a guideline number three in the official
TED talk content guidelines says no
religious proselytizing I get that I
think it’s a legitimate reason that’s
not why we have TED Talks
I understand that guideline I intend to
abide by that guideline but I’m also
going to tell you a Bible story this is
my favorite Bible story it comes from
the first eight verses of the 19th
chapter of the Gospel of Luke Jesus
entered Jericho and was passing through
it a man was there named Zacchaeus he
was 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
Zacchaeus stood there and said to the
Lord look half 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 that’s the whole
story it’s a great story I told you that
story because I think it’s a really good
story about including someone who has
been marginalized and prevented from
participating in a particular community
so I’m going to tell the story again but
this time I invite you to hear the story
as a story about inclusion first one
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing
through it this is a helpful way to
begin the story because it suggests to
that this particular story that we’re
talking about now is part of a much
bigger story there’s more going on than
just the specific thing we’re talking
about here in chapter 19
so Jesus entered Jericho and he was
passing through it there’s also motion
in this story there’s stuff going on
it’s a dynamic story things are
happening that day there in Jericho
verse 2 a man was there named Zacchaeus
he was chief tax collector and was rich
so now in verse 2 the narrator
introduces us to this new character sach
kiss and he immediately tells us two
categories that Zacchaeus fits into he
says he’s chief tax collector and he’s
rich well if we were a first century
audience here in this story for the
first time are reading this story for
the first time we would have learned a
lot about Zacchaeus based just on that
description we would have known that
anybody in Jericho in the first century
who was a tax collector would have been
working for the Roman Empire would have
been working for the army that was
occupying Judea at that time so the REA
wets the way the Romans worked the
Romans needed money to fund their empire
and part of the way they raised money
was by levying taxes in among the people
in the areas that they’d conquered so
what they do is find willing individuals
in those areas and make them tax
collectors they set them up and say okay
you’re gonna owe us a certain amount of
money every year per person in your area
and we’re gonna use our army to back you
up if you try to get Texas that we’re
living and if you want to collect a
little bit more than what you’re gonna
owe to us that’s fine we’ll back you up
that way our army will still back you up
and that’s how you got to be a rich tax
collector in 1st century Judea by
collecting more money from your
neighbors than you owed to the Romans
and any 1st century audience would have
known this about Zacchaeus just by this
verse – in this story so already at the
end of verse 2 Zacchaeus is going to be
an unpopular guy nobody’s going to like
him they all recognize that this guy
as a lousy stinking sinner verse 3 but
this lousy stinking sinner he was trying
to see who Jesus was but on the count of
the crowd he could not because he was
short in stature it’s an interesting
twist in the story maybe a little bit of
sympathetic treatment of Zacchaeus he’s
at least interested in seeing who Jesus
is that maybe is a little bit of
surprise but we learned that that’s what
he wants to do but he’s having trouble
the reason he’s having trouble is
because he’s vertically challenged and
so he’s here he’s trying to see Jesus
but apparently all of his tacky
neighbors that don’t really like him
they’re not going to move over so that
the short guy can see so now we’ve
learned three categories here by the end
of verse three we have learned already
about Zacchaeus that he’s chief tax
collector and he’s rich and we know what
that means and we’ve also learned that
he’s short in stature so that’s where we
are at the end of verse three we go to
verse four that kiss ran ahead and
climbed a tree so he gets seen because
he knew was going to pass that way so
Zacchaeus who can’t get his neighbor’s
to move over so you can see tries to
take steps he runs ahead to this place
where he knows Jesus is going to go he
climbs up in the tree he’s just trying
to see Jesus he’s just trying to access
that story that narrative that’s taking
place in Jericho so my whole point today
depends on our understanding right here
at the end of verse four that when verse
four ends Zacchaeus is a marginalized
person it’s hard it’s hard maybe to
think about the rich guy being
marginalized it’s hard to think
sometimes about an agent of the
government being marginalized but in the
particular context of this story the way
Luke tells us this story we need to
understand at the end of verse 4 that
Zacchaeus
is marginalized he is being prevented
from being a full participant in the
community that he’s part of and the
reason that’s important is because Jesus
is going to do something in verse 5 that
I think has great value for any of us
who are interested in including
personalized persons in our particular
contexts verse five when he get when he
came to the place Jesus looked up and
said to him Zacchaeus hurry and come
down for I must stay at your house today
that’s the whole verse but look at all
that’s going on in that verse when he
came to the place Jesus looked up that’s
very important Jesus is not just focused
on the road in front of him he’s not
checking his messages he’s not marking
stuff off of his to-do list he’s not
just staring at the road in front of him
and listening to a podcast on his
earbuds Jesus as he’s going along looks
up he looks around he recognizes what’s
going on in his environment and this is
a great lesson for all of us who are
interested in including marginalized
persons in our own context part of what
we learned from this story is that
sometimes marginalization is obvious it
takes place right in our faces but not
