What can the Church offer the Rich?

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And 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 and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him,“Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:1-10

As a pastor in Copenhagen, I often ponder what Jesus and his church have to offer such a rich and happy city as Copenhagen (at least according to the American newspaper The Economist).  What can we as churches and pastors say to the rich and wealthy in Jesus’ name?

In the Gospel according to Luke, the story about Zacchaeus gives us important evidence that rich and resourceful people can indeed feel their need for Jesus’ love and forgiveness. Luke 19 comes right after a series of stories in which Jesus explains that the rich (based on the example of the rich young ruler) may find it difficult to see their need for God’s kingdom (as difficult as getting a camel through the eye of a needle! Luke 18:18-30). This provokes a good question from Jesus’ disciples, “Who then can be saved?” (18:17). Luke then includes Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus as a good answer to the disciples’ doubt.

We can only experience true satisfaction when we find happiness and joy in God himself. That is what we are created for, and therefore even the richest people will experience a tremendous lack if they do not have a relationship and a love for God.

Also in chapter 18, we find the parable of a tax collector who is compared to a Pharisee who comes to the temple to pray and who, in many ways, is exactly the same kind of tax collector as Zacchaeus. One who can say,“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (v.13).

There are two points in the text that can help us in the church to take courage and continue to preach the gospel to the rich and wealthy:

• Childlike faith
• Demonstrable faith

Childlike faith is also for the rich

In the first few sentences of Luke 19, we learn three important details about Zacchaeus:

1. He was a chief tax collector and he was rich. As chief tax collector he had authority and even more opportunities for corruption than just a regular tax collector. And as we read later, it seems that he took full advantage of all the opportunities available.
2. He was short in stature. We can perhaps read between the lines what that might have meant (was there some bullying in his childhood? Did he perhaps have a Napoleon complex?), but it seems that Luke points out his childish height to prepare us for his childlike behaviour.
3. He was so excited about the opportunity to see Jesus that he was willing to run through the crowd and climb a tree! We can just imagine how remarkable it must have been for an adult official to behave so foolishly!

In chapter 18, Jesus has just emphasised that only those who come to him with childlike faith will enter the kingdom of God, and in the story of Zacchaeus we have a perfect illustration of this.

When a rich, high-status man grasps Jesus’ message—that all the material things he has cannot justify him before God and that a life that strives after money means missing out on the life God has designed for him—there can be a great emotional response and a realisation of how much time and energy has been wasted.

There often comes a search and hunger for something greater than oneself when one has achieved a certain material prosperity. John Piper writes in his book, Desiring God, that we can only experience true satisfaction when we find happiness and joy in God himself. That is what we are created for, and therefore even the richest people will experience a tremendous lack if they do not have a relationship and a love for God.

Demonstrable faith: When a rich person comes to faith, it is noticeable

After Jesus discovers Zacchaeus up in the large mulberry tree, he calls to him with the words “Hurry down!” Jesus invites himself to be a guest of this ‘sinful’ man. Zacchaeus is so grateful for the attention and relationship with which Jesus invites him that he is ready to repent and to immediately make right all the cheating and materialism of which he is guilty.

Now that he, a rich man, believes in Jesus, it is evident, demonstrable in his actions. He promises half the value of his property to the poor and that he will pay back double to all those he had extorted. He has realised how worthless money is in comparison to the kingdom of God and the treasure that is in knowing Jesus.

Who then can be saved?

But how does this kind of conversion story come about? What we see in the text is an almighty Jesus Christ who looks at a seeking sinner and calls him to himself! It is remarkable and also transgressive of cultural norms that Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’s home. He does not wait for a proper invitation to arrive in the post, he just comes! Here we see a Jesus who brings Zacchaeus to life through his own initiative. He saw into his heart that the Father was already working there, to will and work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).

So what about your mindset for mission? This story is given by God to encourage us in the service of the church in precisely the kind of soil we have in Denmark. So, pastor, take courage! And church-goers, keep going! Who knows, it could be you that God uses to invite the next Zacchaeus in your neighbourhood to come and see Jesus! For “what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).