The Verbs of Faith

This is in a sermon series based on passages from Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. Today’s reading is the familiar passage where the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus, climbs a tree to see Jesus, and Jesus calls him by name and says he will go to the house of Zacchaeus. The story is full of active verbs with Zacchaeus going quickly, climbing the tree, and so on. In Luke’s parables to this point, being rich is not a good thing, but with Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus, it turns out very well with the tax collector overjoyed and giving away his riches. The story evokes questions about our own reception of and reaction to the call of Jesus. How does our relationship with Jesus shape our own actions?