Zacchaeus, the Publican and the Pharisee, and the Right Response to the Squandering of Our Talents

Zacchaeus, the Publican and the Pharisee, and the Right Response to the Squandering of Our Talents

From Translating the Tradition by Fr. Justin (Edward) Hewlett

February 1, 2026 · 22 min

About this episode

Fr. Justin discusses the importance of recognizing and utilizing our spiritual gifts as Lent approaches, using scriptural parables to illustrate his points.

As an experiment, I thought I’d try getting Google’s NotebookLM AI to summarize my sermon, and I was rather impressed with the following (lightly edited) results: In his sermon for Zacchaeus Sunday, Fr. Justin explains that as Lent approaches, we must reflect on the “gifts galore” and spiritual talents we have received from God. He observes that like the tax collector Zacchaeus, humans often squander or misuse these gifts rather than using them to love and serve others. To illustrate this, Fr. Justin connects three specific scriptural accounts from the same section of the Gospel of Luke as last Sunday’s Gospel reading : * The Parable of the Ten Minas: Fr. Justin highlights the servant who hid his mina in a handkerchief because he viewed his master as an “austere man” who reaped where he did not sow. Fr. Justin notes that this servant is judged “out of his own mouth” because he misunderstood God’s character, projecting the image of a strict judge onto Him as an excuse for his own failure to use his gifts. * The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: Fr. Justin presents this parable as a “corrective” to the servant’s fearful theology. He contrasts the Pharisee, who exalts…

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Host: Fr. Justin

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Books & works: Gospel of Luke

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