TARNISHED ANGELS

To gain a further understanding of the meditation that follows, a reading of the suggested scriptures will be most helpful. Also, a study of the Editorial Notes at the end of the post may prove to be beneficial)

Scripture Readings: Luke 19: 1 – 10
Revelation 21: 1 – 5

Luke 19: 9 Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (1)

Thirty years before this recorded event two significant happenings occur.

One, in Bethlehem, is recorded like this: “The angel of the Lord appeared and said to Mary, ‘Don’t be afraid, Mary. God has been gracious to you. You will bear a son, and you will call him Jesus. He will save his people from their sins.’ (2) “When the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.”(3)

The other happening occurs in Jericho: Another boy is born. His parents while looking upon him for the first time see what is to them, no doubt, the face of an angel. Soon after his birth, his parents begin searching for an appropriate name that would capture the essence of this beautiful gift from God. They decide upon a name rooted in their Hebrew heritage – a derivative of the Hebrew words for clean, pure, righteous.  “Zacchaeus,” they whisper over and over to each other. “His name will be Zacchaeus. We shall call our boy Zacchaeus”

Now, some thirty years afterward, the two of them meet face to face for the first time: Jesus, the Saviour of the world, and Zacchaeus ,a tarnished angel!

But what happened to Zacchaeus? What tarnished the angelic beauty that inspired his name? William Wordsworth, a poet of a later century, in his “Intimations Of Immortality” offers convincing evidence on the question:

We come from God, who is our home, trailing clouds of
glory; Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing boy. The Youth, who daily from the east
must travel. At length, the man perceives it die away and
fades into the light of common day (4)

But is there no antidote for such a fateful malady? Is ‘tarnishing’ the indefensible fate that awaits all that are born into this world? According to Wordsworth, the shades of the prison-house close upon the growing boy, and he continues to lose his natal glow, until at last it fades into the light of common day.

This world is never kind to high ideals and noble principles. It still crucifies the compassionate and berates its lovers. It disregards every desire for the restitution of former glories.

There remains, however, for each person, one window in the world’s prison-house that permits the light to cast its effulgent rays into the darkest prison.  From the moment it is experienced, that light transforms defeat into victory. It is the abiding Truth that enlightens the whole world. The experience of William Wordsworth quoted above is not the end of his story. There is much more awaiting him beyond the walls of the prison-house:

And I have felt A presence that
disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts. (5)

The angelic appearance once glimpsed by the parents returns now for all the world to see.  An angel’s presence, once realized, needs never to be irreparably lost.  Let it be forever written indelibly on each person’s heart:  “A man’s reach must exceed his grasp” (6)

Everything that Zacchaeus achieves in his lifetime, including his employment as a Roman tax collector, does not end his constant searching.  Everything he grasps leaves him still reaching. Could it be something that was his at birth is eluding him and making him reach? Is it that same natal gift observed by his parents that so endeared him to them?

One day Zacchaeus’ reaching finds its reward!  It is Robert Browning in his poem “Andrea del Sarto” who advises:  “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?” (7).

The truth begins to dawn upon Zacchaeus. Everything he calls his own all too quickly disappears. Nothing of this world is eternal. Materiality always changes and eventually it decays. There is but one thing worth reaching for, and which abides forever. It Is the gift of spiritual worth that heaven offers.

Zacchaeus, the tarnished angel, meets Jesus, the One who specializes in restoring ‘tarnished’ humanity. Jesus says to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (8).

Zacchaeus is a tarnished angel no longer. By the grace of God, he is enabled now to bring a little more of heaven into his troubled world. So may it be for us! Amen

Hymn:                  Amazing Grace – Andrea Bocelli

Editorial Notes

1. Luke 19:9.
Revelation 21: 1 – 5
Here and throughout the text Quotations from
The HolyBible are from the New International Version.
NIV.
2. Luke 2: 26 FF.
3. Galatians 4: 4
4. William Wordsworth. in “Intimations Of Immortality.”
5. William Wordsworth. in “Tintern Abbey.”
6. Robert Browning. in “Andrea del Sarto.”
7. Robert Browning in “Andrea del Sarto.”
8. See #1.

9.Photo: Taken at our summer cottage, at Michael’s                                     Harbor, Newfoundland, 2017