Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
2^nd of November 2025

Habakkuk 1:1–4; 2:1–4
Luke 19:1-10

‘Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.’

Today we hear our only reading from the Book of Habakkuk in the entire Revised Common Lectionary, and we only hear today’s reading because of its very last words: ‘the righteous shall live by faith’. If that sounds familiar to you, it is because the Apostle Paul quoted it to the church in Rome to argue that Gentile Christians had been saved by faith and not by following the Jewish Law. (Romans 1:16-17) But when Paul quoted Habakkuk to make that point, he was doing what he so often did; he was proof-texting, wrenching a Bible verse out of its original context. What is the original context?

We do not know who Habakkuk was or where he lived. We do not even know who his father was; he is not identified as ‘Habakkuk, son of’ anyone. Commentators think that he lived around the same time as the Prophet Jeremiah, because he refers to the Chaldeans or Babylonians in his prophecy. His book is very short, only three chapters long, and I do encourage you to read all of it, because parts of it are a wonderful dialogue between a very grumpy prophet and the Lord. Habakkuk is not happy, and he is not at all afraid of informing God of that fact.

Like all the other prophets whose words we have heard in recent months, Habakkuk is appalled at the injustice of the society in which he lives, a society that he describes as containing wrongdoing and trouble, destruction and violence, strife and contention. He tells the Lord that, ‘The wicked surround the righteous—therefore judgement comes forth perverted,’ and he blames God for this. If God really cared about justice, Habakkuk suggests, he would punish the unjust. Like Job, Habakkuk feels close enough to God to complain to God about God. God, Habakkuk complains, is not living up to God’s responsibilities, and so the wicked prevail. Habakkuk is certainly speaking for me in his complaints. He may be speaking for all of us. Why do we live in a world in which we are constantly confronted by violence and in which we have to watch the wicked persecuting the righteous?

The lectionary understandably cuts out the Lord’s immediate reply to this dialogue. God’s first reply to Habakkuk is that the wicked will be punished: ‘For I am rousing the Chaldeans [the Babylonians], that fierce and impetuous nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own’. (Habakkuk 1:6) We are once again confronted with the problem that we have been encountering throughout our readings of the prophets. Do we believe, as the prophets did, in a God who uses war, violence, and foreign nations to chastise people for their wrongdoing? I certainly do not, and Habakkuk seems to find the idea of such a God equally problematic, because after receiving this reply, he protests further: ‘Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? … [are you] then to keep on emptying [your] net and destroying nations without mercy?’ (Habakkuk 1:12-17) No, says Habakkuk, this first response has not satisfied me, and so ‘I will stand at my watch-post, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.’

Now we hear the second response of the Lord to Habakkuk’s second complaint: ‘Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.’ Because of the way the Apostle Paul used this verse, we tend to think of ‘faith’ as ‘belief,’ but it is better translated as steadfastness or trustworthiness or fidelity. What the Lord is saying is that we are not misguided to demand justice in a world of injustice, or peace in a world of violence. God has shown us a vision of the world as God intends it to be, and while that end tarrie,s it will surely come. Our role is to faithfully keep that vision alive, to hold onto it steadfastly, and to do our part in bringing it about. Today’s reading from the Gospel according to Luke shows us what that might look like.

At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, Zacchaeus is one of the wicked who persecute the righteous. The tax collectors of Jesus’ time were Jews living under Roman occupation who sided with the Romans rather than with their compatriots. They had purchased the right to collect taxes, and they would make their profit from the extra they charged on top of Rome’s demands. Zacchaeus is not just a tax-collector; he is the chief tax-collector, and since we are told that he is rich, we can assume that he has been misusing his compatriots for his own gain. Given that we are reading the Gospel according to Luke, the gospel of the poor, the gospel in which Jesus said, ‘woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation,’ we know that Zacchaeus’s spirit cannot be right within him.

To readers of the Gospel according to Luke, Zacchaeus’ situation would seem especially precarious, because immediately before today’s reading a ruler has approached Jesus, asked what he needs to do to inherit eternal life, and been told by Jesus to ‘Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ The ruler’s sadness at this led to Jesus telling him, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God,’ and to the people around them asking, ‘Then who can be saved?’ (Luke 18:18-27) The question those first readers will have asked themselves as they read this story is: Is Zacchaeus the chief tax collector, a camel?

Zacchaeus is certainly not a camel in stature. He is so short that he cannot see Jesus through the crowd. Maybe, if he had not been a tax collector, the crowd would have parted for him and allowed him into the front row. But the crowd does not part for him, and Zacchaeus must climb a tree. This was then, and would still be, a bizarre thing for a wealthy businessman to do, but Zacchaeus’ desire to see Jesus is apparently so strong that he is willing to humiliate himself. Zacchaeus is immediately rewarded for this humiliation because Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house, and Zacchaeus responds joyfully, hurrying down, happy to welcome Jesus.

The crowds around them, those who would not let Zacchaeus through in the first place, are not so happy. In first-century Palestine, table fellowship symbolised spiritual unity. By eating with Zacchaeus, Jesus could be showing that he approved of Zacchaeus’ way of life. But, as always, rather than Jesus catching vice from Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus seems to catch virtue from Jesus. Just as he had immediately accepted that Jesus was going to visit him, so Zacchaeus now immediately declares, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Zacchaeus’s repentance is real. As John Calvin put it, Zacchaeus has been ‘changed from a wolf not only into a sheep, but even into a shepherd’. Jesus can then conclude this story by affirming that Zacchaeus ‘too is a son of Abraham’. God has made possible what was impossible for mortals: a wealthy chief tax-collector giving up half of all he has, immediately, just as he was immediately able to welcome Jesus joyfully. These are the miracles that happen when the Son of Man comes to seek out and save the lost.

Such miracles are part of the answer to the complaints of Habakkuk. Habakkuk complains to God about human activity, demanding that God do something about the wicked. But an immediate response to human wickedness is in human hands. Whatever the ancient prophets may have believed, war does not happen because God has determined one country will invade another. People do not go hungry because the earth does not produce enough food for everyone. People are not homeless in Australia because we are a poor nation without the resources to house the entire population. Most of the violence and injustice we see have human causes, and so they also have human cures. If we have lived unjustly, Zacchaeus shows us what real repentance looks like.

Often, we are not Zacchaeus; we have not contributed to the injustice we see. Habakkuk suggests that there are then two equally faithful ways of engaging with God amid wrongdoing and trouble, destruction and violence, strife and contention. One faithful response is to complain to God, as Habakkuk does, as Job does, as the psalmists do. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of examples of people saying, ‘O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?’ Complaining to our just and loving God that the world God created is not demonstrating justice and love is an example of the faith by which the righteous live.

Another faithful response to wrongdoing and trouble, destruction and violence, strife and contention, is to look forward with certainty to the day when God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven. That vision may seem to tarry, but if we wait for it, it will surely come. This is the response with which the Book of Habakkuk ends, and I will end this Reflection with Habakkuk’s words:

Though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer and makes me tread upon the heights. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

May God be your strength; may God make your feet like the feet of a deer, and may you tread upon the heights. Amen.