Jesus Eats With Sinners by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Patti Lusher)

Jesus had this habit. It got him into trouble all the time. Jesus saw people through God’s eyes. So, he could not tell the difference between saints and sinners. You know, he would come into a town. He was starting to get a reputation as a “somebody,” a religious leader of sorts. Not everyone liked him, of course. The Scribes and the Pharisees, they had their problems with him. Some people saw him as a threat. But the people who were healed by him and the people who were fed by him on the hillside when he preached, they thought he was pretty amazing. Crowds were following him everywhere.

But he kept turning their values upside down. Saying that the widow who had no money was the most generous, and saying that the son who blew his dad’s inheritance was beloved for coming home. Jesus saw people through God’s eyes. Who is the sinner and who is the saint? It is so hard to tell with Jesus.

So then we get to today’s story. Jesus is coming to town. The crowd gathers. Everyone is wondering: what will he do this time? Where will he go?

There is this little man. He’s short. We can be sure that no one likes him because he is the sell-out who works for the Roman government as their tax collector. The way he gets paid is by tacking on a fee on top of your tax. That is his salary. Everyone knows that tax collectors are greedy. And anyway, this guy is short. Everyone picks on the short guy who is rich and works for the Romans. And anyway, he has a stupid name: Zacchaeus. What kind of name is that?

But oh, of course, Jesus. What does Jesus do when he comes to town? He makes a bee-line for Zacchaeus, because, as I told you, Jesus saw people through God’s eyes. Jesus can’t tell the difference between a sinner and a saint. Anybody can tell that Zacchaeus is clearly a sinner but Jesus looks at him and sees a saint. Jesus goes to his house for dinner.

Here is how the story goes:  Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”

⁸ Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.”
^9-10 Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”

Jesus comes to see Zacchaeus, and the lost become found. A sinner becomes a saint, just like that!  Jesus saw people through God’s eyes.

You see, Jesus just sees things that we do not see. We see a table full of people that look like misfits. And Jesus sees saints – he sees beloved children of God. Not broken people, the last and the lost.  Saints.

Do you know the story of Oskar Schindler? He was a member of the Nazi party, and a spy for the Germans when they began to occupy Czechoslovakia and then when they invaded Poland. He took the job working for them presumably because he needed money because he was a drunk and he was in debt. He was also a womanizer. Eventually he bought a factory in Krakow, and began to employ Jews, because they were cheap labor. But eventually, as the Jews began to be taken to the death camps, he did everything he could to shield the Jews who worked in his factory and protect them from being shipped to the camps. He paid bribes to the SS officials to prevent the slaughter of his workers until the end of World War II.  By May 1945, he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market supplies for his workers. He is credited with saving the lives of 1200 Jews during WW II.

One might ask, what was his true identity: sinner or saint? He did some bad things in his life. He cheated on his wife. He was a member of the Nazi party. But in the end, he saved 1200 lives. In his death, he was honored by the Israeli Government with an honor: “Righteous Among Nations,” an award for non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. I don’t think that Jews technically have saints. But if they did, I think “Righteous Among Nations” honor would probably be the equivalent. If Jesus ever walked up to Oskar Schindler, I believe he would call him a saint. He would look past all the sins and praise him for the compassion he had for the Jewish people who worked in his factory. Yes, we are all sinners. But we all have the capacity to be saints too. Jesus sees that in us. Jesus sees us through God’s eyes.

Do you feel more like a sinner than a saint? Of course, being a saint is not really something we are supposed to claim for ourselves. Humility is a Christian virtue. Being a saint is something that others claim for you.

But every year on the Christian calendar, on November 1, we celebrate All Saints Day. It is the day we give thanks for those who have been saints in our own lives. In particular, we offer prayers of thanksgiving for the lives of those saints who have died over the past year, and we will do that during our prayer time today. So, by the way, if you want to grab a prayer card and write down the name of anyone you know who died in the past 12 months, I will read their name during our prayer time today.

But if we lower the bar a bit, another word for saint, with a small “s” is someone who is a follower of Jesus and lives out for us what it means to be like Jesus. I hope you have moments when you feel like you ARE living as a faithful follower of Jesus – when you are showing compassion, patience, humility, forgiveness and all those other things.

But I know there are days when we all feel like sinners.

We feel like we belong at this table.

We are Zacchaeus, just hoping to get a glimpse of Jesus – maybe touch the hem of his garment. Oh, if we just had a chance to have a moment with Jesus, maybe we could have a chance not to feel like we are the lowest of the low.

Because honestly, don’t you feel like that sometimes? You are the biggest screw up ever? I mean seriously. If Jesus came to town, why would he want to come to MY house? It’s a mess. I can’t cook. There are baskets of unfolded laundry all over. There are dirty dishes in the sink. Unopened mail on the dining room table. The paint is peeling on the house. My kids haven’t done their homework and it’s Sunday afternoon.

But guess what?

Jesus walks right up to you and says: “Hello. I don’t care about any of that. Because in spite of all that, I love you. Let’s have lunch.”

And suddenly, your life of sin becomes a life of blessing. Oskar Schindler the womanizing Nazi Spy becomes “Righteous Among Nations.” Zacchaeus who was a hated tax-collecting pawn of the Roman government becomes Jesus’ dinner host and friend.

And you, and me, whatever baggage we have, we become beloved children of God.

Sinners become saints. Can you believe that? Can you believe that no matter how lost or broken or misfit you might feel, that Jesus loves you and sees you as beautiful and perfect?

And this is why: because Jesus sees us through God’s eyes. And that makes all the difference.