Proper 26 (31) – Year C

This week’s passage marks the end of what’s often called the “Travel Narrative” in Luke (Luke 9-19). For ten chapters, Luke has traced Jesus and his disciples’ walk from Galilee to Jerusalem, by way of Samaria — through hundreds of years of bad blood. It’s here, in contested space, that Jesus perfects what may be his greatest contribution as a communicator: his gift as a storyteller.

In this volatile region, Jesus relaxes his teaching and preaching voice, softening his tone and slowing the pace. Instead of using religious language, he tells strange tales about ordinary things: lost sheep and lost sons, banquets, crooks and unjust judges. He gives the disciples grist for the mill that will only make sense after the resurrection, when they are given easter eyes.

The poet Emily Dickenson, said, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant…the truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind.” In his book, Tell It Slant, Eugene Peterson suggests this is exactly what Jesus was doing on the seventy-mile walk from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Which brings us to this week’s scene in Jericho, just before Jesus enters Jerusalem. It’s about his encounter with Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. This time, instead of telling a parable, Jesus enacts one, like a piece of public theater. It provides the interpretive key to the strange tales he has been telling along the way.

Keep in mind that in first century Palestine, the only thing worse than infidels like Samaritans were traitors like Zacchaeus. Dante reserved the lowest circle of hell for such men. It’s only when we understand the bitter scorn reserved for turncoats that collected taxes for the empire (especially chief tax collectors), that we begin to understand how scandalous it was for Jesus to invite himself over to Zacchaeus’s house for dinner. This is the Gospel in a nutshell. And with that, Jesus enters Jerusalem — the home of Israel.