One of Luke’s quirks is his tendency to “tell the story twice.” Sometimes, he actually recounts the exact same story twice (see Acts 10 and 11), but usually he does this by putting two similar stories in parallel with one another. These “doublets” reinforce and clarify one another through their similarities and differences.
For example, Luke opens with two women with a miraculous baby—Mary and Elizabeth. Two people sing a song of praise because of these miraculous babies—Mary and Zechariah. Two prophets greet Jesus in the temple as an infant—Simeon and Anna. Acts itself is the story of the ministries of two men—Peter and Paul. Luke loves doublets!
Zacchaeus is a part of three doublets. He is the second of two tax-collectors who turn to Jesus. Given that the first (Levi) became one of the twelve disciples, the reader should wonder whether Zacchaeus actually left his home to follow Jesus as well. Perhaps he was one of the 120 at Pentecost? He is also the second of two wealthy men to be confronted over his wealth (see Luke 18:18-25), but unlike the first, he was willing to give his wealth away.
The other doublet that Zacchaeus participates in is fascinating! He is one of two people who interact with Jesus in Jericho (read Luke 18:35-19:10 straight through to see the parallels and contrasts). The first is a blind beggar, and the second is Zacchaeus. One rich and one poor. Both outcasts, but for different reasons. But perhaps most importantly, both blind and yet wanting to see. That Zacchaeus is blind is evident in the repetition of words for seeing in his story (5 times in 10 verses), but even more so in the tree he had to climb. Like the blind beggar, he wanted to see!
Luke is hinting at something in this doublet of the blind beggar and Zacchaeus. Two men who receive mercy, two men who are healed, two men who receive salvation—yet they have only one thing in common. They aren’t alike in any other way except that they want to see Jesus! Luke’s message for us is clear: Our goal should be to see Jesus at all costs, even if it means looking like a fool on the side of the road who is screaming at Jesus or another fool on the side of the road up in a tree. Seeing Jesus is more important than anything else.
Steven+
The Feasts of the Church
There are seven principal feasts in the Church calendar: Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Christmas, Epiphany, and All Saints’ Day. Three of these—Easter, Pentecost, and Trinity—always occur on a Sunday, which means we mark them in worship at church. Our new practice of having a church birthday dinner on Epiphany means that it is marked by celebration together. And even when it doesn’t occur on Sunday, no one skips Christmas! But Ascension and All Saints’ Day frequently go unnoticed.
The ideal for all of these feast days is both worship and celebration, but we only hit the ideal on Christmas and Easter. Most of us have probably never thought about having a feast on Pentecost or Trinity Sunday (If we feast to celebrate the incarnation or resurrection, why wouldn’t we feast to celebrate the giving of the Spirit?), and most of us probably don’t even remember when All Saints’ Day or Ascension Day happens.
The staff at Incarnation has been talking about beginning to mark each of these feasts in some fashion. We are creatures of days, seasons, and time who are shaped by our practices and habits. Each season of the year shapes our hearts and our minds. Our holidays both reveal what we value and transform us over time. This is why worship and celebration are the ideal practices for Christian feast days. Our hearts are revealed and shaped by what we choose to do on the days that commemorate what God has done for us.
Next week, on November 1, we will worship on All Saints’ Day for the first time. Our first step will be incredibly modest—a short Eucharist service at noon. But this simple step is a decision to mark this day with worship.
All Saints’ is the feast day that celebrates what God has done in the lives of those who have gone before us. Each of us has people in our families whose testimony has shaped us. Each of us likely has saints from ages past whom we admire. We need a day devoted to remembering what God did in their lives, and the appropriate first step is to gather and worship that day.
Because this feast day doesn’t usually occur on Sunday, we recognize that most people won’t be able to come. If you can’t come to the church, spend time in prayer at some point during the day thanking God for those who have gone before you in the faith. And if you can come, join us at noon on Tuesday for a short service!
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
There is an inherent tension in the parable of the persistent widow (Lk. 18:1-8), which we read on Sunday. On the one hand, Jesus says that God will give justice speedily—he won’t delay long over the pleas of his people. And yet the people are described as those who “cry to him day and night,” and the parable concludes with the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
How do we reconcile these two things? God won’t delay, but some people will lose faith while waiting! God will act speedily, yet his people cry day and night! The two perspectives—God’s quick answer and our wait in faith and frequent prayer—seem to be at odds with each other, and we need the preceding context to see how they fit together.
This parable is the end of Jesus’ answer to a question about when God’s kingdom would come. The beginning of his answer is, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed…, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Lk. 17:20-21). In other words, when asked about the coming of the kingdom, Jesus says, “You won’t see it with your eyes; in fact, it is already among you!”
Jesus says a lot more, but his answer begins with a premise—the kingdom is coming and is already here, yet you can’t see it with your eyes. It is this premise that explains the tension in the parable. God is not delaying, because the kingdom is already here, and yet his people must wait in prayer, because the kingdom is not yet fully visible. It takes faith to see the kingdom of God.
This answer explains the life of the Christian. We are new creations, fully forgiven, joined to the body of Christ, and filled with the Spirit! Yet we can’t see all of this visibly, and we must wait in prayerful faith for the time when these things will be revealed to our eyes. God is not delaying, because the kingdom is already here! These things are already true, yet we still wait for when what is true will be seen.
Living in this tension is difficult! Jesus’ final question (“Will the Son of Man find faith on earth?”) reveals that he understood the difficulty of living according to what cannot be seen. It is easy to lose faith when we cannot see what has already occurred. But his reassurance is also clear: Even a bad judge can be coerced into giving justice. Therefore God, who alone is good (Lk. 18:19), will certainly answer your prayers! Keep praying in faith!
Steven+