July 20 2025
Matthew 5:7, Luke 19:1-10
The other week, our daughter Sarah sent us a strange text which asked us to remember the embarrassing things she did when she was a kid. It seems she was hanging out with the family of her significant other, and as families are want to do, they were telling stories some would just have soon forgot. So we had a good laugh remembering these silly mishaps our daughter has done. Even though she is an overachiever who usually gets it right she is, nonetheless, quite human. It seems that everyone has done something or said something which proved quite amusing to the people who witnessed such gaffes. These moments seem to be quite easy to remember for those who witnessed them and they can tell the story of those embarrassing moments at the drop of a hat
Now, what is almost as universal as making mistakes is the effort we put into trying to not make mistakes which will embarrass us. We all hope we have learned something through our embarrassment so that we try and not do something like that again. So when we see someone deliberately doing something embarrassing we quite naturally become curious about why they would do such a thing. Take for example this guy named Zacchaeus. Most people have heard of him, you know, he’s that wee little man who climbed a tree, right? Yet, we may never have considered just how embarrassing such an act was in his day. I mean, it is rather laughable to consider any middle aged man trying to hoist himself up into the branches of a tree. I mean, can you imagine the huffing and puffing necessary to pull the weight of an overstuffed body high enough to even get up unto the lowest limb? What appears so effortless for a young kid is found to be pretty difficult for those who their age has caught up with them. If the sheer strength needed to climb a tree were not enough of a problem for Zacchaeus, there was also the issue of the clothes he was wearing. The standard garb back then was a robe, usually reaching to the ground so that none of the person’s legs or anything else might be exposed. Well that pretty much goes out the window when a wee little man tries to throw his leg over the lower limb. So I suspect that the reason that Jesus noticed Zacchaeus is that pretty much everyone else was watching him make a fool of himself scratching and clawing his way up that sycamore tree. Zacchaeus though, was not concerned about being embarrassed, and we have to wonder, why did he did not mind being made a laughingstock in front of the very people he had for so long put on a respectable front? The only answer is Jesus.So we have to be a little curious, just what was it about this Jesus that made Zacchaeus throw his dignity to the wind and do what grown men have no business doing, climbing up in a tree?
Well, the good news is that his actions, no matter how unseemly to some, did accomplish more than Zacchaeus could have hoped for because not only was he able to get a glimpse of Jesus but he also heard Jesus invite himself over for dinner. Now, this invitation of Jesus seems beyond wonderful, yet this too was perhaps an embarrassment because who really is ready to have the king over for dinner with no time to prepare for such an occasion? Yet, here was Jesus urging Zacchaeus to hurry up and get down out of that tree that he had had used so much effort getting up into. Zacchaeus had to get on with with preparing dinner for this Jesus who had taken a liking to him. Perhaps, Jesus simply enjoyed the company of those who are willing to go out of their way to embarrass themselves.
Well, today in this segment of our series of messages entitled, “The Taste of Blessing”, we are going to look at the fruit of the Spirit that tastes like kindness. The Spirit produces kindness in us through our experience with him, an experience that scripture calls blessing. One of the very first teachings of Jesus was on this very thing, this blessing of God that comes through the God of blessing who we know as the Holy Spirit. The blessing which produces in us the fruit of kindness is this: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Now we have to be careful in how we read this for we do not want to come away with the idea that God will only be merciful to those who first are merciful. This would make the actions of God to be caused by our actions which the cross has proved to be false. As Paul will tell you, it was while we were his enemies, Christ showed his mercy, dying for us all on a criminal’s cross. No, Jesus has something very different in mind. Here is where the fruit we receive through the action of the Holy Spirit proves very helpful in our understanding of this blessing. The fruit of the Spirit found in us when the Spirit blesses us with mercy is kindness. The word from which we get this word, “kindness”, from, comes from a root word which meant, useful. So when we encounter the Holy Spirit through his blessing us with the goodness of God we experience kindness, this mercy found to have a peculiar purpose.
