The Promise Still Holds

 This week’s message explores what it means to be truly seen and set free by Jesus, through the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. It also reflects on the powerful real-life journey of Leo Schofield, whose story reveals the surprising places grace can show up. Together, these stories remind us that Jesus still sees us, stays with us, and sets us free. 

Scripture is read by Bill Eddy.

Sermon by Rev. Beth Demme
For more information, visit www.graymumc.org

Transcript

Bill Eddy (00:05):

Today's gospel reading is from Luke chapter 19 verses one through 10. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it, a man there named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd. He could not because he was short in stature, so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked [00:00:30] and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down. I will stay in your house today. So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him all. Who saw it, began to grumble and said, he has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I will pay back four times as much. Then Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house because he too is the son of Abraham [00:01:00] where the son of man came to seek out and save the, lost the word of God for the people of God.

Rev. Beth Demme (01:06):

Thanks be to God. May God add a blessing to the reading, hearing, and understanding of this scripture. Amen.

(01:11):

So I want to tell you that a couple of weeks ago I dragged Steven to this event at the FSU College of Law, my old stomping grounds, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, Gilbert King was there promoting his new book, bone Valley. I first heard of Gilbert King a few years [00:01:30] ago when I read his book, devil in the Grove. That book is about the groveland four, four black men who were wrongfully accused of sexually assaulting a white woman here in Florida in 1949, and as you can probably imagine, that didn't end well for those men. One of the four, earnest Thomas, he knew that even though he was innocent, these accusations were going to cost him his life. So he fled, came up here [00:02:00] from Lake County.

(02:01):

He came up here to Madison and a mob of more than 1000 men led by the devil in the grove. That's Sheriff Willis v McCall. They found earnest and they shot him not once or twice, not 10 times, but 400 times. The other three men, two adults in a juvenile, they were arrested, tried, convicted in a sham trial that was ultimately overturned [00:02:30] on appeal. When the convictions were overturned, sheriff McCall went to pick up the two adults and transport them back to Lake County so that they could have a second trial, but he decided he didn't want a second trial. So in the dark of the night, he pulled his cruiser over. He told them to get out of the car and he shot 'em both. One man died at the scene. The other man was taken to the hospital, managed to survive and tell someone what had happened.

(02:57):

Thurgood Marshall and the FBI, [00:03:00] they all got involved. These men were innocent, but it wasn't until 2016 that Florida apologized. In 2017, the men were posthumously, pardoned, and in 2021 they were actually completely exonerated. 72 years after false accusations cost them their lives. It remains one of the most disturbing and important examples of racial injustice in the mid 20th [00:03:30] century, and it's how I first came to respect Gilbert King's work because he doesn't just tell heavy stories, he tells truth that needs to be told truth, that I need to hear history, that I need to know. His latest book, bone Valley is about another case of wrongful conviction from here in Florida. It's the story of Leo Schofield, who in 1987, when he was just 21 years old, was convicted of [00:04:00] killing his young wife, Michelle. There was no physical evidence tying Leo to the crime.

(04:07):

He was the one who reported that Michelle was missing and it was he and his father who led the search for her. Nonetheless, Leo was arrested, tried convicted of the crime. At just 22 years old, he was sentenced to death. He almost got the death penalty. You would read about that in the book, or there's also a podcast you could listen to. One juror actually thought he was innocent and [00:04:30] she held out so that he wouldn't get the death penalty. Years later, as Leo sat in prison, someone else confessed to killing Michelle, a man who was already serving time for other violent offenses, including murder, a man whose fingerprints were at the scene of the crime. That man, the actual murderer, was a very troubled soul named Jeremy Scott. He's now deceased, but before he died, he confessed under [00:05:00] oath something like 40 different times to killing Michelle, giving wretched details of the crime that only the killer could know.

