The city of Leicester was celebrating recently because of the unexpected (to some) success of the local football club in becoming Premier League champions; the club’s footballing success has been the buzz of conversation all season and the underdogs’ triumph has captured the imagination of people far and wide.
Dave spoke this morning about how Jericho was buzzing when Jesus was passing through that town (Luke 19:1-10). Everyone was crowding around to see this teacher with the amazing reputation, but one man, Zacchaeus, was frustrated. Small of stature, he could not get even a glimpse of Jesus, so, ever-resourceful, he climbed a sycamore-fig tree in order to get a better view.
Zacchaeus had probably spent a lifetime suffering scorn and ridicule because of his size and looks; added to that, he was a chief tax collector, which in Jewish eyes was the lowest of the low. Tax collectors were looked down on as colluding with the Roman enemy and being deceitful, claiming additional taxes which they kept for themselves. Such an individual was not expected to be noticed by Jesus, but in this story, we see how the Saviour is always looking for the individual; ‘the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’ (Luke 19:10)
Zacchaeus may have been the ‘wrong sort’ of person for a respectable Jew to be involved with. Far from being afraid of being contaminated by sin, however, Jesus’ grace and generosity were contagious. He focussed on the individual, not condemning Zacchaeus for his sins but building a relationship with him through acceptance which would lead to salvation.
People are often aching from loneliness and longing for someone to listen to them and value them. Rather than labelling Zacchaeus as others did, Jesus saw beyond the labels and refused to judge him, seeing the dormant life within him. Such acceptance warmed Zacchaeus’ frozen heart to faith (see Ps 19:6 in the Message version.) As He gave Zaccheaus the room to breathe and believe, Jesus unlocked the potential in him.
We need to remember that God offers grace to us and therefore we need to offer grace to others. May we have the faith to see people as Jesus sees them, for we are the only Christ that some people will ever see, and our response, if modelled on Jesus’ response, can lead people to radical change and whole-hearted salvation.