The powerful fearful

Deutsch: Bleiglasfenster (Ausschnitt) in der katholischen Pfarrkirche Saint-Pierre in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Darstellung: Der Zöllner Zachäus und Jesus, siehe Saint Pierre de Neuilly 1898-1995, Bayeux 1995 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1 Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. 2 There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax-collecting business, and he had become very rich. 3 He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowds. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree beside the road, so he could watch from there. 5 When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!”he said. “Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today.” 6 Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7 But the crowds were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. 8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have overcharged people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” 9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham. 10 And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost.” Gospel of St. Luke 19:1-10  (taken from the New Living Translation)

In the summer of 2010, the city of Granada (southern Spain) was preparing herself to welcome the annual festivities of the Corpus Christi. This feast has been celebrated in the ancient city for centuries. The whole city becomes a feast, with ornaments everywhere, and the city centre becomes even more populated than it normally is. Yet, in this specific summer  something different was happening. At the Alfa (stands for Almanjáyar en Familia) civic centre, Marcos* was rather disappointed.  Unlike other days, Marcos was sitting alone on one of the school’s chair using a big cardboard box and putting random stuff  such as used straws, pieces of paper and magazines in it. Normally he would use his gypsy, witty irony to make fun of other kids; something which was custom among the children of that neighbourhood  when it comes to entertainment.

I approached Marcos and asked him: “Say, what are you creating?” At first he didn’t even look up, since he knew very well who I was. He recognised my voice, and today, it was not the day for me to be encouraging him to behave and to be a good boy. “It’s the fair!” he responded harshly and with a sense of entitlement. “Wow, the fair!” I responded . In a closer glance, you could see that the former chaos was actually not quite so but a nice distribution of the structure of one of the tents of the fair. He had the roof out of straws, the tables and chairs for the people, the dancing area, the little ponies for the kids to ride. It had got everything.

I was very impressed of the detailing and originality of Marcos. Up to this point, it was quite a hard grasp for me to  make him sit and do a couple of math problems or simply read aloud a short story to practise his reading skills. “You could be an architect in the future, Marcos” I remarked. “Me? An architect? Are you crazy, teacher?!” he snorted, as if I was absolutely outside of my mind to think that he could be an architect.

A bit of this is what I see in the person of Zacchaeus.  I always found Zacchaeus as the short (Luke 19,v.3), fearful guy who was so worried about what people would think of him that he would mask himself and shyly climb a tree to be able to see Jesus. In my opinion, I think Zacchaeus had struggled all his life to be like the rest without being like the rest.  His stature forced him to excel on other things to prove his worth on something else besides his failed stature. As a way to compensate for this, he ends up being this powerful chief collector. He had been scarred all through his life by people that he wanted to get back at them by becoming the mean, wicked man who would be in charge of collecting the tribute to the Caesar. In a way he would have spent his young life,  just like Marcos, thinking “If they can’t love me for who I am, they will fear me and despise me. At least those are also feelings.” Again, this is simply a way I like seeing the Zacchaeus of Scriptures, but I could be easily wrong . Yet, it seems right to me that Zacchaeus would be this way; that he would want to know what’s going on and why so many people were following this somewhat prophet. It makes sense that only in this way he would be curious enough to go and climb a tree.  He was able to see Jesus, to know what’s going on, in other words, to be like everyone else, but at the same time, he would be remaining in his comfort zone. His status quo would then be that of being involved in a different way, pretending he does not care while actually caring.

The astonishing part of this piece of Scripture comes when Jesus actually notices his presence and not only does he notice but he talks to him. I love this part. In verse 5 we can read  “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today.” Jesus comes out of his way to reach him. He is graciously spotted out from among the crowds, despite of all that Zacchaeus thought he was: the proud, the sinner, the outcast, the short, the powerful, even the forgiven perhaps. Like Marcos’ incredulity at me suggesting him being an architect, Zacchaeus is having Jesus in his home, with incredulity and amazement.

It’s funny that in spite of how we see ourselves, God sees us through different lenses.  I think that whether you are a Zacchaeus or not, whether you are less or more than the rest in accordance to your self’-image, Jesus calls you by name and wants to live in your home.

In other parts of Scripture, the body is referred to as the house of someone.. Jesus wants to reside in your heart, in your life, in your home. He wants to be part of you.

Zacchaeus, out of such a generosity of Jesus wanting to dine with him, he responds with generosity: he wants to start giving part of his possessions to the poor. He extends his forgiveness to his surroundings.  “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham.  And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost.” says Jesus. I take two things from Jesus’ answer: first that the promise of Y’WH to Abraham is carried out through the New Testament, and even to this day and two, that salvation comes from Christ, accepting that he is Lord and Saviour of my life.

Furthermore, out of that salvation, freely given to me by Christ, I am prone to give life to others as well, just like Zacchaeus did.

I find it right for me to call to your response to Christ. He wants to become the whole in your life. He longs to extend his death and resurrection onto your life. Will you accept Christ today in your heart and proclaim that he is Lord and Saviour of all, of you?

