MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
with Rev. Shawn Barkley
Let’s take a deeper dive into the message of April 3, 2022
Below are some questions, thoughts, and additional insights that we invite you to participate in providing in the comments below your thoughts as we reflect on this week’s message:
1. Were there any new ideas or insights you gained from this message?
2. Did the message leave you with any additional questions? If so, what were they?
3. Is there anything Shawn touched on that you would like to have further explained?
Feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, and insights to this message in the comments section below.
Shawn,
I have always wondered about the math in this story: I’m guessing most of what Zacchaeus had was gotten by overcharging (defrauding) people. I have never figured out how he could then repay them fourfold if more than a quarter of his wealth was ill-gotten… That’s just the engineer in me.
One observation about the religious people of that day is that they seem to think that God’s goodness is a zero-sum game. If you get something from God, there’s less for me. I don’t think it works like that. God can be good to you and good to me, and have plenty left over to be good to others too. This mentality shows up in the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. It could be that the people were irritated that Jesus offered grace rather than justice to Zacchaeus, but I wonder if they also wanted to keep God for themselves. I also wonder if we’re much different from the folks back then. The best possible thing happened for Zachaeus – Jesus befriended him, and he publicly described how he was changing his life in response. People were going to get paid, and they were still irritable. Maybe being happy for the good things that happen to others is a first step toward becoming a person who offers grace.