What Did Zacchaeus Do That Jesus Liked So Much?
On May 31 and June 1, 1921, Tulsa experienced “the deadliest outbreak of white terrorist violence against a Black community in United States history,” according to historians Randy Krehbiel and Karlos K. Hill. White mobs, many deputized and armed by the Tulsa Police Department, killed an estimated 300 Black people, according to then Red Cross director Maurice Willows. Thirty-five blocks of more than 100 Black-owned businesses and 1,256 homes were burned to ashes in one day.
Following the massacre, Tulsa city administrators fabricated “fire codes” to prevent Black Tulsans from rebuilding on their own land, because white Tulsans envied Black resources and success. The neighborhood had the nickname “Black Wall Street” for the way businesses thrived in the segregated Black area of Tulsa called Greenwood.
One Black survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre said white Tulsans lusted for land like King Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard. White people not only killed and destroyed but now wanted to steal Black people’s land to build a railway station and industrial district. Insurance claims amounting to four million dollars (60 million dollars today) by Black home and business owners were denied because of “riot exclusions” in the policies. Meanwhile, white shop owners were compensated for losses from other white people breaking in and stealing guns and ammunition. If the destruction itself was not enough, Black people were blamed for rioting, though it was white people who rioted, terrorized, and burned Greenwood.
This massacre is living history, with three survivors remaining in Tulsa, not to mention the thousands of descendants of the massacre.
On December 6, 2020, at the invitation of Rev. Dr. Bartheophilus Judge Bailey, I stood in front of St. Andrew Christian Church in Tulsa and became the first white preacher in the pulpit in the 97-year history of that church. I did not have to recount the details of the massacre to the members of this Black church; they already knew the gruesome details full well. The church was formed just after the massacre, just after two dozen churches had been burned to the ground by white mobs.
In my sermon at St. Andrews Christian, I told the story about Jesus and Zacchaeus. We think we know the story of Zacchaeus because we know the song, right? While we busy ourselves singing with children about this “wee little man,” we have missed a powerful ending the song never mentions. Zacchaeus may have been a small man, but he did something extra large that day that prompted Jesus to say about this tax collector, “Salvation has come to this house!”
What did Zacchaeus do? Zacchaeus committed to giving away half of his wealth to the poor. He also committed to repay four times restitution if he’d defrauded anyone. Today we might call these self-imposed punitive damages, or reparations. The idea, however, is as ancient as the writing of laws and practices for Israel in Exodus and Leviticus. In these texts, we see what is prescribed for the community when someone is convicted of defrauding someone or stealing money: a surcharge of 20% should be added to the damages and given to the person harmed or offended (Exod. 22:3; Lev. 6:5). English translations call this restitution.
Zacchaeus didn’t settle for 20% though. He made a crazy commitment of giving away half his wealth and four times the amount to anyone he’d defrauded. By my math, that’s 20 times more than the Levitical restitution law. I imagine his family biting their knuckles over this. On the other hand, the next few years of the Zacchaeus family life may have been the most joyous they’d ever experienced.
Reparations have been made in our nation for Native Americans and Japanese Americans, and in nations like Germany for Jews after the Holocaust. Restitution is also part of ongoing justice system efforts to repair harm done by people as alternatives to incarceration. Americans believe in reparations … just not for Black people. What can Christians like you and me do locally to repair and heal racial trauma done by white people in communities like Tulsa?
One expression of healing happened during the sermon I preached at St. Andrew. I apologized for the events of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, for subsequent discrimination by white people of Black people, and for the ways I have benefited while others have suffered. I said, “I’ve been a part of the problem of injustice as it relates to the aftermath and institutional unfairness that has continued to exist in Tulsa and our nation, and I am sorry.” Afterwards, one of the St. Andrew congregants said, “Nobody has ever said ‘I’m sorry’ to me for what happened. Thank you.”
Black attorneys, historians, and theologians in Tulsa have convicted me that apology is important, but it is not enough. Where harm has been done – from Holocaust in Europe, to aparteid in South Africa, to genocide in Rwanda, to pogrom in Tulsa – the saying is, “No repentance without reparation.” After learning narratives of victims, survivors, and descendants of the Tulsa massacre, an idea came to me. I thought, If white people burned down homes and businesses, white people should also help rebuild homes and businesses. There was very little assistance given, and much has been done to refuse assistance over the past century. Home ownership in Tulsa for Black people is half what home ownership is for white people, and this is due in part to the injustices done and not repaired for the past 100 years in Tulsa.
My parents started a home building business that my brother now operates. Having this family business gave us a context to start a nonprofit for the purpose of doing reparations through building homes.
Official Red Cross documents after the massacre reported that white mobs destroyed 1,256 Black-owned homes. Built on the biblical idea of restitution, 1256 Movement, Inc., has a goal to connect 1,256 Black families with contractors and up to $10,000 per home as a reparation for land and homes destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. The 1256 Movement exists to pay restitution, and a long-term goal is to raise a total of 12.56 million dollars to help Black people building new and remodeled homes in the next 10 years.
Want to join me in this crazy Zacchaeus-like commitment? You can learn more about the mission of the nonprofit here.
What about your community? Similar pogroms have occurred in at least 250 cities in the United States, and nearly every one has been covered up like Tulsa’s was for decades. Racism and the racial caste system on which our nation was built was outlawed nationally by civil rights laws in the 1960s. But racism has continued in the hearts of descendants with benefits on the basis of race at the expense of people of color. A continual onslaught of white racial backlash occurs every time people of color make advances in rights and equity. It happened in the 1960s, and it is happening now. In addition to police brutality and disproportionate incarceration for people of color, efforts to limit immigration, voter registration, access to medical care, and education about racism are all attempts to resist racial equality in the 400-year-old racial caste system of the United States.
