Wisdom 11:22-12:2 / 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 / Luke 19:1-10
Well, to begin with, I must say that we should be happy.
Yes, happy and thankful.
Simply because, just about a week ago, things looked hazy.
Remember the haze? That was only a week ago.
Yes, just a week ago, it was hazy, it was humid, and the air was heavy.
But with the wind and the rains, the air was cleared, and we should be happy and thankful.
So since we are in a happy mood, since I am in a happy mood, let me tell you a couple of jokes ok, to make you happier.
A woman went to see her doctor and complained of an embarrassing problem.
She said: Doctor, I have a serious flatulence problem. I fart all the time. But they are soundless and have no smell. In fact, since I’ve been here, I farted no less than 20 times.
So the doctor said: Ok, so here’s the prescription. Take these pills 3 times a day for seven days. After that come back and see me.
Well, after a week, the woman stormed into the doctor’s office and said: Doctor, I don’t know what was in those pills, but the problem got worse. I am farting just as much and now they smell terrible. What is this?!?
The doctor said: Ok ok, calm down, calm down. Now that I have cured your sinuses, I will work on your hearing, ok?
If jokes have a moral, than the moral of the joke is this: You will only know what is your real problem when you get someone else to see it for you.
Here is the second joke: A man was talking to his wife about the idea of living and dying.
He said to her: My dear, never let me live in a vegetative state, totally dependent on machines and liquid from a bottle.
If you see me in that state, I want you to disconnect all the contraptions that are keeping me alive. I would rather die.
The wife looked at him admiringly and said: Ok, I’ll do that.
And then she went to disconnect the TV, the cable, the DVD, the computer, the laptop, the smart phone, the Xbox, the play station and then she went to the fridge and threw away all the beer.
Well as for the man… he nearly died!
Jokes make us laugh because there is always something witty in a joke.
There is a twist in the story that brings about some humour.
Today’s gospel might sound like just another gospel story to us.
But for the crowd, the onlookers in the gospel story, it was like a very bad joke, something that they did not expect and something that they didn’t like.
As the story began, all seemed quite normal, and then there was that senior tax collector, Zacchaeus climbing up a sycamore tree to get a better view of Jesus.
As the story went on, Jesus reached the spot, looked up and saw Zacchaeus and said: Zacchaeus, come down.
From here on, what the crowds expected was a pay-back time.
It was a perfect occasion for Jesus to teach Zacchaeus a public lesson, and a condemnation on injustice and exploitation, and impending punishment.
Or at least, Jesus could make Zacchaeus do a public admission of his guilt and make a public apology.
Here is where the twist comes in : Jesus looked at Zacchaeus and said: Zacchaeus, come down! Hurry, I must stay at your house today.
And the crowd’s reaction was – Huh?!? What is this?
For them, it was not a joke, and if Jesus was joking, then it was a very bad joke, and no one was laughing.
Maybe only Zacchaeus. Yet for him, if he were laughing, it was not because it was a joke.
It was simply because Jesus could accept him for who he was.
Just like the joke about the man whose wife disconnected all his modern contraptions, Zacchaeus had to unplug and disconnect all the stuff he thought was important – his wealth, his income, his possessions, his authority, his power – so that he could have a new life in Jesus.
It was like Jesus pressed the “Reset” button and Zacchaeus went back to his original settings.
Zacchaeus realized that he was freed from the contraptions of life and could live on as a child of God.
Yet, the gospel story is not just about a sinner who repented and was forgiven.
The story is also for the crowd, and for us.
Like the joke about the woman with a serious flatulence problem, we might think that we do not have a big sinful problem as compared to others.
We may think that other people have greater sins and we want them to remain in their sins. We also want to trap them in their sins.
We will know that we want others to be trapped in their sins when we say things like:
Remember last time you cheated on me…
Remember last time you played me out…
Remember last time you stole money from me…
Remember last time how you ill-treated me…
Remember last time they burned the trees and we got the haze …
It’s always a “Remember last time…” and it’s always a smelly past.
We use this phrase to hurt others, and yet we ourselves resent and detest it when others use it on us.
But Jesus is our healer. He gives us His sacred body as medicine to realize our own sins are as smelly as the rest and yet we are forgiven.
Jesus is also our Saviour. He came to seek and save what was lost.
Jesus rejoices over one repentant sinner. Heaven rejoices over one repentant sinner.
That is not a joke. Yet let us repent and rejoice.