Fifth Sunday of Lent
Luke 19:1-10
[Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”
So, he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”
Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “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.”
Then, Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
Stand Up
Dogukan Gunaydin, a 28 year-old student from Turkey studying at the University of Minnesota, was arrested on his way to class. The reason given was “failing to maintain status,” although his student visa wasn’t terminated until seven hours after his arrest. He has not been charged with a crime, which means his detention is unconstitutional.
Camila Munoz, an immigrant from Peru, is married to a United States citizen. She was picked up at the airport after her honeymoon in Puerto Rico, even though her application for a green card is currently being processed. She overstayed her visa when the borders were closed during the covid lockdown, leaving her stranded in the United States.
Mahmoud Khalil, from Syria, is a permanent US resident with a green card. He was arrested at his apartment in New York because of his pro-Palestinian activism. Though he has not been charged with a crime, government officials claim that his actions threaten US foreign policy.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, and a PhD student at Tufts University, had a valid student visa. She was pulled off the street by plainclothes agents from the Department of Homeland Security, and was driven off in an unmarked car. Ozturk had written an article for the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to the events in Gaza. ICE accused her of engaging in activities supporting Hamas, and terminated her visa.
Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student from Iran studying at the University of Alabama, is being detained at the ICE processing center in Louisiana. Little is known about his case, although the Department of Homeland Security claims he is a significant national security concern. They have yet to provide any evidence to substantiate this accusation.
Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian with no criminal record, was taken as she was applying for a work visa. She was held for two weeks, first in a cement cell with a sheet of aluminum foil for a blanket, then in a detention center, and then an actual jail. Along the way, she met over a hundred women, from all over the world, some of them being detained for overstaying their visas for as little as three days. None of them has a criminal record. One woman, a pastor, was picked up because she accidentally got into a car lane leading to Mexico, and she didn’t have her passport with her. Instead of redirecting her and sending her on her way, she was arrested.
Last month, the State Department revoked 300 student visas, the targets seeming to be those involved in activism. There are over 48,000 immigrants being detained by ICE across the country, right now.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security reported that one of the Louisiana detention facilities had a mosquito infestation and did not have enough medical staff. Other reports state that detainees were exposed to yellow, undrinkable water, spoiled food, and did not have basic hygiene supplies. They were not given access to lawyers or translators, and were forced to prepare documents in English, which many of them did not speak.
If you’re wondering why so many people are being detained for such minor infractions, or for no reason at all, just remember that these are for-profit facilities. They are paid by the government for each person they hold, regardless of the reason they’re there. They have no incentive to process people quickly, and they have done extensive lobbying to put laws into place that would send even more people their way. One company, CoreCivic, made over $560 million from Ice contracts in a single year. Another company, GEO Group made more than $763 million in 2024 alone.
This is how the United States is currently treating the foreigners living in our midst. They are being harassed, demeaned, ostracized, and taken advantage of. They are not being treated like people, simply as a means to increase wealth. Human beings have always had difficulty dealing with people who are different, which is why I think how we treat each other was so much a part of Jesus’ teachings.
In our gospel reading today, Jesus arrives in Jericho, and all of the people have come out to see him. Like everyone else in town, Zacchaeus, the tax collector, heard that Jesus was coming, and wanted to see this person that everyone was talking about. The scripture says he was “short in stature”, so he couldn’t see over the heads of the people who had gathered along the road, so he decided to climb up a sycamore tree to get a better look. Traditionally, this story is told with the understanding that Zacchaeus was short in height, but it’s possible that “short in stature” might have meant something else. It’s possible that it meant he was short in reputation, that the other people in Jericho did not like him, and maybe that’s why they didn’t make room for him to see. “Short in stature” could have been a reference to his age, or possibly that he earned his fortune while he was still quite young. Regardless of what the writer actually meant by “short in stature”, when Jesus stops below the sycamore tree and tells Zacchaeus that he is going to stay with him, the people who hear this begin to grumble, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”
Zacchaeus may not have been an outsider, but he was certainly working for outsiders. He was collecting taxes for the Romans, the oppressors of the Jews, so it’s easy to see how his neighbors might consider him to be a traitor or a sellout. On top of that, as a tax collector, he would’ve had to deal with the stereotype of tax collectors being cheats and thieves. Of course, it’s possible that he earned this reputation through his own actions, as he says, “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.” It seems like he may be revealing a little guilt with this statement, but as one person in our Bible study this week commented, maybe he said he would pay back anyone he defrauded four times as much because he didn’t defraud anyone. If that was the case, then it’s not quite as bold of a proclamation as it might seem at first glance.
Whether Zacchaeus cheated his neighbors or not, he and Jesus put on a good show for the people who are watching. Jesus calls up to Zacchaeus in the tree, seeming to pull his name out of the aether, and Zacchaeus makes a bold statement about what he’s going to do with the money that he supposedly cheated his neighbors out of. Jesus could‘ve just as easily appeared at Zacchaeus’ door, and privately asked if he could stay the night. But, Jesus wanted everyone to see this. He wanted everyone to see that he was staying with the sinner. He didn’t come to Jericho to encourage the way they left Zacchaeus out of things and looked down on him. Zacchaeus was a child of God, and Jesus wanted them to remember that. And, in a miraculous conversion, Zacchaeus says he will provide restitution for the wrong he has done. And, Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Jesus’ mere presence is enough to heal and change people. And, all of this happened right out on the street for everyone to see, because Jesus wanted them to see.
We stand up for our neighbors by being visible. On Monday, there was a rally at the capital for trans rights, and yesterday, there were protests all across the country, millions of people telling the government to keep their hands off of our neighbors. Immigrants are our neighbors. Queer people are our neighbors. Neurodivergent people, people of all faiths, of all political affiliations, people that are differently abled are all our neighbors. Jesus was not vague in his statements or his actions. He was extremely clear. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, take care of the widows and the orphans, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He spent time with prostitutes and tax collectors, with lepers and foreigners. And, he loved everyone. You cannot claim to be a Christian if you decide to hate certain groups of people.
It is up to us to speak out against any hate that we see. We need to stand up for our neighbors, and not just because it’s the right thing to do. Because if our neighbors are taken away, if they’re driven away, if they are forced into silence, or if God forbid, they lose their lives, then there will be no one to stand up for us, if we ever need it. We are a community, and we depend on each other. We are the family of God, and God expects us to act like it. So, take care of your neighbors. Reach out to them and let them know that you will stand with them, because that’s what Christians do. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