This purpose for this mercy given to us is found in the aftermath of this encounter Zacchaeus has with Jesus. You see, it was all because Jesus offered to enter his house and have dinner with him, this is why Zacchaeus decided to respond by doing something truly incredible. He tells Jesus that half of his goods he would give to the poor. On top of this news, Zacchaeus adds, that to anyone he has defrauded he was going to give them four times the amount that he had wrongly taken from them. So, stop and consider what Zacchaeus has done in this moment. He now has given away more than half of everything that he owned. This is the kind of giving that changes your life. This extravagant giving would have surely been considered embarrassing, perhaps more embarrassing than climbing a tree. To his fellow tax collectors, Zacchaeus had just done something incredibly foolish. Come on Zacchaeus, the whole point is for us to see how much wealth can we accumulate, so that we can eat, drink and be merry? We don’t gather all that coinage just to see how much we can give away! I mean, why give half of what you had to the poor, what will they ever do for you? These friends of Zacchaeus had to be left scratching their heads wondering, just what has this Jesus done to Zacchaeus to make him think that this is the way wise people handle their money?
We are right to be astounded with the crowds encircling Jesus that day, wondering just what had this man named Jesus done to make a noted tax collector like Zacchaeus just up and throw half of his earthly treasures away. Perhaps they had forgotten what power there is when someone is willing to eat with us so that we do not have to eat alone. I believe all of us can imagine the transformation that happens when we know that no matter how bad the world might believe we are, God says that he desires more than anything to sit at our table and eat with us. This is the power of mercy, this kindness which is the very useful goodness of God So it is obvious that this mercy Jesus has shown to us has a purpose, a very good reason why mercy changes everything.
As it turns out, Jesus taught his disciples a parable which helps us to figure out the reason why mercy is shown to us. The story Jesus tells us is one which illustrates both the wrong reason to be merciful to others as well as the real reason God extends his mercy to us.. Listen to this story, found in the eighteenth chapter of Luke, and see if you can comprehend what Jesus is saying to us about mercy. “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself, and he prayed, “God I thank you that I am not like other men, predators, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I receive.” The tax collector, though, stood far off, unable to even lift his eyes to heaven, and he beat upon his chest, crying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus concludes this story by telling us, “The tax collector went down to his house in a right relationship with God, rather than the Pharisee. For every one who exalts himself, will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” You see, the Pharisee used acts of mercy, his giving of the tithe, to make those listening to him give honor to this Pharisee. His flaw was believing that since his friends considered him to be honorable that God would do so as well. Yet, Jesus tells us that when that Pharisee went back home, he was no closer to God than when he came to pray. He was painfully unaware of what mercy even was, not knowing the very purpose that mercy had been extended to us in the first place.
We begin to understand why mercy is extended to us in something Paul writes at the beginning of the second chapter of Romans, where he says that God’s kindness leads us to repentance. Here we find that the purpose for the mercy God extends to us. The mercy of God is a kindness which has the power to turn those who are walking away from God and cause them to run into the loving embrace of our Father. So the purpose of mercy, this kindness shown to us, is given to restore relationships. The tax collector rightfully knew that only the mercy of God could restore the relationship which the tax collector had ruined. The word the tax collector used when he asked God to be merciful comes from the same word used for the mercy seat found on top of the Ark of the Covenant. This causes us to remember the most holy of days in the life of Israel, the yearly ceremony of atonement. This is when the sins of the people were cleansed away through the sprinkling of blood upon the mercy seat. This was the day that the people could begin anew in their relationship not just with God but also with each other.
