A GLIMPSE OF THE KING
Sermontelling Luke 18:31—19:10 (NL 335)
BIBLETELLING
Below is the Narrative Lectionary passage for the coming week. It is followed by Bruce’s notes on the text which aim at a general understanding of the text and some notes on the structures and techniques used by the Biblical storytellers.
Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them,1 and they did not know what he was talking about.
As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”2
He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”3
Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”4
“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.5
Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith6 has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God7. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see8 who Jesus was, but because he was short9 he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”10
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”11
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham12. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”13
Luke 18:31—19:10
THREE STORIES
The following three stories pair well with the Narrative Lectionary passage for the coming week. They are followed by Danny’s sermontelling footnotes which explore the stories’ theological connection to the passage as well as insights into craft and performance. Our advice is to read the story first before digging into the footnotes.
The Tree
Once, in a far away kingdom, there was a good and wise King.14 His people loved him but very few ever saw him because the King spent so much time behind the walls of his palace. In that same Kingdom there was a young boy who longed to see the King with his own eyes.
One day the young boy went to the palace hoping to see the King. The walls were very high and there were guards posted at the entrance of a thick iron gate. But the boy spotted a tree15 across the street. The boy climbed the tree and when he got to the top and sat on the loftiest branch, sure enough, he looked down and could see over the palace wall into the royal courtyard.
Not more than a few moments later, the King emerged from one of the palace doors. The boy thrilled at the sight of the King. He had silver hair, a great golden crown, and beautiful purple robes. After a few minutes, the King returned inside the palace and the boy climbed back down the tree. All the way home he was over the moon16 at having caught a glimpse of the King.
This quickly became his new pastime.17 Every day, the boy would go climb the tree and patiently wait to catch a glimpse of the King. As you can imagine, this was often a frustrating endeavor. Some days he would wait hours for the King to appear for maybe a second or two. Other days he might not appear at all. There were days when the King came out but he was obscured by some columns. And yet other days when the rain and the wind made it impossible for the boy to climb the tree. But still, though the boy found the process to be tedious and frustrating, he so longed to see the King that he continued to come day after day.
Until he was caught.
On the day in question, a guard spotted him up in the tree and yelled at him to come down. The boy said that he meant no harm, he was just trying to see the King.
The guard smiled.
“Kid, you’re going about this all wrong. Why don’t you do what I did when I was your age. Go down to the royal employment office and sign up for a job working in the palace. You could be a sweeper, a gardener, an errand boy —it doesn’t really matter. Service would be your ticket inside the palace gates and there you would see the King every day. You would see him up close and, more than that, he would see you and know you by name!”18
~ My Telling of a Jewish parable
A Show of Respect
The Anglican priest, Arch Bishop Demond Tutu,19 was one of the great religious leaders of the last century. He dedicated his life to advocating for human rights on the basis that all people are created in the image of a just and loving God. His philosophy of non violent resistance was instrumental in turning the attention of the world toward the racist policies of South Africa’s apartheid government and turning the hearts of its white power holders to the plight of the native African peoples.
After Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he and Arch Bishop Tutu negotiated the dismantling of South Africa’s oppressive regime and the creation of a new multiracial democracy. Tutu served as Mandela’s religious adviser (and sometimes critic) during his time as South Africa’s first native African president.
Perhaps Tutu’s finest accomplishment, among the many that would earn him the Nobel Peace Prize, was his chairing of the council on Truth and Reconciliation. These televised hearings did much to heal the nation and bring people together.
Tutu followed a threefold process modeled on a Biblical theology of reconciliation: confession, forgiveness, and restitution.20 Individuals who had committed human rights abuses during the Apartheid government were given the opportunity to confess their crimes in an open hearing to be preserved for history. In exchange, they received clemency and amnesty for their confessed crimes and abuses. But they were also expected to make restitution toward those they had wronged.
