What We Have in Common with Zacchaeus

 (Luke 19:1-9) Lee paraphrase and commentary:

He was a short man. I’m picturing Danny Devito (if I had to hire an actor to play his part). He was a chief tax collector—not just a tax collector but a chief one who had acquired a lot of money illegally. The IRS would’ve been breathing down his neck in the year 2012, but the Roman government didn’t care.

 

I wonder if he had discovered the emptiness of wealth and was tired of being hated. I wonder if these discoveries made him desperate enough to forgo any tax collector dignity and climb a tree in desperation to see the man who could fill the hole in his heart. Wasn’t he wealthy enough to buy the sideline seats? Or did he really not feel worthy to be that close to Jesus? Was it safer to be in a tree? It seems to me he was already experiencing a heart change. I think the old Zacchaeus could have and would’ve demanded VIP tickets to see the star of the show, but he was already humbled before the presence of this special entourage. So he climbed a tree.

 

And then the unthinkable happened. His hiding place was visible to the God-Man he came to see. The Man whose eyes saw past his skin and into his heart. I love Jesus’ words: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

 

Don’t you wish you could’ve seen the faces of the crowd?  Don’t you wish you could’ve seen Zachaeus’s face?

 

We’re not surprised. We’re used to Jesus choosing to eat with the sinners and heal people and use the most unlikely to preach the good news. Well, we’re used to Him doing that in the Bible. But for some reason we don’t always believe that He does the same thing in our lives today. But the facts are clear; Jesus chooses the most unlikely and worst of sinners to be on His team. And He will find us. He already knows where we are. And today He is calling.

More tomorrow….

Much love and grace,

andy