Today’s Gospel (Luke 19:1-10) is a kind of “unofficial” beginning to the Lenten Season. It’s not a “Sunday After Pentecost.” It’s not a “Sunday of the Triodion.” So what IS it, exactly.
Think of it this way. When you go to dine at a nice restaurant, you’re often asked if you’d like to order “an appetizer.” The thought is that there is a kind of “small portion food” that will enhance your ability to eat more.
Zacchaeus Sunday is the “appetizer” for the Preparatory Sundays before the Great Fast.
What does it offer to make us hungry for more?
The short answer is DESIRE!
This is where we find Zacchaeus. It’s obvious that he has heard about Jesus. He has developed a curiosity about Him. The curiosity appetizer has evolved into a hunger to be able just to SEE who this Man is.
But God, in His wisdom, made him too small to allow him to easily achieve his goal. Worse, his position as a tax collector (and a chief of them at that) causes the people also crowding the streets to push poor Zacchaeus away. Call it retribution for his holding authority over them with their taxes.
So Zacchaeus must exert himself. It’s not a premeditated plan. Jesus is coming. If I don’t act now, I won’t see Him. I’ll climb the tree and at least get a glimpse of who this Man is.
This is a more sincere display of desire for Christ than the Lord’s own people have shown throughout His ministry. Knowing all things, including the content of Zacchaeus’ heart, the Lord calls to him. Come down! I need to stay with you this day.
Zacchaeus is overjoyed! He simply wanted to see Jesus. Now, the Lord has not only spoken with him, He will do so yet again within his house. Jesus will meet his family. He’ll be able to converse with the Lord. What will he say? How will this all come to a conclusion?
People in the crowd are appalled. He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. It is to this sentiment that this article’s title is dedicated.
When one might be accused of visiting with someone who is held in contempt by the crowds, there is an automatic expectation that the one being visited is “paying off” the one visiting. “Come into my home, and I will give you something of great value.” The crowd expects Zacchaeus to be somehow giving to the Lord—they expect some kind of corrupt motives to be at play.
And so the question: In any encounter with the Lord, throughout all of Scripture, when is there a confrontation, Christ with another person, where Jesus leaves having “received” something? When does the Lord go away with more than He had upon arrival? What’s that? Never, you say?
Let us suggest that in fact Jesus leaves today’s encounter with Zacchaeus with something that He did not arrive with—Zacchaeus’ repentant heart! What value is there is this? None, to any of the people in the crowd who decried the Lord’s visit. For Jesus, He left knowing that there was rejoicing amongst the angels of God over this one sinner who repented.
Lord, visit me, as You did Zacchaeus, and give me his repentant heart.
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