God's Grace Treats us Upwards - to become who we can be!

Whilst one was providing input/lesson, the others would be on ‘crowd control.’ Other leaders were more intent on sending misbehaving children from the room, which I found problematic, largely because I felt the issues were more with our style and capacity than the children’s ability to concentrate. There was a tendency to treat these children in ways that reinforced their behaviour and our perception of them. If a child was talkative and distracted, the problem lay with him/her and she/he needed to be brought back into line. They were branded a ‘troublemaker’ or a difficult child and considered beyond hope I suspect. I always had trouble with kind of thinking – especially when we were trying to convey God’s love for the children. And, come to think of it, I was generally bored with Scripture! One day, one of the other leaders asked this child to leave the room – again. He nonchalantly stood and with a shake of his head left the room. I watched as he went and the look of satisfaction on the face of the leader, somewhat irked me and I took the opportunity to go outside and chat with the boy. I could tell that he was waiting for me to chastise him and tell him what a ‘bad boy’ he was and reinforce that he was a troublemaker. I didn’t. We chatted for a while and I said something like, ‘You are bored with this aren’t you?’ He looked up surprised and nodded and said, ‘Yes, it’s pretty awful.’ I sensed the boy was all too familiar with the Bible stories and discovered he did go to church, but Scripture was basic, non-stimulating and boring. As we chatted, I realised that this was a pretty sharp kid who was quite intelligent and probably had trouble concentrating when his mind was rarely engaged. Scripture wasn’t challenging and he was treated like a naughty boy and so he acted into that role. This boy acted into the way he was treated! It made me think… When I next led the class, I tried to engage the children in deeper ways and challenge them to think about life and faith, sharing stories of real people and real situations. I invited them into a journey of experiencing something deeper of Jesus and what he was on about and was surprised that the children came along. When I told engaging stories, they were with me and wanted to talk about the people and their responses to crisis and where God was in all of this. Central to the questions and conversation was the boy who had been considered ‘naughty’. Suddenly, when he was treated as someone with a brain, who could engage and had something to offer the class, he stood up. I think he grew and lived into the image and sense of being the person he was expected to be. When treated as a naughty, disruptive boy, that is what he became. When treated as someone with a contribution to make, who had good thoughts and questions, he lived into that sense of being. This boy is not unique! In the story this week (Luke 19:1-10) we have another example of how Jesus treats people upwards; as the person they were created to be and who they could be. The story is about Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector. This insinuated that he collaborated with the enemy, the Romans, and collected the high taxes for them. To these taxes he added something more on top for himself – he ripped off his own people. Zacchaeus was probably despised, hated, rejected, excluded and ostracised. Jesus came into his village, and everyone gathered along the streets to see him. Curious, Zacchaeus wanted to see him as well, but he was short, and no-one would let him through to the front. With his view blocked Zac climbed a tree to get a look. As Jesus wandered under the tree, he looked up and saw Zac hanging from a high branch and called him down, saying that he wanted to stay in Zac’s house this day! As he climbed down, the others around complained about Jesus eating and engaging with a sinner. This was a common complaint against Jesus! People judged those who were different, outcast, prostitutes, tax, collectors, poor… as sinners and not worthy of God’s grace and love! These were people outside God’s concern and certainly people Jesus should not engage with. Zacchaeus was placed within this group of sinners, and everyone was dismayed, angry, confused and complained about Jesus. On the ground, Zacchaeus defended himself. Depending on the translation, it reads that Zacchaeus said he would give money to the poor and make restitution to those he ripped off. It is a future tense, suggesting a transformative moment of repentance and a new way forward. Other translations of the same Greek word suggest that Zacchaeus claimed that he already gives to the poor and makes restitution when he discovers he’s defrauded someone – he is already doing what should be required.  Either way, Jesus commends Zacchaeus for this attitude, which is deep enough to impact his whole life, including his economics, which is an important theme in Luke’s story. It is just a spiritual, attitudinal change but a change in the whole of life that is about sharing wealth and caring for the poor. Jesus proclaims, against the people’s protests, that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham and that salvation has come to his house today! This is a proclamation of grace, undeserved, unmerited grace. Whatever Zacchaeus has done, whoever he may be, he is a child of God and Jesus invites him to live into this deep reality and to become more fully who he is created to be. In some strange and profound way, Jesus’ gracious actions towards Zacchaeus enabled him to see himself in a new way. When treated as the child of God we are, someone who could be loving, kind and humane, we will live into this and become more fully that person. When I realise that the boy in my Scripture class was not a ‘naughty troublemaker’ but a boy with questions and thoughts, who was also a child of God, and treated him accordingly, he acted more fully into that. When he was treated as a naughty boy, he lived down into that expectation. What happens when we are treated upwards, treated as we can be rather than as we may be perceived – rightly or wrongly?  What happens when we treat others as they can be, as they are deep down, as human beings who are unique, loved and special?  When we are treated positively and encouraged to become the best we can be, we respond positively.  When we are told we are useless… then we tend to live into that designation.  Jesus always treated people upwards into the deeply profound sense of being loved in and through God.  He treated people as children of God who loves and believes in us all.  That is the challenge for us – to love others into becoming the truest and deepest expression of who they are created to be and to nurture them into living into this truest sense of self – in God!