(From our church-wide devotion book at Pinedale Christian Church, "You 2.0”)

Hi, I’m Zacchaeus. If you attended Sunday School regularly as a child, you probably remember singing about me as the “wee little man” who climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Dr. Luke, in his Gospel, described me as short, wealthy, and a chief tax collector. But being “vertically challenged” was not my real problem. There are many short people who are Godly men and women.

As chief tax collector over the region of Jericho, I was a supervisor over the common tax collectors who paid me a percentage of what they collected from the citizens. Jericho, just 15 miles northeast of Jerusalem, was a very wealthy town with a great palm forest and a world-famous balsam grove which perfumed the air for miles. Jewishtax collectors were contracted by the Roman government, and most of us fattened our money purses and bank accounts by collecting more taxes than what was actually assessed by Rome. Since there were no newspapers, radio or television, or other means of making public announcements, the common people had no real idea of what theyhad to pay. Worse than overcollecting, we sometimes paid thugs to intimidate people into paying and beat up those who refused, including widows, who were sometimes evicted from their homes if they could not pay.

Needless to say, I became very wealthy as a government official, but I paid a tremendous price for that wealth. Along with other tax collectors and publicans, I became the most hated and despised in Palestine and classed along with robbers and murderers. We were considered to be unclean, the worst of sinners, outcasts, traitors to our people, and banned from the temple and synagogues.

Believe me, I was not brought up that way. Ironically, my name, Zacchaeus, means “clean,” “innocent,” “pure,” and “righteous.” My parents obviously expected much more of me, but greed overtook me, and I became the opposite of those virtues. Before I met Jesus, I had lots of money and material things, but that became just “stuff,” and being an outcast, I had no real friends who truly cared for me. I was a lonely broken man. I had lost all self-respect and longed to worship God in the temple again, to love and be loved, and to be accepted again.

Then I heard about this miracle worker named Jesus, who was passing through Jericho on His way to Jerusalem for the coming Passover. I heard that just before entering Jericho, Jesus had healed and given sight to a blind man who was sitting by the road. I wondered to myself, could this be the Messiah (the Christ) who would deliver Israel? If I could just see Him. Was that too much for a vile sinner like me to hope for?

But being short, the crowd was too big and tall for me to see Him, so I ran ahead like a child and climbed that sycamore tree. You can only imagine how I felt and the emotions that overcame me when Jesus reached the tree, looked up at me and called my name. I couldn’t believe it, He knew my name. With authority and yet kindness in His voice, He told me to come down immediately and that He must stay at my house today. I couldn’t get down quick enough.

The time that He was at my house as a dinner guest must have been hours, but it seemed like only minutes. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the Lord was my guest, and He was my only hope to be saved from my sins.

The Lord Jesus changed my heart that day. My purpose for living was no longer about me, but about loving and serving Him. I was now a child of God who wanted to serve Him and others. I remembered how I had wronged and cheated so many people, and yet the Lord with abundant grace and mercy was offering me freedom from my sins. Because of His love and grace that healed my broken heart and my new found faith in the Lord Jesus, I wanted to make amends to all I had wronged. So, I gave half of my possessions to the poor, and four times the amount taken to those that I had cheated. Jesus recognized my faith and proclaimed me now as “a son of Abraham,” our forefather who lived and walked by faith.

A little less than a week later at Passover in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus sacrificed his life and died on a cross. I must admit my feelings and emotions were all over the place that day. My Lord was brutally crucified, but on the third day (the first day of the week), word spread quickly that the Lord Jesus had arisen and was alive. I knew then for sure that the Lord Jesus died for my sins and the sins of the world. He paid the price and was the atoning sacrifice for mine and your sins. I also fully realized what Jesus meant when He said, “The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost .” That was His purpose for coming to earth.

Jesus did seek and save me, and if you don’t know him as Lord and Savior, He is seeking you, too. Won’t you allow Him to be your guest and invite Him into your heart?

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   ravens1

   4 years ago

   ReplyTo:   TabletalkReader
   Title:   thank you for sharing.