By David ReayFriday 27 Jun 2014LifeWords DevotionalsCultureReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Luke 19:1-10
1-5 Then he went into Jericho and was making his way through it. And here we find a wealthy man called Zacchaeus,a chief collector of taxes,wanting to see what sort of person Jesus was. But the crowd prevented him from doing so,for he was very short. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to get a view of Jesus as he was heading that way. When Jesus reached the spot,he looked up and saw the man and said,”Zacchaeus,hurry up and come down. I must be your guest today.”
6-7 So Zacchaeus hurriedly climbed down and gladly welcomed him. But the bystanders muttered their disapproval,saying,”Now he has gone to stay with a real sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus himself stopped and said to the Lord,”Look,sir,I will give half my property to the poor. And if I have swindled anybody out of anything I will pay him back four times as much,”
9 Jesus said to him,”Salvation has come to this house today! Zacchaeus is a descendant of Abraham,and it was the lost the Son of Man came to seek-and to save.” (JBP)
Two people looked at an old wooden cupboard in a garage of a house. One saw a piece of useless junk. The other saw a fine piece of woodwork just waiting for some loving restoration. Which brings us to Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus wasn’t the sort of person you would invite home to meet your mother over dinner. He was a collaborator with the Romans in collecting their customs duties. Invariably such people skimmed a bit off for themselves and so were corrupt. The fact that he was ‘vertically challenged’ made him less than desirable and attractive.
Till Jesus came along. Jesus didn’t worry about such externals as shortness of stature. He knew well the crookedness of Zacchaeus’ personal life. And yet he invited himself to his home: a gesture of acceptance in those days. Jesus saw something the others didn’t. A broken man seeking some escape from his brokenness.
It has been said that love involves revealing the beauty of another person,to themselves and others. Jesus saw beneath the unpromising façade,loved the man as he was so that he became more than who he was. Love doesn’t wait for beauty to appear: it helps create the beauty.
Blessings
David Reay