always sometimes instances of exclusion
and marginalization are going on on the
periphery we who are interested in
including marginalized persons need to
be diligent about watching for instances
of marginalization and exclusion we need
to follow Jesus’s lead and look up and
look around next thing that happens in
verse 5 jesus comes to the place he
looked up and he said to him Zack kiss
that’s huge
Jesus gets to the place he looks up and
he calls that kiss by his name he does
not look up in that tree and say yo pili
he doesn’t look up in grin and sing a
couple of verses of the Beatles taxman
song you know Jesus gets to this place
he looks around he looks up and looks
around he knows what’s going on and then
he calls Zacchaeus by his name he does
not treat him in the categories that we
already know that he’s a representative
of similarly the lesson that we need to
learn is that we need to be diligent
about not treating people just as
generic representatives of categories we
need to remember that everybody is a
whole person with a whole name now
categories are fine categories are good
sometimes our brains all the time we’d
like to take information gather it
together put it in patterns and orders
that’s helpful because it keeps us from
having to think about everything at once
categories are fine but we have to be
careful about drawing generalizations
and conclusions about individual people
just based on the categories that they
fit into Tom Cruise and I are two white
men who were born within a hundred and
twenty days of each other in 1962
knowing that doesn’t tell you very much
about him or about me but cut him some
slack he’s doing the best he can so
Jesus comes to the place he looks up he
calls that kiss by name he says to him
Zacchaeus hurry and come down for I must
stay at your house today so after he
gets to the place after he looks up and
recognizes the guy in the tree after he
calls him by his name and doesn’t just
treat him as a generic representative of
categories the next thing Jesus does in
this verse is invite Zacchaeus to come
down out of the audience and get into
the story he looks up and invites him to
come down and play a particular role to
come down and share a gift that only he
can share in this story again I hope
this is an obvious lesson for all of us
who are interested in including
marginalized persons not only do we need
to look up and look around not only do
we need to call people by names
recognize that everybody is a whole
person with a whole name but we also
need to be about inviting the
marginalized persons that we encounter
invite them to come out of the audience
and to take their place in the story
inviting them to identify and share the
particular gifts that they have to share
in our larger common narrative so Jesus
does those three excellent things in
verse 5 jesus looks up he calls that
kiss by his name and he invites him to
share his gifts verse 6 so that kids
came down and was happy welcoming that
kiss is excited Jesus stops and he looks
at it exactly as he is ready Jesus stops
he looks up he calls him by his name he
says hurry has come down and immediately
that kiss comes running down he is ready
for this opportunity that he has to play
his role in this story so Jesus hurried
down and he was happy to welcome him it
feels really good to be noticed and to
be addressed by name and to be invited
out of the audience and into the story
to be invited to share your gifts makes
sense
Zacchaeus is loving this in verse 6 the
attackee neighbors have a different idea
all who saw it began to grumble and said
he is gone to be the guest of one who is
a sinner this is that kiss his
neighbor’s trying to put him back into
the categories that they’ve used to
limit him this whole time they’re
resisting this notion that Zacchaeus is
anybody other than who they already had
decided he was a long time ago I did
some research
getting ready for this talk and I came
across a particular phrase in my
research that I think is helpful for us
as we try to understand exactly what’s
going on here in verse 6 so based on my
extensive research I think the best
conclusion related to this verse 7 is
haters going to hate
it’s important for us sometimes when we
are in the business sometimes when we
are trying to be diligent about
including marginalized people in our own
context others are going to push back
against us others are going to try to
put people back into the situations that
okay so that’s going to happen that
shouldn’t stop the important work that
we have of including marginalized
persons haters going to hate we got work
to do it doesn’t matter
first hate that kids 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 that’s the end of the story
this is Zacchaeus at the end of the
story saying okay I get it I’m going to
share my stuff I’m going to clean up the
messes that I’ve made but it’s important
for us to understand in this story that
is that kiss doesn’t do this so that
Jesus or anybody else will notice him or
call him by his name or invite him into
the story all those things have already
happened back in verse five Zach his is
vowing to be a happy generous full
participant in the community in response
to the experience that he’s already had
of being identified and addressed by
name and invited into the story you know
I think this is a huge lesson for all of
us who are interested in including
marginalized persons that kiss was a
marginalized person at the end of verse
four nobody would move over so he could
even see here now in verse eight he is a
full happy generous participant in the
story and the difference the change in
the story is what happened in verse five
we were need to remember the lessons
that we’ve learned from Jesus’s behavior
in verse 5
Jesus looked up he calls that kids by
name and he invited him to share his
gifts it seems to me that we can all
take that away from this story we’re all
in all of our efforts to include
marginalized persons in our own context
we
also can and should look up and no names
and call forth yes let’s do that thank you