(05:12):

Despite his confessions, despite the fact that his fingerprints were at the scene, Leo remained imprisoned. Gilbert King found out about Leo's case because a judge came up to him at an event and said, Hey, you really should look into this case. He gave [00:05:30] Gilbert King Gilbert King's the one standing at the podium. He gave him his business card, and on the back of his business card it said, you should look into this. Leo Schofield, here's his inmate number. He's at the Hardy Correctional Institute. He's not just wrongfully convicted, he is an innocent man. The judge knew that he was powerless to make this right, so he went to Gilbert King for help. At that point, Leo had already been in prison for 30 years. Eventually, Gilbert King [00:06:00] did look into the case. He read 2000 pages of trial transcripts and felt that the justice system probably had done Leo wrong, had basically failed Leo.

(06:12):

So he agreed that he would meet with Leo. He made arrangements to go and visit him at Hardy Correctional Institute, and in their first meeting, Leo said, I'm going to give you the facts and you're going to think whatever you're going to think, and it's not going to change anything about me because I know [00:06:30] I didn't kill my wife. No matter what anyone thinks, and that might sound like defiance, but maybe you can also hear the ache to be heard, the longing to be known and believed his need to be seen rightly. Ultimately, Leo Schofield spent 36 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. He climbed a lot of metaphorical [00:07:00] trees. In those 36 years, he tried and tried to get someone to see the truth, to see him, not the headlines, not the case number but him, and when no one would see, he climbed Anyway, he climbed to Jesus.

(07:19):

Kind of like Zacchaeus in our gospel reading today, Jesus was passing through Jericho, a crowd gathered. Everyone was straining to get a glimpse [00:07:30] of Jesus, and in that crowd was one man who did not belong. Zacchaeus a chief tax collector. Zacchaeus was wealthy and despised. He was seen as a traitor, a collaborator with Rome, the occupying forces. Zacchaeus wasn't just physically short, he was a wee little man, right? We all know the song. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he? He wasn't just small. He was socially [00:08:00] cut off the crowd, made no room for him, and maybe he thought that was fair. Maybe he felt about himself the same way that the world that his community felt about him. Maybe he thought he was on some level just a worthless traitor, and he thought that their disgust of him was justified, and yet something stirred [00:08:30] in him that day.

(08:32):

He'd heard about Jesus and he'd probably heard that tax collectors and sinners had found welcome with this man from Nazareth, Zacchaeus, it seems just dared to hope that it might be true. So he climbed a tree. It was awkward. Surely he felt exposed. I mean, climbing a tree, that's a rather undignified thing for an adult man to do, [00:09:00] right? But sometimes, sometimes our desperation will push us to do the undignified thing. Maybe Zakia has waited out in his mind and he just decided, you know what? It's worth it. It's worth it to be undignified if it gives me a chance to see Jesus. I imagine that when he climbed the tree and he did finally spot Jesus, he smiled himself as if to say, yes, I did it. I can see him never [00:09:30] expecting Jesus to also see him, but that's when something happened that changed everything, right?

(09:39):

Jesus looked up and called Zacchaeus by name. Jesus said, Hey, Zacchaeus, I'm so glad to see you, but hurry on down. Let's get on over to your place. I want to spend some time with you today. Zacchaeus had to be stunned. For years, he [00:10:00] had probably told himself, no one sees me or knows the real me, and maybe no one should. Maybe I'm I'm no good. But here was Jesus looking right at him, not with disgust, but with love and invitation, and in that moment, the promises of God came rushing into Zacchaeus life. Friends, this is the promise [00:10:30] that still holds. Jesus sees us. Jesus stays with us. Jesus sets us free. Let's be honest, a lot of people today don't feel seen or worse. They're seen only through a distorted lens, judged by one moment in their past or by the assumptions that we make about them or by things beyond their control.

