Coming down from our perches

 ‘…For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost....’ (Luke 19:10)

Luke 19:1-10 (Year C: Advent-4)

For some reason this story, from Luke, about Zacchaeus who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus reminds me of Saturday 29^th September 1979 for reasons I will explain later …..  Over a million people were on the move in the very early hours of that day on the streets of Dublin. They carried little fold-up seats, baskets and other items. It might have been a mass evacuation ahead of a major hurricane or invasion. Then a large Boeing 747 jet appeared over the skies of Dublin flying at an extremely low attitude and proudly accompanied by Irish air force planes and swooped around the city moving from east to west over the liberties area (from where I remember first seeing the plane) and circling around the Phoenix Park over a crowd of well over a million and landing in Dublin airport a few miles to the north. Unless you happen to be from Mars you guessed right – it was ‘The Year of the Pope’. 

It is estimated that one in ten boys born in 1980 were named ‘John Paul’ (births peaked in absolute terms in the two years following the Pope’s visit …. but statistical causation is not proven by statistical correlation I should add! Indeed as illustrated here the birth rate actually continued to decline after the Pope's visit to Ireland and the only reason absolute births rose was due to there being relatively more women aged between 20 and 40 - which goes to show that what makes for a good modern story may not be based on facts!).  Perhaps something between a quarter and third of the population of the Republic of Ireland ‘were in the park’ that day.  It is likely that two out of three living in the Republic of Ireland at that time attended at least one of the seven ‘visits’ made over a long weekend (the late Pope John Paul now recognised as a saint in the Roman Catholic church got a lot in over a single weekend from Saturday to Monday!). Including the faithful from across the border where the ‘troubles’ were in full swing it is likely that a majority of persons living on the island of Ireland, at that time, were present at one of the 7 key events.

The year, 1979, was a landmark in many respects. It marked the high point of ecclesial influence which has already been waning since the 1960s (and not all because of TV let it be said). It also marked a time in between the old and the new. Innocence and deference was yet to be lost and the world was a more predictable and stable place albeit overshadowed by the ‘cold war’ and all the anxiety that goes with that.

What has any of this to do with the gospel story about Zacchaeus and, moreover, with my own memories of that time long past? Well, you see, like Zacchaeus I am short of stature.  In order to get a glimpse of this new and unusual celebrity Pope from Poland I positioned my bicycle beside a lamp post on High Street just opposite Christchurch cathedral and climbed up on to the saddle of the bike to get a glimpse of the Man. Let me add that I was far removed from church and Christianity at that stage in my young adult life. I had spent that Saturday at a political meeting in the Liberties area while all the excitement was in full swing outside.  (The last time I got to see the Pope live was while standing in a field in the sweltering August heat in Paris on 24^th August along with my family and with over a million people at the 12^th World Youth Day mass.)

Everyone wants to see a star or a famous politician, singer, guru or artist as the case and preference may be.  It is no surprise that many people living in a backwater of the Roman empire 2,000 years ago wanted to see in the flesh this extraordinary man they had heard of who worked miracles and preached a powerful message. However, Jesus came not to be adulated or lifted up on human pedestal. The only pedestal he would be lifted up on was the Cross after most of the people had abandoned or condemned him. Jesus came with a radical message that associated him with outcasts, the poor, the despised and ‘sinners’.  To see God’s love Jesus points us to these because what we do to others, what we see in others and what we receive in others is our way of ‘seeing Jesus’ (Matthew 25:45). It is, perhaps, one thing to ‘see Jesus’ in those we like and resemble us. It is another matter to ‘see Jesus’ in those most unlike us by virtue of belief, culture, opinions etc.  All the more is it difficult for us to ‘see Jesus’ in those most despised and hated such as, in this story from Luke, the ‘tax collectors’ (or ‘publicans’ according to some translations).  Luke tells us on more than one occasion that such persons were referred to by Jesus in examples of how God’s mercy and salvation extends to all – even ‘tax collectors’. Why were such persons resented and shunned by ‘respectable’ society at the time? Tax collectors were seen as dishonest and extortionate go-between people who did the dirty work of the Roman authorities even though they were Jewish and, at the same time, made lots of money out of their occupation partly by cheating and driving a large margin between income received and money paid into central coffers.

Luke tells us that Zacchaeus ‘came down at once and welcomed him gladly.’ (v.6).  We, too, can respond to the invitation of Jesus in the here and now.  To welcome Jesus ‘gladly’ and to know that we are welcomed by him in the first place spells an extraordinary freedom including for those us who may sense that we are out of place and not entirely welcomed or accepted by the community gathered in the name of Jesus.  Like Zacchaeus, we too are ‘children of Abraham’.  Not only is Abraham father, in faith, to Jews, Christians and Muslims but all human beings are children of the one God and Father of all, in all and over all. If we only knew and recognised this more fully!

We might be perched on some object cut off from the others and straining to see above and beyond the crowd. Yet, the way forward for each of us is to come down to ground level from our self-appointed perches and recognise the brother and sister next to us in this moment of life. In this way, to borrow a leaf from the Methodist tradition, we recognise our deepest need to be saved and that all around us can be saved and that all may know themselves saved and that this saving reaches to the very depths of our hearts, our relationships and our societies.

Postscript

On May 23^rd 2015 I stood in the midst of a huge crowd around Dublin Castle to witness the historic results of the marriage equality referendum. Ireland has matured somewhat in 40 years and many of the children of the John-Pauls born in the early 1980s are helping to construct a new world.  Young people of Ireland I, Zacchaeus, love you and welcome you with joy!