“Zaccheus was a wee little man.”
Luke 19:1-10
I love the Christmas movie, “Christmas Shoes.” A young boy knows his mother is about to die of heart disease and collects soda cans to buy a pair of red shoes on Christmas Eve so she will look “pretty if she meets Jesus tonight.” He gets to the store and the cashier tells him that he is short. He doesn’t have enough money. The guy behind helps him out and a famous song is born.
Many of us have come up “short.” It could be a financial situation. We needed $17,000 to buy a run down house in Los Angeles but could only gather $15,000. Four years later the house was selling for $100,000. It could be we don’t get enough points on a test to get the grade we want. True confessions…I missed one too many questions on a driver’s test once and walked home humbled. More seriously, perhaps the “other” whom we think is “the one” dates us but we come up short and the proposal doesn’t come. Heartbreak.
Jesus in Luke 19 is walking into Jericho with his usual crowd. Zaccheaus, the chief tax collector, agent of the IRS, wants to see this famous person but is too short of stature and probably despised by most. He climbs a tree to catch a glance. As Jesus walks by, Jesus stops and tells Zaccheaus to come down for Jesus is going to dine with him. Many are outraged that Jesus would associate with “a sinner.” Zaccheaus is overwhelmed with gratitude. Jesus summarizes by saying, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” The grace that comes with Easter is not just a prayer of thanks at a meal, or getting more goodies for our comfortable life. Zacchaeus had wealth. Jesus reinstated him as “a son of Abraham.” He is no longer outcaste but belonging. He is no longer “lost” but found. Grace not only saves us “from” the wayward way we are living but also saves us to family and future. “Tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will bring me home.”
Let us thank God that he not only has our past but also he is walking with us into the future. He lives!
On the Way to Wonder 