TED talk content guidelines says no
religious proselytizing I get that I
think it’s a legitimate reason that’s
not why we have TED Talks
I understand that guideline I intend to
abide by that guideline but I’m also
going to tell you a Bible story this is
my favorite Bible story it comes from
the first eight verses of the 19th
chapter of the Gospel of Luke Jesus
entered Jericho and was passing through
it a man was there named Zacchaeus he
was 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
Zacchaeus stood there and said to the
Lord look half 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 that’s the whole
story it’s a great story I told you that
story because I think it’s a really good
story about including someone who has
been marginalized and prevented from
participating in a particular community
so I’m going to tell the story again but
this time I invite you to hear the story
as a story about inclusion first one
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing
through it this is a helpful way to
begin the story because it suggests to
that this particular story that we’re
talking about now is part of a much
bigger story there’s more going on than
just the specific thing we’re talking
about here in chapter 19
so Jesus entered Jericho and he was
passing through it there’s also motion
in this story there’s stuff going on
it’s a dynamic story things are
happening that day there in Jericho
verse 2 a man was there named Zacchaeus
he was chief tax collector and was rich
so now in verse 2 the narrator
introduces us to this new character sach
kiss and he immediately tells us two
categories that Zacchaeus fits into he
says he’s chief tax collector and he’s
rich well if we were a first century
audience here in this story for the
first time are reading this story for
the first time we would have learned a
lot about Zacchaeus based just on that
description we would have known that
anybody in Jericho in the first century
who was a tax collector would have been
working for the Roman Empire would have
been working for the army that was
occupying Judea at that time so the REA
wets the way the Romans worked the
Romans needed money to fund their empire
and part of the way they raised money
was by levying taxes in among the people
in the areas that they’d conquered so
what they do is find willing individuals
in those areas and make them tax
collectors they set them up and say okay
you’re gonna owe us a certain amount of
money every year per person in your area
and we’re gonna use our army to back you
up if you try to get Texas that we’re
living and if you want to collect a
little bit more than what you’re gonna
owe to us that’s fine we’ll back you up
that way our army will still back you up
and that’s how you got to be a rich tax
collector in 1st century Judea by
collecting more money from your
neighbors than you owed to the Romans
and any 1st century audience would have
known this about Zacchaeus just by this
verse – in this story so already at the
end of verse 2 Zacchaeus is going to be
an unpopular guy nobody’s going to like
him they all recognize that this guy
as a lousy stinking sinner verse 3 but
this lousy stinking sinner he was trying
to see who Jesus was but on the count of
the crowd he could not because he was
short in stature it’s an interesting
twist in the story maybe a little bit of
sympathetic treatment of Zacchaeus he’s
at least interested in seeing who Jesus
is that maybe is a little bit of
surprise but we learned that that’s what
he wants to do but he’s having trouble
the reason he’s having trouble is
because he’s vertically challenged and
so he’s here he’s trying to see Jesus
but apparently all of his tacky
neighbors that don’t really like him
they’re not going to move over so that
the short guy can see so now we’ve
learned three categories here by the end
of verse three we have learned already
about Zacchaeus that he’s chief tax
collector and he’s rich and we know what
that means and we’ve also learned that
he’s short in stature so that’s where we
are at the end of verse three we go to
verse four that kiss ran ahead and
climbed a tree so he gets seen because
he knew was going to pass that way so
Zacchaeus who can’t get his neighbor’s
to move over so you can see tries to
take steps he runs ahead to this place
where he knows Jesus is going to go he
climbs up in the tree he’s just trying
to see Jesus he’s just trying to access
that story that narrative that’s taking
place in Jericho so my whole point today
depends on our understanding right here
at the end of verse four that when verse
four ends Zacchaeus is a marginalized
person it’s hard it’s hard maybe to
think about the rich guy being
marginalized it’s hard to think
sometimes about an agent of the
government being marginalized but in the
particular context of this story the way
Luke tells us this story we need to
understand at the end of verse 4 that
Zacchaeus
is marginalized he is being prevented
from being a full participant in the
community that he’s part of and the
reason that’s important is because Jesus
is going to do something in verse 5 that
I think has great value for any of us
who are interested in including
personalized persons in our particular
contexts verse five when he get when he
came to the place Jesus looked up and
said to him Zacchaeus hurry and come
down for I must stay at your house today
that’s the whole verse but look at all
that’s going on in that verse when he
came to the place Jesus looked up that’s
very important Jesus is not just focused
on the road in front of him he’s not
checking his messages he’s not marking
stuff off of his to-do list he’s not
just staring at the road in front of him
and listening to a podcast on his
earbuds Jesus as he’s going along looks
up he looks around he recognizes what’s
going on in his environment and this is
a great lesson for all of us who are
interested in including marginalized
persons in our own context part of what
we learned from this story is that
sometimes marginalization is obvious it
takes place right in our faces but not
always sometimes instances of exclusion