The council’s work was long and difficult but in the end it allowed the entire country to move forward together. None of it would have happened without the wise and compassionate leadership of Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Desmond Tutu was once asked why he had chosen to become an Anglican priest. In response, he told the story of something that happened to him when he was a little boy. In those days, in South Africa, if a black person saw a white person coming down the street, they were expected to step in the gutter and let the white person pass as a sign of respect. This was just one of the many hundred humiliations a native African faced in a single day. But you didn’t want some passing police officer to come and teach you manners so you did it.
One day, young Desmond was walking down the street with his mother and a white man was approaching. Before the two could move over, the white man stepped into the gutter himself, and tipped his hat as Tutu and his mother walked by.
Desmond Tutu was awed by this gesture of respect that he had never experienced from a white person.
“Why did that man do that?” Tutu asked.
His mother smiled. “That man is an Anglican priest. He’s a man of God.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said from that moment on he wanted to be an Anglican priest. And more importantly, he wanted to be a man of God.21
Zacchaeus’ Walks
There is a Christian legend about Zacchaeus. It is said that when he was an old man, he would disappear for long walks after dinner. His wife had no idea exactly where it was that he got off to, just that every evening, when they were finished eating, he would excuse himself and go off walking and not return until several hours later.
One evening after dinner, Zacchaeus excused himself and went off on his walk. His wife waited for a minute then followed to see where he went. She kept her distance as Zacchaeus walked down the dusty streets of Jericho. Along the way he stopped for every beggar, pulling a coin out of his satchel and laying it on their mats with a smile, exchanging pleasantries and making eye contact with each one.22
She chuckled to herself. If he does this every evening, no wonder he gets home so late.
Then Zacchaeus stopped at a house and knocked on the door. An old widow came to the door. It seemed like she was expecting him. She smiled and greeted him warmly. He produced a coin and handed it to her and she exchanged it for a big empty jar.23
Then Zacchaeus walked for a while more as his wife followed quietly behind.
Now he reached the well at the edge of town. There, a boy was waiting for him. She could tell by his dress that he was very poor— probably an orphan. He gave the boy a couple coins then he enthusiastically drew water from the well and filled the jar for him. The boy followed behind Zacchaeus, carrying the jar for him.
Finally, they reached the middle of town. Zacchaeus gave the boy another coin and he went skipping off. There, by the road was an old sycamore tree. Zacchaeus knelt and prayed. Then he began to water the roots of the tree.
When Zacchaeus’ wife caught up to him, she asked, “Is this where you go every evening? To water this old tree?”
“Yes,” said Zacchaeus.
“Why?”
“Because this is where my soul first fell in love with Jesus.”24
~ My Telling of an Orthodox Tradition
SERMONTELLING NOTES:
Jesus words above are uncharacteristically direct. The only term seemingly subject to interpretation is Son of Man. Given, however, that Jesus has consistently referred to himself by this title in the presence of his disciples make misunderstanding seem unlikely. The implication seems to be that some outside force is fogging the disciples’ minds. One explanation is that the Spirit is veiling these words to be recalled and understood later.
This story of the blind beggar receiving his sight near Jericho is closely paralleled in Mark 10:46-52 and Matthew 20:29-34. In each of these cases the story is tightly paired with the story of James and John asking to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand. The purpose in those gospels seems to be to contrast the humble request of the blind man with the self-serving requests of the two brothers. Luke tells almost exactly the same story of the blind man, but pairs it with a different story to make a different point.
Earlier in chapter 18, Jesus tells the story of a persistent widow as a lesson to his disciples in prevailing prayer. The blind man’s persistence in the current story is also rewarded.
Fast food workers everywhere are trained to greet their customers with the words “How can I help you?” To hear a very similar question, however, from the Christ, is a humbling moment.
Here is the verbal link that ties the story of the blind man to the story of Zacchaeus. Both men want to see.
The Blind man has called out to Jesus using the title Son of David. He believes that Jesus is the Messiah, and therefore can bring healing.
