Feast of All Saints Luke 19:1-10 Christ’s Invitation

Isaiah 1:10-18 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

As many of you know the theme for our School this year is, “The colors of His love.”  So I would like to explain the colors found in our Old Testament lesson for today.

Our word scarlet denotes a bright red. During the time of Isaiah the dye for this color was obtained from the eggs of a small insect. The cloth was dipped in this dye twice and scarlet was a permanent dye. Neither rain, nor washing, or even long usage, would remove it. When Isaiah told the people that our sins were as scarlet, he showed us the permanency of the sins in our hearts.

 No human means could wash them out. No effort on man’s part, no external rites, no idol worship or human means could take away the sins we were born with. Nor could man’s effort remove the additional sins we commit in our lives. We are double dipped in our sins like the scarlet color was in the dying process. They are deeply and permanently affixed in our hearts.

The color crimson was a red dye which when used to dye wool turned it blue. Now if you took the scarlet cloth and dipped it in crimson dye, it would turn the cloth purple. Since this dying was expensive, only royalty and the very wealthy would wear these colors.

 On the other hand the color white was considered the emblem of innocence, or purity. It denoted a washing or a cleansing of the wool to make it clean. (White is signed by a drawing out of the hand from the heart.)

        Our Old Testament lesson states:  "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” In other words, God invites you to sit down with Him today so He can pardon your sins and make your souls pure.  

In our Gospel lesson for today Jesus invites a rich tax collector named Zacchaeus to sit down and reason with Him. From his name we know that Zacchaeus is Jewish and that his name in Hebrew means pure.  But Zacchaeus was far from being pure.

To become a tax collector you had to bribe a Roman official.  Then once you were hired as a tax collector, the Roman government told you how much to collect for Rome. You were authorized to charge an additional service fee of your choosing for your labor and the Roman government would enforce the collection of that amount.  It’s sort of like the ads you see to get new brakes on your car for $39.95.  The deception is that the brake shoes cost $39.95 but the installation charge can run into hundreds of dollars.  So tax collectors were considered to be corrupt and dishonest.

Therefore a Jewish man who collected taxes for the Roman government was considered a traitor and a sinner. In fact as the chief of the tax collectors Zacchaeus’ sins were considered as Scarlett; so he was doubly hated! Without a doubt Zacchaeus was disowned by his family and as an unrepentant sinner, he would not be allowed to worship in the Temple.

Now we know that Zacchaeus was short because he could not see over the crowds. Our lesson tells us that he was small of stature. Even in those times people would judge others by their appearance. Someone who is tall, dark and handsome gets and holds our attention while someone who is short, sickly and unattractive does not get a second look.

Stature can also mean the success we have had in our lives with those achievements that make us stand out to the members of the community.  If Zacchaeus would have been successful in doing something really good for his fellow Jews, then perhaps he would have been recognized for his accomplishments. The only real achievements he ever had however, was overcharging people and cheating them for his own financial gain. Consequently Zacchaeus was not well like and came up short in that regard as well.

But, he was wealthy. Zacchaeus excelled at gouging his fellow Jews and some by worldly standards would say that this made him successful.  But his wealth did not bring him contentment or make him happy. Ironically, wealth is something we all desire and we tend to believe that if we have enough money, it will solve all of our problems. The truth is however, that wealth alone does not make one happy. For all of his riches, Zacchaeus needed something else; something he could not buy or even coerce from others.

Because of his sinful life, he had no self worth. You cannot have a guilty conscious and feel good about yourself at the same time. Zacchaeus knew that he was cheating his own people and that would have caused him to lose more and more of his self-respect. He felt that no one loved him, and that he was stuck in his sinful life with no hope and no way out.

But somewhere along the line, he had heard about the preaching of Jesus. He heard about healing and forgiveness. He heard how Jesus preached of salvation apart from the law and about the kingdom of God. Zacchaeus was eager to see this man the crowds were talking about but he was so short he couldn’t see or hear. So Zacchaeus did two things that were out of the ordinary for a full grown man to do. He ran on ahead of the crowds and climbed a sycamore fig tree.

Now that took some courage on his part because the chief of the tax collectors would be drawing attention to himself and would surely be taunted by the crowd. And to make matters worse, parts of sycamore fig trees are poisonous.  Climbing one would almost certainly give him a bad rash.

It takes courage to be here today, especially if you haven’t been here before. Because when you walk into this church, you are witnessing to the world that you are in need; that you are a poor miserable sinner in need of forgiveness. That can be embarrassing to have people stare at you.  It is easier to be a part of a nameless crowd rather than to be identified as a sinner.

On that particular day, Zacchaeus stood out from the crowds as a sinner and he was noticed not only by the crowds but by our Lord Jesus Christ.   “And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ home. It is only by the Lord entering into his heart that Zacchaeus can be saved because His sins are as scarlet.

How about you? You may be haunted by past sins, things that you have regretted and carried around in your heart for a long, long time. You may think God has abandoned you, because your sins are so terrible that He would never offer you forgiveness. You may even be suffering physical consequences for your sins, but that does not mean that God is punishing you. God still loves you and when you see God for who He truly is, you will see that He is calling out your name to hurry and come down.

You can see God when you look at the cross that Jesus bore for your sins. Because of His love for you, Jesus climbed that tree for your sake. He withstood the humiliation, the taunting and the grumbling of the crowds in your place. He carried the guilt for your sins with Him so that you need not be burdened down by your transgressions. He died so that you could live, not only in heaven but here on earth. You are worth that much to Him, even if you feel that no one else could ever love you, you are greatly loved by God.

In fact God never took His eyes off you. He’s seen every sin you have ever committed, He’s heard every thought you ever had, and He’s seen every thing you’ve ever done. God has always had His eyes upon your life – because He loves you despite of your failures, in spite of of your sins and regardless of of your shortcomings.

If you are feeling a little down or a little empty today, you came to the right place because this is a place of hope. This is a place where Jesus Christ can be clearly seen. (Perhaps you came to only see Jesus cleanse away the sins of Gemma and Noah.) (But) This is also the place where Jesus sees you and calls out your name.  Jesus washes your sins away at your baptism. He makes you pure by His work on the cross and at His Supper He gives you His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins as often as you come to His table.

It really does not matter why you came to His house today, Jesus wants to go home with you and stay throughout your life.

When Jesus invites Himself into your home, His presence changes you. Like Zacchaeus, We have all done things that have hurt others. But Jesus is far more interested in sanctifying you than He is in condemning you. So He looks at you and He says, “Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

So I finish our lesson for today with the words of Saint Paul, “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  In Jesus name, Amen.