and marginalization are going on on the
periphery we who are interested in
including marginalized persons need to
be diligent about watching for instances
of marginalization and exclusion we need
to follow Jesus’s lead and look up and
look around next thing that happens in
verse 5 jesus comes to the place he
looked up and he said to him Zack kiss
that’s huge
Jesus gets to the place he looks up and
he calls that kiss by his name he does
not look up in that tree and say yo pili
he doesn’t look up in grin and sing a
couple of verses of the Beatles taxman
song you know Jesus gets to this place
he looks around he looks up and looks
around he knows what’s going on and then
he calls Zacchaeus by his name he does
not treat him in the categories that we
already know that he’s a representative
of similarly the lesson that we need to
learn is that we need to be diligent
about not treating people just as
generic representatives of categories we
need to remember that everybody is a
whole person with a whole name now
categories are fine categories are good
sometimes our brains all the time we’d
like to take information gather it
together put it in patterns and orders
that’s helpful because it keeps us from
having to think about everything at once
categories are fine but we have to be
careful about drawing generalizations
and conclusions about individual people
just based on the categories that they
fit into Tom Cruise and I are two white
men who were born within a hundred and
twenty days of each other in 1962
knowing that doesn’t tell you very much
about him or about me but cut him some
slack he’s doing the best he can so
Jesus comes to the place he looks up he
calls that kiss by name he says to him
Zacchaeus hurry and come down for I must
stay at your house today so after he
gets to the place after he looks up and
recognizes the guy in the tree after he
calls him by his name and doesn’t just
treat him as a generic representative of
categories the next thing Jesus does in
this verse is invite Zacchaeus to come
down out of the audience and get into
the story he looks up and invites him to
come down and play a particular role to
come down and share a gift that only he
can share in this story again I hope
this is an obvious lesson for all of us
who are interested in including
marginalized persons not only do we need
to look up and look around not only do
we need to call people by names
recognize that everybody is a whole
person with a whole name but we also
need to be about inviting the
marginalized persons that we encounter
invite them to come out of the audience
and to take their place in the story
inviting them to identify and share the
particular gifts that they have to share
in our larger common narrative so Jesus
does those three excellent things in
verse 5 jesus looks up he calls that
kiss by his name and he invites him to
share his gifts verse 6 so that kids
came down and was happy welcoming that
kiss is excited Jesus stops and he looks
at it exactly as he is ready Jesus stops
he looks up he calls him by his name he
says hurry has come down and immediately
that kiss comes running down he is ready
for this opportunity that he has to play
his role in this story so Jesus hurried
down and he was happy to welcome him it
feels really good to be noticed and to
be addressed by name and to be invited
out of the audience and into the story
to be invited to share your gifts makes
sense
Zacchaeus is loving this in verse 6 the
attackee neighbors have a different idea
all who saw it began to grumble and said
he is gone to be the guest of one who is
a sinner this is that kiss his
neighbor’s trying to put him back into
the categories that they’ve used to
limit him this whole time they’re
resisting this notion that Zacchaeus is
anybody other than who they already had
decided he was a long time ago I did
some research
getting ready for this talk and I came
across a particular phrase in my
research that I think is helpful for us
as we try to understand exactly what’s
going on here in verse 6 so based on my
extensive research I think the best
conclusion related to this verse 7 is
haters going to hate
it’s important for us sometimes when we
are in the business sometimes when we
are trying to be diligent about
including marginalized people in our own
context others are going to push back
against us others are going to try to
put people back into the situations that
okay so that’s going to happen that
shouldn’t stop the important work that
we have of including marginalized
persons haters going to hate we got work
to do it doesn’t matter
first hate that kids 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 that’s the end of the story
this is Zacchaeus at the end of the
story saying okay I get it I’m going to
share my stuff I’m going to clean up the
messes that I’ve made but it’s important
for us to understand in this story that
is that kiss doesn’t do this so that
Jesus or anybody else will notice him or
call him by his name or invite him into
the story all those things have already
happened back in verse five Zach his is
vowing to be a happy generous full
participant in the community in response
to the experience that he’s already had
of being identified and addressed by
name and invited into the story you know
I think this is a huge lesson for all of
us who are interested in including
marginalized persons that kiss was a
marginalized person at the end of verse
four nobody would move over so he could
even see here now in verse eight he is a
full happy generous participant in the
story and the difference the change in
the story is what happened in verse five
we were need to remember the lessons
that we’ve learned from Jesus’s behavior
in verse 5
Jesus looked up he calls that kids by
name and he invited him to share his
gifts it seems to me that we can all
take that away from this story we’re all
in all of our efforts to include
marginalized persons in our own context
we
also can and should look up and no names
and call forth yes let’s do that thank you
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