Do you think people can change?

Lectionary 31 + October 29, 2022 + Seminarian Kylee Bestenlehner

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your site oh God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Do you think people can change?

If I were to say to you that the person who hurt you, who cheated you, who only cares for themselves, has changed, what would you say? Would you welcome them with open arms? Or would you be skeptical?

In today’s Gospel reading we hear a story of transformation. Zacchaeus who is a wealthy tax collector is moved to change from a life of greed to a life of generosity. We hear this story on Reformation weekend, as we consider the ways as church together we open ourselves and our congregation to God’s ever reforming grace. And on the first weekend of Holy Trinity’s Generosity appeal, both individually and together we consider the ways that Grace moves us to lives of generosity in our life together, and in community.

In biblical times, tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman Empire so they were seen as traitors and sinners. Tax collectors were not paid a salary, but were expected to charge the people extra so they could keep some of the money for themselves. Luke chooses to emphasize that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and that he was wealthy, implying that he was among those who were dishonest and abused the system, taking far too much for himself. I believe that Zacchaeus was ready to change. He must have heard about Jesus and was excited enough to see him that as a grown man, he climbs a tree to get a better view.

Then Jesus does something absolutely scandalous! He decides to be a guest at the home of a sinner. Although I believe that Zacchaeus was ready to change, I believe that it was Jesus’s unconditional welcome and acceptance that leads him to make the radical statement: “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 them back four times the amount.”

What?? Really?? You’re telling me that he went from stealing extra off the top for himself to giving away half of everything he had, plus paying back those he cheated? Even now I’m skeptical.

Throughout the gospels Jesus is getting into trouble for the people he chooses to spend time with. These villagers were probably devoted Jews who were just plain confused as to why the Son of Man was choosing to associate himself with the likes of Zacchaeus.

Even though I want to see myself as Zacchaeus in this story, I know many of us who grew up in the Christian faith may never have the kind of big, life altering moment of complete transformation like that of Zacchaeus. And if I’m completely honest with myself, I see I am more like the residents of Jericho, who are shocked about the people Jesus spends time with.

How many times do we let our assumptions of people and skepticism get in the way of seeing God’s redemptive power at work in this world? If you heard that Jesus was here today and having dinner with a sinner, who comes to your mind? 

A couple weeks ago, the Lutheran School of Theology where I attend Seminary, had a seminar on the Neuroscience of Implicit Bias. During this seminar, three different neuroscientists talked about the brain and how it works specifically in relation to unconscious bias. Implicit or unconscious bias is, “the learned habit of thoughts that distort how we perceive, reason, remember, and make decisions.” These unconscious biases that we all possess are slowly developed over time and determine whether we have pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant associations with things and types of people. Some examples of unconscious biases are how we feel about different religions, body sizes, gender identities and especially skin color. Stereotypes are a type of implicit bias because they are schemas that are built up about a certain group of people. We often rely on stereotypes to make judgments, because stereotypes are easily accessible and are all around us. We often can see how bias influences others thoughts and actions, but have a blind spot when it comes to recognizing how bias affects our own thinking.

We all have these implicit biases. So my question in, is the bias the sin or is it how we relate to each other in response to the bias that is the sin?

I choose to believe the later. Jesus was human and therefor would have experienced bias himself. Everyone hated the tax collectors. They had a stereotype of being greedy sinners. But instead of acting on that bias, Jesus spends time with Zacchaeus as a friend and gives him the opportunity to prove that stereotype wrong. 

Also in this seminar, I was informed that our brains have 86 billion neurons. That’s more than the stars in the Milky Way! God is an amazing architect! And with this comes an estimated 100 trillion connections. Our brains are wired to our bias. So this brings me to the question again: Can people change? With these 86 billion neurons comes neuroplasticity, “the regenerative ability of human brains to form and reorganize its synaptic connections in response to new learning or experience.” So good news! God gave us the ability to change! It takes awareness of our bias, learning, time, and a willingness to change, but we can change! Praise God!

The first step to be able to change our biases is to become aware of them. I invite you to go online and take an implicit association test so you can become aware of your biases. Only by becoming aware of them can we start to reeducate ourselves and create new neuro pathways that are more accepting of all God’s people.

My prayer for us is that we have the excitement to change like that of Zacchaeus; the kind of excitement that leads a grown man to climb a tree.

Amen