Bodies, Bodies, Bodies - Luke 19:1-10

When the lectionary comes around to the story of Zacchaeus, I usually spend the whole week humming the “wee little man” song we learned about him in Sunday school. You know the one. Zaccaheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. In retrospect, it’s a little problematic. There’s a clear double entendre. The song implies that Zacchaeus is small in both stature and virtue, and that somehow these things are related. As a very short person, I reject this notion. But I’ll admit that for most of my life, this the impression I had of Zacchaeus.

But in seminary, I took a biblical storytelling class. Perhaps you’ve heard me mention it before. It offered lots of future sermon fodder. It was held at Wesley Theological Seminary and the students came from all over the consortium of seminaries in the D.C. area. One of my fellow storytelling classmates was a Presbyterian gentleman who is one of the tallest men I have ever met. So you can imagine our amusement when he chose to perform the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. 

He fittingly took on the role of a narrator frustrated with the plight of height. He huffed and puffed as he explained that Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. Here he pointed away from himself to indicate that he was referring to Jesus being short in stature, not Zacchaeus. We all gasped delightedly, and his performance was a big hit. 

I have investigated the original Greek text of this passage more than once, and the syntax is just as ambiguous there as it is in the English translation. However, there are a few grammatical clues that have led scholars and translators throughout history to name Zacchaeus as the short character, much to my disappointment. Even so, my classmate’s unique depiction of this story made a lasting impression on me. It made me realize that this story is deeply embodied - where the bodies are placed and how they are observed matters. 

Jesus’ body has all the marks of rural poverty, yet it is the central focus of the crowd that is gathered. Presumably, Zacchaeus’ body benefits from life in a city with some financial security, yet he endures the potential indignity of climbing up a tree. Zacchaeus is marginalized in Roman society because he is Jewish, and he is marginalized by his religious society because he works for Rome. Yet Jesus looks upward toward him and directs the gaze of the crowd, including us, upward, too. 

If the placement of the bodies or how they are observed were to be switched in this story, as my seminary classmate suggested, the meaning of the story would also change. Luke is deliberately redirecting our focus. He wants us to see the irony of Jesus in the place of prominence despite his modest background. He wants us to feel the discomfort of standing beneath someone we usually look down on and look up to them instead. He wants us to be aware of the bodies we often overlook. 

I had a Zacchaeus moment myself, recently. My father and one of my brothers are both hard of hearing. Because of this, I’ve come to think of myself as somewhat sensitive to deaf experience and deaf culture. But this week, I read a book about a school for deaf students in Ohio. The book is called True Biz, by Sara Nović, and it showed me that I still have a lot to learn about deafness. I recommend it highly. Several of the students in the book rely on ASL and translators to communicate with hearing people, but they often find that hearing people choose to look only at the translator, and never at the person signing. As soon as I read it, I realized that I have done just that.

Because my father and brother lost their hearing as adults, they already had full command of English, which broadened their options for hearing aids and other devices. They do not speak ASL or rely on translators to communicate, so I am out of practice. I am guilty of ignoring the bodies of people who use sign language. I look at the translator who is speaking aloud instead of at the person signing, the person I’m actually communicating with. This led me to wonder, what other bodies do I ignore? What other groups of people do I look down on simply out of habit?  Where else do I need a wake-up call to redirect my focus?

The truth is we all need redirection every day. We need reminders to place ourselves in positions where can meet the living Christ. We could stand to examine our body language when we interact with with someone who asks us for some spare change in the parking lot of our church. We might be surprised to learn how our body placement makes others feel in places like the grocery store line, on a sidewalk walking our dogs, or even at coffee hour after worship. 

There is also a lesson in Zacchaeus’ story about corporate embodiment, how the whole body of the faithful places itself in relationship to the most vulnerable among us. How often do we as a local or global community elevate the poor, or the addicted, or the guilty, and look up to them, invite them to feast with us? Do we, instead, place poor, addicted, and guilty bodies in places where we do not have to look at them at all? What would a role reversal look like in our society? If a poor farmer or convicted thief were seated at the head of a conference table on the top floor of a downtown building, would we be able to see Christ at work there?

Finally, I believe Zacchaeus speaks to our own master planning process. How are we positioning ourselves as a worship community in downtown Little Rock? Which bodies are we elevating and which ones are we ignoring with our physical space, our programs, and our resources? What would a role reversal look like here at Christ Church? This is the careful, prayerful, faithful work we have embarked on. It is not merely theoretical, it is deeply embodied. 

It is a gift when the words of Holy Scripture can be brought off the page and into the world in a tangible way. My classmate brought the story of Zacchaeus to life for me in a way that Sunday school songs of my youth had not. And most importantly, it helped me to see that Luke’s message to us in this story is not just about our attitudes, it’s about our actions, where we place our bodies and how we observe the bodies of others. In his call to repent, Jesus is calling us not just to a reversal of mindset but a reversal of behavior. For when we begin to practice this way of life, we will glimpse the Kingdom of God. Amen.