Out on a Limb

Have you ever wanted to do something crazy or impulsive?  Take a risk? Be adventurous?  Most people may enjoy adventure between the covers of a page, but in reality, it’s not much fun.

Christians tend to get into adventures rather like Bilbo or Frodo Baggins in the books by Tolkien, quietly because they have to, not because they want to.  They take after Zacchaeus, our hero in Luke 19.  Climbing out on a limb, because he just had to see Jesus.  His need for connection outweighed his common sense, and he did something outrageous and scandalous.  Men didn’t have a lot of garments to protect their modesty back then.  It’s one thing to be a child that climbs trees, it’s totally different to be an adult doing it.  Even now, the sight of an adult in a tree, unless they are a logger, would probably have people questioning the sanity of the climber.  It’s noble and daring to climb a mountain as an adult, a tree, not so much.

Zacchaeus was not in the tree because he was a flasher or an exhibitionist with great legs.  He was there because he couldn’t see over the crowd.  He also had the physical disadvantage of being short, but he also had a job that made him an outcast in his society.  He was called a traitor for working as a tax collector for the Roman Government.  People shunned him, ignored him, and turned their backs on him.  It must have been very lonely.

So Zacchaeus went out on a limb to see Jesus, but then he almost fell out of the tree with excitement.  Jesus saw him and invited himself over for dinner.  People muttered their disapproval, and Zacchaeus, like someone meeting Taylor Swift or Tom Cruise for the first time, started babbling with excitement.  “Oh Jesus, this is what I do” and rattled off a list of how he tried to collect taxes fairly.  For those of you who like bible words, the ancient Greek doesn’t have one word for “I did” and another for “I do”, so we don’t know if Zacchaeus did all these good things in the past and is telling Jesus about it, or if Zacchaeus is telling Jesus how he will change his life in the future.  Either way, his words would have surprised the crowd that scorned him.

Was Zacchaeus changing his ways, or was Zacchaeus spilling how he was secretly undermining the system of Roman oppression from within?  We’ll never know, but it does make me wonder what impact his actions had.  He was a leader of tax collectors, and going out on a limb to handle people’s taxes fairly was not just about being a nice guy, it was about being radically focused on abundance, something that Jesus preached a lot about.  It’s at the heart of loving our neighbors, trusting that there is enough so that we don’t have to cheat or steal or lie about money.

It wasn’t just Zacchaeus doing something different, it also challenged the townspeople of Jericho, the ones who excluded Zacchaeus.  The ones who chose to believe he wasn’t good enough or didn’t deserve the attention of someone as honored and respected as Jesus.  The ones who were outraged that Jesus would turn that nasty tax collector into his dinner host.  It would be like if Taylor Swift met up with her fans then asked some stranger who had never heard of her to go partying with her after the concert!

Jesus went out on a limb for Zacchaeus.  He showed with his words and actions that this slimy little traitor was worthy of respect.  And he respected that Zacchaeus wasn’t afraid to look silly to get what he needed.

Most of the people that made a lasting impression on us were not afraid to go out on a limb for what they cared about.  Artists do it all the time, and the braver they are, the more they are respected.  We respect the Group of Seven, for example, because they went out on a limb for their art.  Even though people called their paintings ‘hot mush’ and ridiculed their riotous use of color and their rejection of traditional European styles, the Group of Seven didn’t stop experimenting.  We remember their adventurous spirit that had them travelling all across Canada to explore different landscapes. We remember these pioneers of Canadian art more than we remember their critics.

It's not easy going out on a limb, but when we live in interesting times, we are called to do just that. And today we pay our respects to others we remember who also did just that.  A United Church minister wrote, “While our denomination might not have an official… definition of what constitutes a saint, it is a universal human experience to hold in our hearts and memories people who have… made a difference in our lives... They may be loved ones whom we knew intimately, or they may be public figures we never met. All Souls’ Day contains room for all of us, broken and blessed… they were flawed, complex, imperfect humans who noticed a particular need or issue with piercing clarity and then stubbornly followed that clarity in ways that were inconvenient and exasperating for the authorities of their time and dangerous to themselves. How might we be called to be these kinds of saints?”

We live in challenging times.  God calls us to rise to those challenges, to see our neighbors as potential saints, and to go out on a limb for justice when human rights are being trampled.  When storms rage, when people are hungry, when disasters happen, when people are struggling with fear and anxiety, we are called to be a church of bold, daring and loving disciples. May we hear the call to go out on a limb, and love those who go out on the limb for us, that we may build a more beautiful world for all.