Illustration from a children’s book of Jesus and Zacchaeus.
Two months ago, I wrote about a pastor who treats disabilities mentioned in Biblical texts as metaphors for spiritual conditions. Today, I listened to this same preacher preach about Zacchaeus. If you’re not familiar with the story of Zacchaeus, here’s the story from Luke 19:1-10.
“19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
When I heard the text read by the reader, I thought, “Oh boy. The story about Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus. This should be interesting!”
The preacher started off by reminding everyone of Zacchaeus…you know, “the short guy we all sang about in Vacation Bible School.” He had the congregation to recite the words of the children’s song:
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.
“He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.”
Now, let me pause here to remind my readers that don’t know about XLH (x-linked hypophosphatemia), which I have and is the very reason I started this blog years ago: One of the main traits that XLH-ers have is stunted growth. In fact, in the medical literature many years ago, it was considered to be a disease that causes a type of dwarfism, just not the MAIN type of dwarfism with which people think of when they read about dwarfism. Because our bodies waste phosphorus, we usually don’t grow to average height. On a good day, I am 4’11” tall, while my non-XLH “baby” sister is 5’8” and my non-XLH “baby” brother is 6’4”. That should give you an idea how the phosphorus wasting of XLH lead me to not be able to reach my genetic potential had I not been born with XLH.
Many biblical scholars have concluded that Zacchaeus likely had a form of dwarfism and/or a disability. (This information is widely available on the internet for preachers and amateur theologians to access.) Otherwise, why did the author (Luke) make Zacchaeus’ height a main point of the story? Zacchaeus was on the margins for a few reasons…he was a little person, a societal misfit and he was judged as being a bad tax collector. It is also important to remember that it is society that disables certain people. Why can’t the person in a wheelchair get to the 3rd floor? Because society builds multi-level buildings with only stairs to access the top floors. Why couldn’t Zacchaeus see Jesus? The people didn’t make way for Zacchaeus to go to the front of the crowd so that he could see what was going on.
Now, back to the story and the sermon. When retelling the story, the preacher said that Zacchaeus was in the crowd and because he couldn’t see over everyone, he “jumped up and down like a child” to try and see Jesus. (First mistake.) THEN, the preacher said that Zacchaeus went up to the sycamore tree and “climbed up like a squirrel” to see Jesus above the crowd. (Second mistake.)
Note to preachers: How about NOT comparing Zacchaeus, the short (likely due to a genetic condition) adult man, to a child?
XLH people: raise your hand if you’ve ever been patted on the head like you’re a small child when you weren’t a child and raise your hand if you’ve ever been treated like a child because people assumed because you were a little person, you must be unable to have “grown-up people” thoughts?
Another note to preachers: do you really think it’s a good idea to compare a person with a disability to a rodent, even if it is a squirrel?
XLH people: how many of you have been made to feel “less than” by tall people or able-bodied people or perfectly sized people?
I imagine I’m seeing a lot of XLH-ers raising both hands. Now, some people would have “left the room” after hearing these opening statements, but by this point I was curious to see how much deeper this preacher could dig that hole. To be honest, once he stopped picking on the guy about his shortness and making light of his disability, he made some decent points in his sermon.
But here’s a question for the preachers: how many listeners have you lost because of your insulting handling of disabled (or short) people mentioned in the biblical texts? Or, do you care that you’ve lost any of your listeners? If this preacher’s point was to be cute in this sermon, by comparing the short guy first to a child and then to a rodent, then I’m sure there were some tall people who would say his retelling of the story in his own words was “cute.” He made his point and he got their attention.
But, to recall one of Jesus’ parables, the one about the “one lost sheep,” this pastor has missed out. Getting a giggle out of the “ninety-nine” other sheep who think that comparing a short (disabled) man to a child or a squirrel is funny must be more important than bringing into the fold that one sheep who doesn’t feel included in his insulting sermons. Democracy is alive and well in church…if the majority think he’s cute or funny when he insults the short man, then the majority wins. The majority… the able-bodied, average-height people with their bodies who perfectly blend into society…can ignore the insults, the insensitivity and the innuendo and enjoy their majority power, which they don’t even realize they have.
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