring what was stolen, making things right with one’s neighbor. Jesus does not set aside these values—he fulfills them. By sharing a table with Zacchaeus, Jesus affirms that even the most compromised person is not beyond God’s reach, and that true repentance is shown in justice and generosity.
The Challenge Then
Zacchaeus was wealthy, powerful, and despised. The challenge for the community was whether they could accept his repentance and welcome him back. The challenge for Zacchaeus was whether he would risk turning from exploitation to generosity. Jesus calls both individual and community into transformation.
The Challenge Now
This story confronts us all. Too often, we are content to keep our distance from those we judge—whether the corrupt, the powerful, or simply those we dislike. And too often, we excuse ourselves from repentance, imagining our lives need little change. But Jesus looks at us, calls us by name, and invites us to a table of transformation. For Christians today, this means asking: where am I being called to repent, to make amends, to move from grasping to generosity? Only then can we begin to speak with integrity to the distortions of our faith in public life. Christian Nationalism, for example, is one form of clinging to power and wealth rather than risking repentance and generosity. But the text challenges us first—before it critiques anyone else.
Implications for Leaders & Communities
In the first century, Zacchaeus’ conversion would have tested the whole community. Could they accept him back after he had exploited them? Could they believe in his repentance? Leaders had to discern how to model both justice and reconciliation. Today, the same questions arise: are our congregations places where repentance is real, where those who change can be restored? Are our leaders willing to risk their reputations, as Jesus did, to welcome those others scorn? Communities show the gospel not by who they keep out, but by how they restore the lost into shared life.
What I Am Learning is that I, too, am called to climb down from my tree, to stop observing from a distance, and to let Jesus into my house. Salvation is not an abstract idea—it is a change in how I use what I have, how I repair what I’ve broken, and how I welcome others at my table.
The question I’m sitting with:
Where am I being called to repent and make amends—and what would it look like for my community to welcome such change with joy instead of suspicion?
