Jesus
entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region,
and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short
to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside
the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.
When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick,
come down! I must be a guest in your
home today.” Zacchaeus quickly climbed down
and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious
sinner,” they grumbled. Meanwhile,
Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the
poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back
four times as much!” Jesus responded, “Salvation
has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of
Abraham. For the Son of Man came
to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19:1-10 (NLT)
I’m always dumfounded when I read
this passage. The crowds following Jesus
were displeased
that he would go to the house of a despised tax collector. That just didn’t make sense – not that Jesus
went to the tax collector’s house – but that the crowd disapproved.
For at least two reasons:
1. The
crowd was made up of people – people with both memory and conscience. For them to disapprove of Jesus associating
with a tax collector was just a bit hypocritical; they were no better on the
inside. Perhaps they were a bit more
“respectable” (whatever that is) but, deep down, they knew they only envied Zacchaeus’
wealth. They were no more righteous than
the tax crook.
2.
If
there was anybody on the planet or in the universe who could change things
between
Zacchaeus and the people from whom he extorted taxes, it was the Lord
Jesus.
And,
in fact, things did change with the little tax man – he gave back what he
stole, and sweetened the pot with a four-fold return to his former victims.
This
stabs the point home about say-so Christianity and do
so Christianity.
It’s
one thing to go to a revival, walk down the aisle, shake the preacher’s hand
and tell him I’ve been touched by the Lord and now I’m born-again; where do I sign
up for church membership. You
could go home and never miss a beat in your life; no harm, no foul!
It’s
quite another thing to confess you’ve been the town cheat (in front of everyone
you’ve been cheating) and then empty your bank account to give it back, because
you really have been born-again!
The
old saying goes something like
Don’t talk the talk if you have no
intention of walking the walk!
For You Today
Is there a hole in your walk?
Is there something you promised to Christ, but somehow
you never got around to the Zacchaeus-level of commitment?
Today might be a grand place to begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment