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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2022
10:30 AM (kids + communion)
Truth, Reconciliation, and Salvation Luke 19:1-10
with Josh Liem
Last week, we heard about survival through the residential school system. Where do Christians begin to participate in the healing and reconciliation process? What about immigrants and refugees fleeing their own persecution, only to find themselves somehow complicit in the injustices committed against the Indigenous? This Sunday we explore the connections between Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 and us today, especially in the call for truth and reconciliation.

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TAX COLLECTORS, SINNERS, AND IMMIGRANTS

• Tax collectors were employed by the government to take various tolls, overcharging some for their own gain.  They are classified as robbers in rabbinical writings.
• Jews hated fellow Jews who worked this job; not only for the extortion, but also for siding with their foreign oppressors.  
• 1960s Indonesia: Chinese-Indonesians blamed for causing societal issues and siding with the oppressive government, and massacres ensue.  Many Chinese-Indonesians emigrate from Indonesia.

​ZACCHAEUS’ THREE DESCRIPTIONS:

• Chief tax collector
• Rich
• Small in stature

…likely bullied, traumatized, and driven to survive.
 Can we empathize with him?

FURTHER CONTEXT:
Luke 19:9 — “today salvation has come to this house”

• Salvation as reconciliation and restoration of order (and redistribution of wealth?)

Salvation in Luke's Gospel:

• Saving life - 6:9
• Forgiveness of sins - 7:48-50
• Deliverance from demonic forces - 8:35-36
• Healing from chronic illness - 8:47-48
• Resurrection from the dead - 8:50
• Entering into the final kingdom of God - 13:23-29

LUKE’S EMPHASIS ON THE RICH AND POOR:
Rich ruler - 18:18-30

• give all that you have to the poor
• ​Impossibility of the rich to be saved without God

Sermon on the Plain - 6:20, 24

• Blessed are the poor (not included: in spirit — Mt. 5:3), for yours is the kingdom of God
• Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

The parable of the rich fool - 12:13-21
The parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus - 16:19-31
Woes to the Pharisees - 11:37-44

• Although they tithe, they neglect justice.

The poor widow - 21:1-4

• Her small offering was more than all the rich offerings combined

ZACCHAEUS AS A SON OF ABRAHAM:
Luke 3:8-10:

• Bear fruits in keeping with repentance
• God can turn stones into children for Abraham
• Share if you have two tunics to one with none, share food

 
THE BIG IDEA: What happened in Luke 19:6?

For Discussion and Reflection

1. How would you define joy?  
2. What was the last thing you felt guilt-tripped to do?  Describe the experience.
3. When you heard the stories coming from the residential schools, or any other atrocity, what did you feel?  (Apathy?  Grief?  Anger?  Exhaustion?  Despair?)  Did you feel any call to action, or have any actionable ideas to share with the group?
4. What difference should being a Jesus-centered Christian make in pursuing healing and reconciliation with the Indigenous?