What does it mean to pray “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us?” And what does it mean to pray “forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who owe us something?” The story of Zacchaeus, a despised, traitorous tax collector, shows us that this clause of the Lord’s Prayer is about what forgiveness does to us and for those around us.

While we don’t know exactly what happened between Jesus and Zacchaeus, we do know that right there, standing in his own home before Jesus, experiencing grace and forgiveness and mercy, Zacchaeus commits to give half his wealth to the poor right now, and restore to those around him what he took from them.  The forgiven becomes the giver.

Sometimes in election season we can feel like "things are the way they are." It's as if we're resigned to the brokenness, the anger, the prejudice, the name calling, and the dehumanization, and content to point the finger at our enemy and say, "thank God I'm not like that person." But just as Jesus disrupted the way things were for Zacchaeus with grace and forgiveness, so with us he says, "things do not have to be this way" and then invites us to forgive, to release, to love, to serve, to give half of what we own to the poor, to change the way things are and in doing so, our world becomes more on earth as it is in heaven.

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