31st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Wisdom 11:22 – 12:2 2nd Thessalonians 1:11 – 2:2 Luke 19:1-10
The Wisdom of Solomon, from which comes today’s first reading, has roots in Solomon’s 10th Century BC Jewish, royal wisdom, but it also reveals a fairly sophisticated concept of the scope and size of the created universe and of creation’s God. By definition, God is larger than, more superlative than, and greater than any part or whole of the universe. Indeed, the ancient imagination of the size of the universe was rather tiny, perhaps a few thousands of miles across in ancient measuring terms. In 20th-21st Christian Century terms, the universe is some 13.5 billions of years old. Thus, the modern believer’s concept of God must be larger than, more superlative than, greater than any ancient imagination of God and sufficiently large to cope with our modern appreciation of the scope and scale of the universe. Remember, God is by definition mysterious! God is unknowable and unimaginably great! Hence, it ought not surprise us that God’s Goodness is larger than, more superlative than, and greater than human goodness. Today’s first lesson is essentially a prayer of praise to this God who is supreme. Among God’s principal qualities are divine compassion, mercy, care, concern and affection for the whole universe, and for it’s tiniest part. A pair of profoundly important insights rest in the third sentence: “For you (God) love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made ...” The greatness and largeness of that divine love ought to stop us in our tracks. It is articulated in both a positive and a negative way, a literary style by which to emphasize the necessary centrality of this idea: God’s love is absolute, overwhelming, and for the entire created universe, each and every individual person, and including all peoples! Imagine the critique this insight aims and places upon all those human biases and bigotries which are embraced and acted out on a daily basis! This divine wisdom explains why believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the God of Jesus the Christ, must without hesitancy, doubt, or embarrassment, try to love as God loves. Do Christians think ill of any others? If so, that must change! Are Christians harsh or un-welcoming to any other? If so, remember that such is contrary to God’s love and God’s wisdom, so it too must change! Even of serious sinners, see that God rebukes them “little by little” according to this author. Here, as so often in the scriptures, the assumption is that each person generally tries to be good and holy. Even the modern insights about very real and destructive psychological forces and tendencies (addictions, mental illnesses, syndromes and other mitigating realities) are not reduced to the individual’s willful choice. God’s love is for them, too, and it is entirely for them. God’s love for them is the very same as it is for you and for me! God’s love is perfectly appropriate in each situation and at all times. Can our love and compassion be modeled on anything less or different than God’s love?!?!?
Today’s Gospel narrative about Zaccheus, the tax collector, is a practical reassertion of the Wisdom lesson. In Jesus’ era, that of Roman Imperial hegemony in Palestine, tax collectors were legitimated thieves, paid by the Imperial Government and were allowed to tax and abuse the imperial subjects excessively, even using force and fear. That Zacchaeus was chief among them meant that he was considered a very close collaborator with the pagan Roman occupiers. He was to the male Jewish population what a woman prostitute was to the Jewish female population. Indeed, the phrase often appears in the Gospels “tax collectors and sinners.” Sinners was a euphemism for prostitutes. The two professions were considered just about as morally degenerate as Jews could be. That Zaccheus himself sought out Jesus, albeit somewhat humbly and even in comical terms (by climbing a tree), supplies the sense that it was God’s intervening call that stirred Zaccheus’ heart and mind. Jesus’ willingness to fraternize with him was not unusual for Jesus was criticized a number of times for fraternizing with tax collectors and sinners in the Gospel narratives. It was Zaccheus’ public change, conversion, commitment and humble confidence that is the center of the story. The very presence of Christ in his life allowed him to re-engage life fully and to have the very “salvation” of God bestowed upon him by Jesus. Here was an example during Jesus’ ministry of God calling the worst and turning the reprobate into a saint. It will occur frequently in the on-going history of Gospel discipleship.
The second reading today might be among the earliest of the surviving New Testament writings. Already by the middle-1st Christian Century, in the midst of the hope and expectation of the Return of the Risen Jesus, there had arisen a great deal of controversy among Christians about how precisely to prepare for that 2nd Coming. Indeed, some simply opted out of ordinary life and trusted (irresponsibly!) that God would provide. In fact, Paul rather quickly perceives that the early Christian idea of “soon” and what really might occur were not necessarily the same chronological scheme. Even in those days, some were clearly excessive in their religious certitude and expectation of the miraculous, including an immanent expectation of “the day of the Lord.” Life as we see and perceive it is reality. The power and wonders of God’s Spirit and schedule are not intended to violate or interfere with genuine reality. In fact, good mental and spiritual health in all cultural and religious believers is founded on a balanced and healthy perception of reality and the world. People who hear voices in their minds, and who perceive special religious instructions which contradict good sense and healthy behavior, are not good religious subjects. Paul is counseling the Thessalonians to beware of such examples, speeches, messages and commands. God did not bestow intelligence upon the human race to have religious insanity subvert or override it. Those who use religion, the Church, the Gospel, God or the saints, or visions or ideas or promises to manipulate believers are themselves working contrary to the Gospel! God saves us all, even the worst of us. But, we must submit ourselves to lives of good sense, reasonableness, compassion and social balance if we are to hear the Gospel effectively and to test the ideas, inclinations, “spirits,” or possibilities this world offers.
The Wisdom of God inspired King Solomon, Zaccheus and Paul to counsel genuine and well-grounded, balanced wisdom for all believers at all times! Be wise and balanced!