An Offer you can't Refuse

In the Godfather, one of the greatest movies of all time, Marlon Brando brilliantly plays a savvy and powerful patriarch who runs a family and an organized crime operation (with considerable overlap between the two). When the going gets tough and he really needs to do something for his family or his business, he "makes an offer" that can't be refused. In the movie, the "offer" is that you won't die if you do what the Godfather wants. However, when I was reading today's scripture, I found myself thinking about the Godfather to make sense of what was happening in the story.

The story is a very famous one. A guy named Zacchaeus is a very rich man and a chief tax collector who no one likes. He's also very short. Jesus is passing through town one day and a huge crowd is gathered to see him. Zacchaeus wants to see who this Jesus character is, but he is so short that he can't see anything. He sprints ahead of the crowd and climbs up a tree. When Jesus passes by, Zacchaeus gets a good look. But then Jesus tells him to come down. He does. Jesus invites himself to dinner at Zacchaeus' house. Zacchaeus has him over. People are pissed because they all hate Zacchaeus, who has cheated them out of a lot of money. Next thing you know, Zacchaeus is standing before Jesus and giving half of his money to the poor while also vowing to repay everyone he has ripped off... TIMES FOUR!

In Bible study today, someone was lamenting that we don't get any details about how Zacchaeus went from a greedy tax collector to a good man and a philanthropist. Tax collectors were notorious for collecting not just taxes, but a little something on the side for themselves. They worked for the Roman government, which was bad enough, but they also ripped people off for their own benefit. Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector, so he was basically the Biblical Bernie Madoff. But he was also short and annoying like Danny Devito. A bad combination. And yet somehow he made a complete turnaround and became a great guy. What happened at that dinner between him and Jesus?

Short, annoying, rich, the Zacchaeus of our day

Clearly, Jesus made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Not a Godfather style threat of death, but an offer of life. Not just life but an everlasting life of unspeakable bliss and peace that passes understanding. Talk about an offer that he can't refuse. Zacchaeus was looking for something more when he climbed up in that tree. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he must have known deep inside that making tons of money by cheating people was a life of emptiness. Jesus offered him a life full of promise and meaning. And he accepted the offer. Rejuvenated by this new sense of purpose, this new fulness of life, Zacchaeus cast off his Danny Devito/Bernie Madoff ways. His money was no longer important, so he gave it away. He was lost, but he looked for a way out and Jesus was there, waiting to make him an offer he couldn't refuse.

The Good News is that the offer is extended to all of us. And it does not involve any severed horse's heads in our bed.