Let me conclude this month’s message with an invitation for you to pray the following prayer, in other words, if you want to but do not really know how to welcome Christ in your heart, let me help you with a prayer I encourage students to talk to God with (please notice this is not some sort of magic formula that you pray and its magical words will make you saved; it is a prayer from your heart, the words are not that important)

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally.

Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.

I open the door of my life and receive you as my Saviour and Lord.

Thank you for forgiving me of my sins

and giving me Eternal Life.

Take control of the throne of my life.

Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

 Abba‘s Kid

* the name has been changed for security reasons.

Diversity in the body

” Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.” 1 Corinthians 12:14-25(taken from the NRS with Apocrypha version)

Prior to this part,  St. Paul explains to the church of Corinth that the gospel is supposed to reach Gentiles, that is pagans as well as the Jews albeit not in the same order( Jews first, then Gentiles). However, when reading this part above, it always reminds me of my role in Jesus’ church, in Jesus’ body. Yes, we are all the body of Christ but each part has a function, doesn’t it?

In any good classic fairy tale, each character has a specific  role in the plot, a function. Such is the importance of their roles that Russian professor Vladimir Propp came up with a list of functions within Russian folktales proving the relevance of each role. The list has 31 functions out of which it had to be followed in that specific order, or so it seemed.  Like tales, we too have some functions. Our roles are designed for a purpose, so when I read 1 Corinthians 14 onward, I cannot but think the role that we all have in the body of Christ.

“It’s like the body”, Paul says, “one can not expect the eye to be the whole because it is not the body but part of it; nor can we expect the ear to consider itself the whole body.” Yet all of our organs form the body, however different they may be.

Of course, my purpose is not more important than yours.  Paul says in verse 22 that the weaker is  indispensable. Back in 1993, I was given a book on bees for a school project. I learned then that there was a queen bee, a drone and a worker bee. I couldn’t quite get what was the point of a worker. I mean, they get all the hard work and all for the service of the queen really. So I asked my father, “Dad, why do workers exist, I mean, why are they not queens?” My father’s answer was, “Well, that’s what they do, they work. That’s what they’re there for.” If I had to choose, I would probably pick the drone but the truth is, our roles are given in accordance to our abilities. God gives us gifts so that we can be part of his plans and our gifts are indispensable, however poor, low, or useless they may seem. You may not be the brain but you may be the eyes, or mouth, or even the pinky nail. The freedom comes in our choice to accept our role no matter how irrelevant it may seem to us. What is my role in the body of Christ? What is your role in the body of Christ?

As I said before, prior to the former passage, St. Paul says that in the Spirit “we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (verse 13) For Paul, there were Gentiles and Jews, freemen vs. slaves which in our days would be like Catholics and Protestants, clergy and lay people.  I think these big names of our society are equal to gentiles and Jews, or free person and slave. At the same time, it is alright if you are not a pastor or an elder, a bishop or a  deacon; you can still execute a role within the body of Christ. God longs for your part in his body. He wants us to use our gifts in its full whatever that may be look like.  As Christians we ought to forget surnames (like Catholic, or Anglican, or Methodist…) or job positions (elder, pastor, priest, missionary) and really take up the responsibility of what we are called to do as the body of Christ. It is time for us to let the glory of Jesus’ body to boldly glow through us.

To achieve that, perhaps we  need to ask ourselves the question I raised before; what’s our role in the body of Christ: Where am I needed? Where and how can I give out my God-given gift? Where can the Holy Spirit use me? How can I show a gospel of life and freedom? In my mind I simply want to be a worker but in my heart I tend to act like the “king” bee. What kind of bee are you? And why or why not are you happy with the role you have been given? I don’t care what denomination you are or how “Christian” is your lineage. I want you to be part of Jesus’ body and find enjoyment in it.

My prayer for you today is that you find your role in his plans and enjoy being part of the body of Christ.

Abba’s Kid

the 4 breaks

Put very briefly and simply, many missionaries around the world explain the whole Bible message and our relationship with it through the 4 breaks. The logic is as follows:

To begin with, God created everything and thus human beings.

Us human beings through our free will decided to break our relationship with God (through the temptation of the devil and consequent disobedience of ours).

By breaking our connection with God, we hurt ourselves to the point of being broken with ourselves. So we’re broken inside.

Since I’m broken, and you are broken, our interactions can only be broken; hence the wars, and fights, and what not.

Since we are all broken, this rupture does trickle down to the Earth and we live in a broken earth.

Now Jesus Christ is sent for our own sake and salvation, i.e. our restoration with the Father. He dies for us and is ascended into heaven so that he talks in our behalf.

By accepting Christ as our Lord and saviour, we are welcome into heaven (we are restored from inside). By wanting to follow his steps on this earth, we are restored with one another and with the earth.

So consequently the breaks are these:

1. Break with God.

2. Break within ourselves.

3.Break with others.

4. Break with the World.

When explaining to anyone who is not a believer, one can start from any point really because they are interconnected and one person could actually relate more with how broken the world is, for instance, than with oneself, or the other way around. The point is to show how Jesus is so crucial to the restoration of everything.

I hope this helps you,

Abba’s Kid