Morality is NOT holiness!

This morning, while sitting on my couch doing some devotional reading, I had one of those Eureka! moments. For some reason my mind drifted while I was reading (sadly, a very common occurrence) to the New Testament, to two men in particular. I began thinking about the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus of all things. If you know those stories, and you see the title of the post, you can probably guess where I am going, but bear with me, making this connection was good (at least for me).

If you think about it, Zacchaeus is the antithesis of the rich young ruler. They are both notably wealthy as each respective story indicates. Zacchaeus is named however and the rich young ruler is left anonymous. The rich young ruler has a certain sense of nobility about him, Zacchaeus is a scoundrel. Both of the men have encounters with Jesus, yet these encounters end very differently. The interaction of both of these men with Jesus is very different. The rich young ruler asks what appears to be a very pious question, "Lord, what must I do to be saved?" We can all speculate why he asked, but any answer would be only that, speculation. Jesus answers the young ruler by telling him, keep the law. Now, the young ruler responds with, I have kept the law. That is a very bold claim! But Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of the young man's heart. Jesus instructs him to sell all his goods, give it to the poor, and follow Him. Of course we all know the ending of that story, he went away sad because he had great wealth. Can you see what Jesus did? In the face of the claim that this man had kept the law, Jesus challenged him on the sum of the law, namely loving the Lord with our whole being and our neighbor as ourself. The man would not sell all and give it to the poor i.e. he was not willing to love his neighbor. The man would not sell all and follow Jesus i.e. he was not willing to love God with his whole being. Essentially his morality was a facade, a thin veneer that covered a heart of idolatry.

Now let's consider Zacchaeus. We all know his story, he was a short, tax collector in Israel. He was one of the most despised persons of his day because he worked with the Roman government and extorted money from his fellow Israelites. Zacchaeus was rich off cheating his brethren. But his story is very different than that of the rich young ruler. Jesus doesn't prompt Zacchaeus concerning his wealth, as Zacchaeus stands in the presence of Christ, he becomes convicted and vows to give up to half of all he owns to the poor, but he doesn't stop there. He promises to pay back those he has cheated up to 4 times the amount. So Zacchaeus ends with rejoicing because rather than hang on to money, he gives it away because he has found a treasure that is greater than money. Zacchaeus had no facade of morality and yet, he is held out as a man of true virtue.

As I began this post I said that Zacchaeus is the antithesis to the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler embodied a man that was succesful, moral, and together. He probably looked like what many people would consider a good church leader. Often times we associate morality with holiness I think. As long as the outside looks good, we tend to make "exceptions" with the heart. The rich young man lived by the letter and missed the heart. Zacchaeus on the other hand is the man that we avoid if we can. Yet, he is the one whose name we have, he is the one who finds joy in Christ, and he is the one who is pronounced saved by Christ Himself. The key thing in Zacchaeus' life that makes him stand out is repentance. He was willing to turn from his life of greed to a life of giving. Morality is not the mark of a holy life, repentant living is. Morality is not bad however, it is just not all there is. The upright man is not necessarily the one who keeps the letter of the law, the upright man is the one who beats his chest and says have mercy on me, a sinner. These 2 men stand out to me and the one we are encouraged to remember is the sinner who came to Jesus.