The Pharisee failed to remember the power mercy has to unite God and his people together. This is why he could simply write people off that he disagreed with. He could see them to be nothing more than animals, predators who knew nothing of justice, adulterous in their relationships. Yet what was proved to be true when Zacchaeus met Jesus is that mercy has a power called kindness which can transform anyone. To the Pharisees, Zacchaeus was just one more person who could be easily dismissed. But Jesus saw Zaccheaus as one who simply needed to experience the power of mercy. You see, the whole reason that Zacchaeus embarrassed himself climbing that tree is so that he could see the one who just might reconnect him with God. So when Jesus told Zacchaeus that his one desire was to dine with him, Zacchaeus understood that here was God, longing to eat at his table with the likes of him. The kindness of God caused Zacchaeus to repent, changing his whole way of looking at life. Now Zacchaeus knew that his wealth could be the kindness which connected him to those who also longed for mercy. These dear souls just might become the friends who would one day welcome Zacchaeus into his eternal dwellings just as Jesus also promises at the beginning of the sixteenth chapter of Luke. So, yes, the way this kindness of God transforms us just may make us become people who do foolish actions at least according to the world’s standards. Yet we will just let the world laugh for the power of mercy, this kindness of God, is found to be far more important than our honor.
You see, when we understand that the mercy of God has a purpose, that this mercy creates a kindness which draws us all together, then the teachings of Jesus make sense. You see, Jesus point blank tells us, that we are to live this way: “Do not oppose the one who is evil. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn and let him slap the left cheek as well. If anyone sues you and they take your coat, give them your shirt as well. If you are forced to carry a Roman soldiers pack one mile, go with them for two miles. Give to the one who begs from you. Lend to anyone who would borrow from you.” Now at face value, this teaching of Jesus makes us squirm, doesn’t it? I mean if we are considering ways to embarrass ourselves, this teaching of Jesus will certainly accomplish this. Yet, we also hold fast to this truth: kindness is the power that restores relationships.
This is why we are willing to listen to Jesus who first, tells us that evil is to be no longer opposed by violence. You see, if we use the world’s violent methods to oppose evil we will end up a slave chained to this world and its desires, a world which God will one day destroy. No, we must hold fast to the way of freedom shown to us every time we sit at the table and commune with Jesus. As Jesus takes the bread into his hands, we remember that Jesus has taken us out of the world through the good news which proclaims that we now have a kingdom to call home. Then as Jesus blesses us, we remember that even though we should rightfully be condemned, the blood of Jesus covers over our sin, so that now we might be empowered by the one whose name is the Comforter. Then as Jesus breaks the bread, we remember that we must be broken, so that our life becomes channeled by the ways of our Father.. We must allow God to train us to use what he has given to us to demonstrate that we are a child of God, worthy of an eternal inheritance. Finally, Jesus gives the bread. Here, we remember that the only way to avoid becoming a slave to this world is to freely yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit who offers us up to the glory of our Father.
So at the table we remember that we are given over to the work of the Holy Spirit as we receive the bread.Yet this is not all for we also also remember as we receive the cup that through the blood shed by Jesus we receive mercy. We remember how God in his mercy allowed the blood of Jesus, our kinsman redeemer, to set us free from our slavery to sin. We also remember, how Jesus in his mercy, gave his life, the shedding of his blood, so that we might be judged worthy of life. Now we are called to live that life for him. We remember how Jesus, cleansed us by his blood so that that the Holy Spirit might live in us as a guarantee of our future. You see, the power of mercy has reconciled our past, given us a present and has sealed our future with God. So as we drink of the cup, we remember that this same mercy lives in us, in power.
So when we yield our lives to the Holy Spirit, by his power we can offer mercy, turning our other cheek. By our kindness we force our enemy to look into our face to see something greater than honor at stake.And by our kindness we give more than expected when someone asks us. We no longer carry the pack of our enemy one mile but go with them for two so that by our kindness we may find a friend. We lend to others when they beg from us so by our kindness we might uphold their dignity. You see this is the Jesus way of living, offering mercy to the unworthy so that by his kindness our world might be filled with friends. This is why Jesus endured being slapped on his face, the giving away of his clothes, his going the second mile with a cross upon his back, so that by his kindness shown to us at the cross, his kindness might now live in us. This is what we remember as we drink the cup. Yes, living such a life of kindness may embarrass us as Zaccheaus knew so well. Yet, it is just such a life loved in the power of mercy, this is the life that honors God and glorifies him forever! Amen!
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