Who will you vote for?

Luke 19:1-10

November 7, 2004

Luke 19

¹He entered Jericho and was passing through it. ²A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵When 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.” ⁶So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸Zacchaeus 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.” ⁹Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Who did you vote for this past Tuesday?  Did you vote for the Republican slate or the Democratic slate?  Or did you vote for individual candidates, like George Bush for President and John Lynch for NH governor perhaps?

Whoever you voted for, you’ll be happy to know that those of you who voted in New Hampshire, participated in some of the highest percentages in voter turnout in the entire country. 

77 percent of eligible voters in Minnesota cast ballots – (the highest of any state in the Union), 74 percent of those eligible voted in Wisconsin and 72 percent did so in New Hampshire.

Overall, national turnout was about 60 percent of eligible voters.  That's the highest percentage that’s turned out nationally since 1968.[1]

But even when lots of people get out to vote, the decisions they make aren’t always the best.

In 1883 in Allentown, New Jersey, a wooden Indian -- the kind that was seen in front of cigar stores -- was placed on the ballot for Justice of the Peace. The candidate was registered under the fictitious name of Abner Robbins. When the ballots were counted, Abner won over incumbent Sam Davis by 7 votes. A similar thing happened in 1938. The name Boston Curtis appeared on the ballot for Republican Committeeman from Wilton, Washington. Actually, Boston Curtis was a mule. The town's mayor sponsored the animal to demonstrate that people know very little about the candidates. He proved his point. The mule won! [2]

Often elections are about who’s name sounds cutest, who looks the part, who looks “most presidential” or has the best features for television.

Even I voted for someone named “granny” on the  ballot this past Tuesday.  I was laughing as I did it - probably not very responsible of me, was it?  But more than anything else, elections are all about politics.  “That’s no big surprise,” you may say, “Of course elections are about politics!”  But what I mean is, elections are seldom about who folks think might do the best job, but who is most similar to the person voting.

African Americans would vote for African American candidates, wealthy candidates vote for the candidate who will help them get richer.  Women often vote for women candidates, and young people for younger candidates.  Folks vote for whomever makes them feel the best, to whomever they relate best, to whomever might protect them and their interests.  Its rarely about who might be the best person for the job, overall.  I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  It’s just the way it is.

In a dictionary I looked at, one definition listed for politician was “office holder more interested in advancing the fortunes of his party than in the general welfare.”  Another was, “one who seeks to advance himself by political intrigue.”  A definition for the word politics was “intrigue used to gain one’s ends.”[3] 

For instance.  Who do you think Zacchaeus would vote for?  Zacchaeus was a tax collector.  He was a Hebrew.  He worked for the Romans.  He was very wealthy and he must have been very shrewd to have become so wealthy.  In those days, a person was given the position of tax collector, but they were not given a tax code.  There was no law which said if you make this much, you must pay this much.  Or if you work in this industry you get these breaks or must pay the Roman government this type of tax.  A resourceful, connected individual would be given the position of tax collector and he was given every advantage, including the name and power of the Roman authority, to become an entrepreneur, an innovator and a scoundrel if necessary to squeeze out of folks the very last ounce of gold or silver.

This was what Zacchaeus was.  A bit like the one guy on vacation on a distant island strolling along outside his hotel. He heard the screams of a woman kneeling in front of a child. The man knew enough of the local language to determine that the boy had swallowed a coin. Seizing the child by the heels, the man held him up, gave him a few shakes, and an American quarter dropped to the sidewalk. “Oh, thank you sir!” cried the woman. “You seemed to know just how to get it out of him. Are you a doctor?” “No, ma’am,” replied the man. “I’m with the United States Internal Revenue Service.”

This was Zacchaeus. A shake down artist. A man who could get the last quarter out of you.[4]

If given the opportunity, who do you think he would vote for?  The Hebrew candidate that represented his people?  Or the Roman candidate, come from a far away land to subjugate and dominate his own homeland?  Would he vote for a poor person, a person who had no money, but would work hard to help the locals get their due?  Or would he vote for a wealthy person, who would protect the wealth of the rich, the system as it stood, which subjugated the local people and pushed the poor out of the way to get ahead themselves?