(11:00):

[00:11:00] People are told and treated like they're too far gone, too broken, too complicated, too sinful to be part of God's story, and that's not a problem just out there in the world. That's a problem right here in the lives we lead and in the weight we carry. Some of us are climbing trees right now trying to get a glimpse of hope, trying to be seen for who we really are, [00:11:30] trying to believe there's a Jesus who would want to come to our house, but this story doesn't ask us to identify only with Zacchaeus. It also invites us to consider that we might be standing in the crowd. Sometimes we're climbing that tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus, but sometimes without meaning to the same people who are searching for grace [00:12:00] become the ones who block someone else's view of it. The crowd shows us something uncomfortable about ourselves.

(12:09):

Zacchaeus hurried down and was happy to welcome Jesus. Verse seven says, all who saw it? This interaction between Jesus and Zacchaeus, all who saw it began to grumble, and they said, Jesus has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. Ooh, the Bible [00:12:30] doesn't say, Ooh, but that's implied, right? That's what they were thinking. The crowd saw Jesus stop. They saw him speak to Zacchaeus, and then they saw Jesus begin to leave with Zacchaeus to the house of that guy. Really, they muttered and grumbled to themselves. He has gone to be the guest of somebody who's a sinner. You can almost hear the offense in their voices, their disappointment in [00:13:00] Jesus, their fear and pride getting in their way. The people in the crowd were probably hoping that Jesus would bless them, affirm their righteousness, confirm their vision of who belongs and who doesn't.

(13:20):

But instead, Jesus did a very jesusy thing and chose the man they had already written off. Here's the hard truth. [00:13:30] Sometimes the church is like the crowd. Sometimes we are the ones making it hard for people to get close to Jesus, and then when they manage in spite of us, we get salty about it. We don't mean to, of course we don't, but our judgments, our comfort zones, our assumptions, they sure can get in our way. We grumble when [00:14:00] grace doesn't follow our rules. We get uncomfortable when Jesus wants to dine with, to hang out with people we don't trust or don't like or don't understand. We start thinking of people in categories, don't we? The criminals, the documented, the liberals, the conservatives, the divorce to the L-G-B-T-Q, [00:14:30] the protestors, the one who left the church, the one who we label people instead of loving them, we clutch our pearls and whisper.

(14:42):

Do they really belong here? Is Jesus really talking to them? Doesn't he know what kind of person they are, how they live, what done? Probably Jesus should wait until they change their ways before he goes to be their guest. Don't you think that would be more appropriate? [00:15:00] And the whole time, Jesus is way ahead of us. He's already at their table breaking bread with the very person we've been too quick to dismiss. It's one thing to want to see Jesus. It's another to realize he's already sitting at that person's table, whoever that person is for each of us. He's already at that person's table, and guess what? Friends, he's inviting us to come and have a seat [00:15:30] too. Part of the invitation in the story isn't just to be like Zacchaeus, it's to be less like the crowd, to step out of the role of gatekeeper, to stop muttering and start rejoicing, to be the kind of community that doesn't block the view, but lifts people up so they can see Jesus more clearly, because this is the promise that still [00:16:00] holds.

(16:01):

Jesus sees us. Jesus stays with us. Jesus sets us free, and that promise isn't only for people just like us, it's also for the people we are still learning to love. Jesus walks into all of it, the crowd, the brokenness, the shame, and he looks up into that tree. He looks up into Zacchaeus face. He looks up at one broken person and [00:16:30] he says, you, I see you. I accept you. I love you. And do you remember what happened next? Zacchaeus didn't give a theological defense, right? He doesn't say, well, now that you're here, here's why I deserve your attention. Let me make some excuses for the mistakes I've made. No, he just immediately and practically responds by saying, I'm [00:17:00] going to give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I've defrauded anyone, I'm going to pay them back four times what I got from them.