The blind man’s faith is made manifest as he becomes a “follower” of Jesus. His faith in Jesus draws him into a new way of life.
See note 5 above. The emphasis on “seeing” in this story (as well as their positions together in the narrative) pairs it with the story of the blind man
This reaction of the people is a recurring motif in Luke’s gospel. Jesus causes consternation by having table fellowship with sinners.
John the Baptist had addressed tax collectors in his ministry, as seen in Luke 3:12. Zacchaeus goes above and beyond what John had asked.
Zacchaeus’ actions may also be compared to the story of the rich ruler in Luke 18:18-22.
Like the blind man in the previous narrative, Zacchaeus has coupled his faith with a change in the way he lives.
This is a common refrain on the part of Jesus when his detractors question the company he is keeping.
The Tree
I encountered this parable by chance in a fascinating interview with biblical scholar, James Kugel. Interviews unfortunately don’t come with footnotes. I suspect this is probably a talmudic parable but that is not a simple thing to look up. Though safaria.org makes the talmudic library freely available to all, most of it remains in Hebrew. Even if that were not the case, to track down a free standing parable like this, that is not attached to a specific Bible verse, is looking for a needle in a hay stack. So apologies. If you, dear reader, happen to know the provenance of this parable (or any other), I would love to know.
Once again, this illustrates the importance of a story collecting system. I read this article several years ago when working on something quite different. But I loved the parable James Kugel tells toward the end of the interview so I clipped it and tagged it with some keywords. It was the keyword #seeing that pulled it up when I was looking for material about the blind man and Zacchaeus. The theme of seeing and the lengths we go to see is a theme in both stories.
I added the tree to this parable. The original story has the boy looking through the bars of the gate each day. Why did I make it a tree? Because I wanted the imagery to echo the Zacchaeus story. I could imagine a sermon in which the tree is used as a central image for the lengths we go to catch a glimpse of Jesus when we are on the outside looking in. But Jesus calls us into relationship.
I am a sucker for stories that echo themes and images from the text. Sometimes the images can be played around with a little to suit the needs of the sermon. This is storyteller’s license.
On another note, when I am cataloging stories or trying to recall them later, I focus on both themes and images. In this case, I thought of the themes of repentance, salvation, spiritual sight, etc… and looked for stories from my files and from my own life that spoke to those themes. But I also thought about images. What stories do I know with crowds, short people, trees, etc. You never want to pick a story that doesn’t really work in a sermon just because it shares some imagery. That is a recipe for confusion. But often by thinking about the imagery of the story we will remember a story that fits perfectly on the level of theme and imagery.
This is a pretty relatable emotion I think. Most people thrill at the sight of seeing a celebrity in the wild. My grandpa still tells the story of meeting Charlton Heston in the airport and blurting out, “Holy Moses.”
My wife and I recently attended a broadway show and waited patiently afterwards in the receiving line for the performers to come out in the receiving line. One of them was Sara Hyland, who played Haley in MODERN FAMILY, a show we are currently rewatching with our kids. I knew she was coming out and was going to walk by us. I had time to prepare what I was going to say. I knew it couldn’t be the same lame thing she hears every where she goes. I had to come up with something clever. Something she would recall on a talk show later.
When she finally made her way to us, I froze. Then I said, “We loved you in MODERN FAMILY!”
That wasn’t it.
Anyway, these stories are very relatable and telling your own might be a fun way into this parable.
You could say he was the first royal watcher.
Kugel’s context for sharing the parable was to say that Jews come to know God through the observance of his laws. All people can stand at the gate and catch a glimpse but there is a better way. Through the keeping of Torah, one has access into the gates and can know God in a fuller more personal way. Through the way of life imparted by his laws, Jews come to know God’s character. And in some mystical way, God comes to know them. What begins as service can become more like friendship.