Would he vote Republican or Democrat?  Roman or Hebrew?  To help the poor or to help himself?  You’d think he’d vote for himself, for his own interest, for his own good, he would vote his pocketbook, his own wallet, his own bottom line.  After all, that’s what would have gotten him to where he was, a wealthy tax collector, unpopular but very, very comfortable and well off.

Maybe that day as Zacchaeus was walking along the street, he was off to vote, well if ot to mark a ballot on some Tuesday morning or afternoon, maybe to vote with a payment to another political official, maybe he was on his way to collecting a nice large sum for a wealthy businessman, thus boiting for the Roman government and himself, not voting with a ballot, but choosing himself and his corrupt selfish bosses in Rome.  He didn’t live in a Democratic land, but he voted with his feet, with his resources, his time, his abilities and his money.  He chose whom he supported, which national agenda, which political power, which person in power, not with a ballot, but with everything he was and did, much like each of us do, every other day of our lives that weren’t election days.  And as he was walking down the street to strike his vote without a ballot, this crowd of people began to approach him and somewhere in the middle of the throng was Jesus.

Lets pick up from verse 3:

“He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.”

Now can you imagine this?  The chief tax collector, with all his fine clothes, his jewelry and his high flying plans of money and wealth-making shimmying up a tree.  He was short, maybe he was trying to avoid being trampled by that crowd and thought he’d try to get a glimpse of this Jesus while he was up so high. And what happened while he was there?

⁵When 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.” ⁶So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.

Before he went up that tree, who do you think he would have voted for?  Probably not th emob, the poor folks following Jesus from place to place, the Hebrews and local people that he had taken advantage of for so long, the people who speak up in verse 7:

⁷All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”

He’s being accused by these ordinary people, by the crowd, by the mob.  But now instead of voting for himself, instead of saying to Jesus, “Oh don’t listen to them, they’re nothing. You stick with me.  I’ll feed you a feast and show you a good time.”  He’s somehow convicted and chagrined in the presence of Jesus.  He realizes something’s been wrong all these years and he changes his vote.  He doesn’t vote for his own, those who would protect his wealth, his material interests, his fortune.  Verse 8 says:

⁸Zacchaeus 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.”

He’s changed his vote.  He’s voted for the Hebrew folk, for the poor, he’s acting totally uncharacteristically.  He’s flip-flopped!  Why?  Because he’s come into the presence of something he hadn’t counted on, he’s been met with a person, with a force, an emissary from above, whom he never expected and he’s suddenly becoming a different person.

This isn’t about being Democrat or Republican, about voting Roman or Hebrew, rich or poor, selfish or selfless, its about being selected himself.

Jesus has cast a ballot for him!

Jesus is the one who calls him out of the tree and alls him to be hospitable, to repent and to do the right thing.  And Jesus doesn’t vote rich or poor, Hebrew or Roman, Republican or Democrat, he votes for them all, he chooses them all and he calls them all, if only they’ll listen.

There was a little boy who got separated from his parents in a large shopping center. The Security Department quickly located the child, and took him to an office while the frantic parents were paged over the public address. One of the security guards got a large ice cream cone for the boy, so when his parents arrived at the office, there was their little son happily eating his ice cream. Suddenly, as his parents embraced him, the child burst into tears. One of the security guards said, "Gosh, I guess he didn't know he was lost until he was found!"[5]

Zacchaeus didn’t know he was lost till he was found, till he was selected by Jesus himself, until Jesus cast his ballot for Zacchaeus.  And once he met Jesus in this way, then he couldn’t help but to vote for Jesus in response.  Regardless of who you voted for on Tuesday, who will you vote for?

C.S. Lewis the great British professor and theologian says this about Jesus.  He says that in the incarnation, Jesus was like a diver. He is God in heaven looking down into this dark, slimy, murky water. That's our sinful, polluted world. God dives in, He gets himself wet. And then God came up again, dripping, but holding the precious thing he went down to recover. That precious thing was Zacchaeus, and you and me. All those sinners who have trusted in Christ.[6]  Christ descended down beneath the surface of heaven into this realm and rescued us. 

God rescues us and when we realize it, when we encounter Jesus like Zacchaeus did, then we are free to choose.  Who will we vote for now, now that the election is behind us, now that Jesus has chosen each of us?