A Band of Thieves and Robbers
Drawing on Zacchaeus, Ephesians 2, and the pagan critic Celsus’s backhanded compliment that Christians welcome “a band of thieves and robbers,” this Reformation Sunday sermon makes the case that salvation is pure grace — God seeking out the unworthy before they ever clean themselves up.
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A Band of Thieves and Robbers
Good Morning. Sometimes the enemies of the faith see things more clearly than we do. Celsus was a pagan philosopher who lived a little over a century after Jesus. He wrote against Christianity, trying to stop its spread. And one of his criticisms of the Christian faith is very enlightening.
He said, in effect, look at the kind of people these Christians invite. Other religions call people who are clean, upright and worthy. If your hands are clean and your heart is pure, you can be one of us. But these Christians invite sinners, simple-minded people, children, and people who can’t even speak articulately. Everyone that the world calls unworthy. If you were trying to recruit a Band of Thieves and Robbers, you would use the exact same call.
Celsus meant it as an insult. But he really defined the Christian call.
Today is Reformation Sunday. The Reformation was a movement to recover and proclaim the truth that lies at the heart of the Gospel. Our Scripture lessons point to the teaching that we are saved because God is gracious. And that grace reaches people the world would just as soon leave behind. His grace reaches to thieves, to robbers, and sinners just like us.
Our Gospel lesson this morning gives us one of those sinners. His name is Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was not just a wee little man, but a chief tax collector. He worked for the Romans, taxing his own people. Tax collectors had a reputation for stealing from the people, and Zacchaeus was at the top of that profession.
He was rich, unpopular, and the epitome of unrighteousness in others’ eyes. But here is the irony. His name, Zacchaeus, means “righteous one.”
Here is a man whose name screams “I am righteous” but whose life became associated with dishonesty. So why would a man like this want to see Jesus? You’d think he’d hide when a great spiritual teacher came to town.
We are not told, but I think we can guess. All the riches in the world will not make you happy. Zacchaeus had a void in his life that neither money nor power could fill. He knew he was missing something.
Well, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but the problem was, he literally couldn’t. Not because he was blind or anything. He was just too short to see over the crowd, and he definitely wasn’t someone people would eagerly make room for, in fact they’d happily stand in front of him.
So this wealthy man, a chief tax collector, climbs a sycamore tree like a little kid just to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Whatever else was going on in his life, he wanted to see Jesus badly enough to make a fool of himself in public.
And then something amazing happens. The crowd comes around the corner, and Jesus stops. He looks up into that tree. He looks the tax collector straight in the eyes, and He says:
Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
Zacchaeus thought he was seeking Jesus, at least on his terms. He found out something amazing. The greatest thing that he could ever have found out. He found out that God had been seeking him all along.
Interestingly, Jesus didn’t say, “Zacchaeus, if you clean up your life, I’ll come to your house.” He didn’t say, “If you promise to stop cheating people, then we can talk.” He said, “I must stay at your house today.” Right now. Before Zacchaeus had a chance to prove anything.
Before he made any restitution, Jesus invites Himself into the home of a sinner. That is the scandal of grace.
One of the great reformation fathers, John Calvin, reflected on Zacchaeus’ desire to see Jesus. To give us a picture of how God stirs up desires in us, Calvin desire before Zacchaeus fully understood what he was seeking. In other words, the first movement toward God was itself a work of grace.
And then what happens. Zacchaeus receives Jesus joyfully. He stands up and promises to give half his possessions to the poor and repay fourfold all the people he had been defrauding. Zacchaeus didn’t buy his way into Jesus’ favor, BUT the encounter with Jesus completely changed who he was and how he acted. And listen to how Jesus sums up the whole story:
Today salvation has come to this house... For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
That’s a great summary of our Epistle lesson. Ephesians 2 begins with the bad news: And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.
Not sick. Not weak. Dead. We can’t rescue ourselves from the power of sin or make ourselves right with God by our own efforts. But then come two of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture. But God.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. (4-5)
And then Paul makes the point even more clearly in verses 8 and 9.
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
That’s the Gospel. God doesn’t wait for us to become worthy before He shows us mercy.
He doesn’t wait until we’ve climbed high enough, worked hard enough, or made ourselves good enough. That’s the heart of the Reformation, and the heart of Zacchaeus’ story. None of us can claim that God’s grace is something we’ve earned, because God has been seeking us all along.
Last Sunday we heard that Jesus is already there when we walk through our own front door. Zacchaeus found out what it means. God has been bringing him to just the right place, to just the right moment, to hear His call.
And the call is this: come down. I must stay at your house today. Not because you are worthy, but because I love you. Because I am rich in mercy. Because I am the God who seeks and saves the lost.
Celsus thought he had exposed something shameful about Christianity. He saw a religion that welcomed sinners, people who had nothing to boast about and nothing to offer God. He was right about the people Jesus welcomes. Where he was wrong was in thinking that this was something to be ashamed of.
We are sinners who cannot save ourselves. But we have a Savior who seeks us, welcomes us, and gives us what we could never earn. That is the scandal of grace. And that is who we are: a Band of Thieves and Robbers, found by Jesus.
Let us pray.
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