Homily for 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Oct. 30, 2022
Luke 19: 1-10
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Jesus looked up and said, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19: 5).

(by James Tissot)

Last week Jesus told a parable in which an unnamed fictional tax collector humbly asked God to have mercy on him because he recognized that he was a sinner; and this prayer pleased God, resulting in forgiveness—or, in Jesus’ words, “justification,” being restored to a healthy relationship with God.  (Luke 18:9-14)

Today we meet Zacchaeus, another tax collector, an actual tax collector in the city of Jericho; in fact, the Roman government’s chief tax collector in the entire district.  His position has made him very wealthy, perhaps not in an entirely respectable manner.

Nevertheless, Zacchaeus must have seen in Jesus, this itinerant preacher from Galilee, something that he lacked, something that he needed, something that his wealth couldn’t provide.  Why else might he have been “seeking to see who Jesus was” (19:3) and almost literally have gone out on a limb to catch sight of him?

Jesus spots Zacchaeus up in the tree.  Jesus had meant, Luke tells us, simply to “pass thru” Jericho on his way toward Jerusalem (19:1).  Seeing Zacchaeus, he changes his plan.  Jesus recognizes Zacchaeus—not because they’ve ever met before; obviously, they haven’t—but because Jesus recognizes a sinner; everyone in Jericho thinks tax collectors are terrible sinners, in line with what we heard in last Sunday’s parable:  “When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, ‘He’s gone to stay at the house of a sinner’” (19:7).

It’s ironic:  Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus.  But it’s Jesus who does the more perceptive seeing when he spots him up in the tree.

Jesus is acting as the Good Shepherd, seeking a lost sheep.  We may even say that he’s hunting for Zacchaeus.  When Jesus speaks of the Good Shepherd in John ch. 10, he remarks that he calls his sheep by name (10:3), and they know his voice and follow him (10:4).  So it is with Mary Magdalene outside the empty tomb when Risen Jesus appears to her (John 20:16).  So it is with Zacchaeus here.  He calls him by name:  “Zacchaeus, come down quickly.”

How did Jesus know his name?  Did he whisper to someone—like the reformed tax collector Matthew among his 12 apostles—“Who’s that guy up in the tree?”  It’s most unlikely that Matthew, a tax collector in Galilee, would have known Zacchaeus 90 miles away in Jericho.  I think, rather, that Jesus knows Zacchaeus’ name and he knows Zacchaeus with the same divine wisdom that allowed him then and still allows him to know every person; St. John tells us, “Jesus … knew all people and … knew what was in everyone” (2:24).  And even with that knowledge of human hearts, he loves every person, even tax collectors, every very ordinary people like you and me.  He knows us, chooses us, calls us to “come down” and to be his followers.

Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house as a guest.  He invites himself to us too, coming to us in the Eucharist, asking us to receive him and make him welcome even tho, like Zacchaeus, we’re sinners.  We pray, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof”; come into my house, come into my heart.  “But only say the word, and my soul shall be healed,” as Jesus healed Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, and all who came humbly to him, all who yet come humbly to him.  “Today salvation has come to this house….  For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:9-10).