Would Jesus Use The Unfriend Button?

Reformation SundayLuke 19: 1-10

Remembering Desiderius Erasmus

The Presbyterian Historical Society invites congregations each Reformation Sunday to remember a person that was important to the Reformation movement. This year, they invited congregation to talk about a man by the name of Desiderius Erasmus. He was a Renaissance humanist, a Catholic reformer, and a Dutch educator. He published the Novum Instrumentum Omne: the first published version of the New Testament in Greek. 

We are told by history that something that was available to few people, now was available to many. He issued a second edition in 1519. This edition was used by Martin Luther to translate the NT to German in 1522. English language Bibles (Geneva, King James-1611) were also strongly influenced by Erasmus. He also influenced the Spanish language translation of the Bible by Casiodoro de Reina (a former Catholic monk and later an independent Lutheran theologian) and edited by Cipriano de Valera (Reina-Valera 1602). Therefore, it is said that the reformation of the church began with the reformation of the Bible. 

To me… what was behind these efforts to make the Bible accessible to all, was the knowledge that God’s word has the ability to make things new. This was a “radical inclusion” back then, because the Catholic Church, at that moment, had somehow excluded people from being able to experience the word without barriers of any kind. The reformers worked then to make the Bible available to those that wanted to study it, struggle with it and be transformed by it. It is a shame that their noble intent had to deal with human sinfulness… and that their struggle for inclusivity ended up in fighting and in “unsurmountable differences and exclusivity” that still hunt the Protestant church today. 

Regretfully, human beings have a hard time getting over that hump. We like to classify, separate, categorize, divide, grade, group, label, rate and sort without end… because we think it makes it easier to understand ourselves and the world around us… but sometimes I wonder if that is true… or if the measures we use for our categorizations are the right ones. 

Jesus’ lesson… Who is it for? Who are the lost?

The lesson on this Sunday has us speaking about a tax collector: Zacchaeus.  He is so famous that he even has a song! “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.” 

The classical approach to this parable is to think that Zaccheus is the object of salvation in this story. Zaccheus is a sinner, a wealthy tax collector, but he feels curious about Jesus. He climbs up a tree and Jesus sees him. Jesus, breaking all the rules of etiquette, invites himself to Zaccheus house. Zaccheus not only accepts, but freely offers to give half of his possessions to the poor. Jesus is seeking out and saving the lost… and Zaccheus is one of the lost, and so Jesus saves him. God calls us by name and offers us salvation… and we respond. We are changed. Even Calvin says that Zaccheus is “changed from a wolf not only into a sheep, but even into a shepherd” (Robert Leach FotW) Amen.

But… what if Jesus’ lesson is for someone else? What if this is not a story about Zaccheus per se… but about a challenging to the Jewish attitudes toward others, like the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee?

Some of the latest translations of the Bible to English and Spanish (Common English Bible and in Spanish the Reina Valera Actualizada) have an interesting take on the story… let’s look. All of the other versions state that the characters in this story are Jesus, Zaccheus and the crowd. All of them state that he was a ruler among tax collectors, and that he was rich and all of them lead us to assume that he was a wee little man, because he needed to climb up a tree to see Jesus. All of them have Jesus saying “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” All of them state that Zaccheus was happy to welcome Jesus. This is when the third character in the story comes in. The crowd GRUMBLED when they heard the invitation! Jesus has gone to be the guest of a sinner! Not of a tax collector. Not of Zaccheus… of a sinner.

At this point is when the CEB and the RVA-2015 differ. Most of the other translations have Zaccheus responding to the crowd by saying to Jesus “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”  So Zaccheus is transformed! But… what if we change the tense of the verbs here like the newer translations do?  “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.” According to these versions… Zaccheus is already giving half of his possessions to the poor! If he cheats, he repays four time as much. If Zaccheus is not changed by Jesus’ visit, who is transformed in this story? Who is the lesson for? Who are the lost that the Human One has come to seek?

Jesus declares that Zaccheus is also a son of Abraham. This could be shocking to the crowd for two reasons: they consider he is a sinner, as they have made abundantly clear, and also it is believed that some tax collectors were foreigners. The thing here is that “Jesus is always welcoming the wrong people and confounding the good righteous people” (Laura S Sugg FotW). The crowd has classified, separated, categorized, divided, graded, grouped, labeled, rated and sorted Zaccheus. And Jesus is telling them that their measurements are wrong, that this man is also deserving of God’s love and grace. That maybe they are the ones that are lost and that he has come to seek them out. 

Would Jesus use the unfriend button?

And now, we come to the question that serves as our title for the sermon today… “Would Jesus use the unfriend button?” This came to me because I have seen a trend on Facebook of people inviting folks to unfriend them due to the political atmosphere that is part of the United States these days. That lead to a search on the Internet to answer the question. There seem to be two sides.

Jesus would use the unfriend button: This is not about politics. Is about being friends with someone who discriminates, is a racist, and tells lies. Not going to be friends with them. And...

Jesus would not use the unfriend button: Jesus says that you have to engage even those that are your enemies as Jesus himself did in Scripture. You must go beyond toleration. You must love them.

As I think about ways of moving forward after a contentious election cycle, I look to Jesus' actions. He did hang around with people that were rejected by his society. He denounced others that he was not in agreement with. But... he did not reject them. He answered all their questions. He kept conversations, even when they were tense, because it seems to me that he believed that it was through relationships that reconciliation and transformation were possible. Somehow I believe that Jesus would not use the unfriend button. He believed in radical inclusion, radical love, a radical kingdom. He proclaimed that Zaccheus was a son of God. And he declared this in front of the grumbling crowd, so that they could see his example, learn his lesson, and rejoice in being also children of God. We should rejoice in his friendship, love, and grace as well.  
  
Our musicians were invited to provide the music for a worship service that gathered Presbyterian leaders from all over the country. The last song of the worship service had this line:  “we learn, year by year, to let love shine through, until we see Christ in each person we meet.” This is my prayer for all of us. To learn the lesson of radical inclusivity. To let love shine through. To see each person we meet as a child of God. To make the word of God available to all... a word of love, grace and peace.