This is a beautiful understanding of service. One we would do well to remember the next time we are tempted to say, “Christianity is not a religion it’s a relationship.” (implying all other religions, especially Judaism, are impersonal and legalistic)
My context for sharing the parable is that our lives are changed when we choose to follow Jesus as disciples. We are both inviting the King into our house (like Zacchaeus) and he is inviting us into his (like the boy in the story). This is the paradox of discipleship. It both asks nothing of us and demands everything from us. If I could properly explain that, I wouldn’t need parables.
A Show of Respect
I don’t want to take for granted my congregation knows who Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu is. For a lot of people he may be one of those names they know they’ve heard before but don’t remember exactly what they did. A quick biographical sketch will make the following story more consequential. They need to understand how many lives Tutu has impacted to truly contemplate the way a simple kind gesture on the street may have impacted history.
This important concept is found in the story of Zacchaeus. Though he has received pardon and been brought back into right relationship with God (salvation has come to this house today!), Zacchaeus still understands that he needs to confess and make restitution. Amnesty and clemency are not the end of the matter. Salvation is ratified through outward change of behavior.
This story may be effectively split into two parts. I can imagine a sermon talking about Desmond Tutu’s work with the council on Truth and Reconciliation as a way into talking about the importance of restitution in repairing broken relationships. (This great Ted Talk by Becky Kennedy challenges parents to recognize the difference between apology and repair. Repair seeks to mend the broken relationship. Her challenge to parents would make a good challenge to all Christians: ‘Get good at repair.’) You could even throw in the concept of tikkun olam, that God invites us into partnership with him in ‘repairing the world.’
I could imagine the same sermon coming back around to Tutu toward the end. Talking about how Zacchaeus journey of discipleship and his mission of repair began with a simple act of being seen by another. How repairing the world begins in our own hearts and continues with the people God puts in front of us on the streets of life. Once Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu was asked why he became an Anglican priest…
Be cautious with your meaning making. It would be too much to say that if the white man had never tipped his hat, apartheid wouldn’t have ended and the council on Truth and Reconciliation wouldn’t have happened. It’s also more than a little icky to suggest the true hero of South Africa’s story was an anonymous white guy. What we can say is that this was the first of many seeds God planted in Desmond Tutu’s life. That God used this simple act to begin him on a wonderful and miraculous journey. And it might challenge us to think about those the world deems short of stature and how we might act toward them when life puts them in our path. What potential world changers are out there waiting for someone to say, “I see you?”
Zacchaeus’ Walks
One of the things I like about this lovely little story is that it demonstrates the difference that repentance has made in Zacchaeus’ life. He now is the one who notices the unnoticed. He is generous with his wealth as he promised he would be. You can almost picture Zacchaeus as a reformed Ebenezer Scrooge, showing kindness and generosity to all he encounters on Christmas morning (hopefully singing this song) on the way to his true errand.
Notice, we are maintaining Zacchaeus’ wife’s perspective. She is at a distance so we are not privy to Zacchaeus and the widow’s dialogue. There is also ambiguity about exactly what is transpiring. It’s important as storytellers to maintain point of view.
It might be interesting to tell the whole story of Zacchaeus from the point of view of his wife. I’ve often wondered how she felt when Zacchaeus rushed home and announced that they would be having dinner guests. What insight could she give into what her short little husband (did she have a cute name for him?) was like before and after his encounter with Jesus. How did she experience the proclamation that salvation has come to this house? Is she now able to hold her head high in the marketplace? Zacchaeus’ wife is one of these invisible characters who can help us see this story from a different and surprising angle. If anyone does a treatment like this, I’d love to hear about it!
While my telling of this story is a little more elaborated, (I added the widow and the orphan) this last line is exactly as I heard it. It was the thing most seared in my brain about the story. Sometimes when I tell it, I ask the congregation if they can remember when their soul first fell in love with Jesus. Was it at their bed side? Was it at camp? Was it somewhere completely unexpected or was it in this church? Then I challenge them to ponder how they might water the roots of the tree and make it possible for future generations to encounter Jesus.