(17:08):

Zacchaeus doesn't do that to earn Jesus's love. He does it because he finally knows he already is loved. Zacchaeus doesn't climb the tree to earn God's favor. He climbs to catch a glimpse of a promise he barely dares to believe could be true for [00:17:30] someone like him. And once he hears Jesus speak his name in love, he is free, free to live differently, free to make things right, free to walk in the direction of God's justice. The promise still holds for us today as it did for Zacchaeus. Jesus sees us. Jesus stays with us. Jesus sets us free. So let me ask you, where's your [00:18:00] tree?

(18:03):

What would you climb just to see Jesus? Where are you positioning yourself so that maybe just maybe grace will catch your eye, and are you willing like Zacchaeus to come down when Jesus calls your name? Because Jesus is still calling, still seeing, still saying our names, still setting people free. Leo Schofield, [00:18:30] he was finally released from prison in 2023, not exonerated, paroled, even though someone else confessed multiple times, even though justice hasn't fully come, Leo now walks free. He was at the event with Gilbert King. That's him in the square on the screen. When I heard him speak, I was struck by what he shared about his spiritual journey. [00:19:00] Leo didn't always have an unwavering faith. He grew up in a Christian home, but while he was in prison, he explored a lot of different religious paths, including dedicating himself for a time to a Norse religion as Norse as in Viking? Yeah. Okay.

(19:21):

He never stopped seeking the divine, and ultimately, Leo found his way back to Jesus and eventually to ministry, [00:19:30] and he's now a Baptist preacher. He serves others inside prison and out He bears witness to God's goodness. He lives in the tension of freedom and frustration, of hope and injustice, and through it all, he's holding on to God's promises. And now even though he lives under the restriction of parole, he walks free, seen, known, still believing in God's [00:20:00] grace. That's what Zacchaeus experienced in Jericho too. Not just a fresh start, but freedom. Not just belief in Jesus, but a life redirected by being seen and loved by God. Leo like Zacchaeus knows that the promise still holds. Jesus sees us. Jesus stays with us. Jesus sets us free whether we [00:20:30] are guilty, misjudged, trapped in a story that's not the whole truth. Aching for something better.

(20:39):

God's promises still hold, and because that promise still holds, grace keeps showing up even between people who should be enemies, even when forgiveness seems impossible. Christ keeps showing up even at the grave of the one who caused the [00:21:00] harm. The man who actually murdered Leo's wife, Jeremy Scott, he died in September just a couple of months ago, and you won't believe what happened. Jeremy Scott's family, his adult son, asked Leo Schofield to do his funeral, to offer a service of hope and resurrection for the man who killed Leo's wife. For the man whose activities [00:21:30] led to Leo being wrongfully imprisoned for 36 years, what would you have said?

(21:42):

Well, Leo said yes. He stood in that place of grief, and he offered mercy. He stood in the place of unimaginable pain, and he offered resurrection. He stood in the place where bitterness had every right to grow, [00:22:00] and he offered blessing. He said that night, he said, listen, this is the work of the Holy Spirit in me. I could never do this on my own. This is not who I am. This is God in me. You know what else? Leo has? Become close with the killer's son. So much so that the killer's son said to him, my dad was locked up my whole life. You are more like a father to me than he was. And Leo said, yeah, [00:22:30] you're like a son to me. I mean, what kind of love says yes like that? What kind of grace looks at the wreckage and says, oh, there's still a future here.

(22:42):

Only the love that flows from the heart of God. Only the kind of grace that sees what others refuse to see, only the kind of mercy that doesn't just wait at the altar, but walks right into our lives. This is the promise [00:23:00] that still holds. Jesus sees us. Jesus draws near to us, and he leads us into freedom. God's promises held for Zacchaeus when he climbed a tree just to catch a glimpse of hope. God's promises held for Leo even in the shadows of his prison cell and friend. God's promises hold for you. Wherever you are. Whatever your story, however far you've come, or however far [00:23:30] you still need to go, you are seen. You are not alone. God's grace is already reaching for you. Believe it. Receive it. Live like it's true in the name of the one who sees you and stays with you and sets you free. Amen.