Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”The city of Jericho was a very wealthy and important place. It was known as the Garden of the Jordan Valley and the City of Palms, and one day our Lord happened to be passing through it on His way to Jerusalem.
- St. Luke 19:1-10
A man by the name of Zacchaeus heard He was coming. Now Zacchaeus was wealthy man, but he was not a happy man because he was a lonely man. And why? He had chosen a way of life that made him an outcast, because he was a tax collector. Tax-collectors were ranked with sinners because their very way of life was dishonest and their living meant that they regularly cheaated their own people.
Zacchaeus had heard of this Jesus who welcomed tax-collectors and sinners, and he wondered if this rabbi might have any word for him. Despised and hated by everyone around him, Zacchaeus had come to realize his need for the love of God, and because Christ’s reputation had gone before Him, we’re told that Zacchaeus wanted to see who He was. In fact, he wanted to see Jesus so badly that Zacchaeus, who was a short man, laid his dignity aside and he climbed up into a tree so that he could see over the heads of the crowd. This rich and important man – this chief tax collector, a man whom the whole city held in a mixture of fear and hatred, clambered up a tree like a child, just so he could see this visitor who had the whole city talking.
Surely Zacchaeus hoped no one would notice him sitting up in the tree branches, but the next thing he knew, he heard Jesus shouting up into the tree, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for I must stay at your house today!” Zacchaeus the sinner, hated by the whole city because of his dishonest dealings with them, was to have Jesus as his guest. And his life would change forever. When he finally spoke with our Lord, Zacchaeus not only promised that the dishonest side of his life would be rectified, but that he also would make restitution to those whom he had cheated.
Why did Zacchaeus feel it was so important to catch at least a glimpse of Jesus? And why did Jesus single out the little tax collector by choosing to stay at his house? Obviously, it was all part of the plan of God, but as we hear the story we cannot help but see something of ourselves – at least a little – in the person of Zacchaeus. We all want a better look at our Lord, don’t we? We all want to know Him better. And yet so often the things of this world have crowded out our view, rather like the crowd did to Zacchaeus that day in Jericho.
But Zacchaeus did get to see Jesus that day – and that’s not all, because more importantly, Jesus saw him. And it must have seemed to Zacchaeus that he was looking into a spiritual mirror, because when we see Jesus and He sees us, everything is thrown into sharp relief – our need, our sinfulness, the necessity to grow in God’s grace. That’s what Zacchaeus saw that day.
And when we see Jesus face to face, we need to do as that little tax collector did – repent of the evil, and seek to do the good. As Jesus looked upon Zacchaeus that day in Jericho, so our Lord looks upon us at every Mass, as He comes under the outward forms of bread and wine. He beckons us down out of the sycamore tree, down out of the tree of our pridefulness and faithlessness and self-centeredness.
And as our Lord told Zacchaeus that He was coming to stay at his house that day, so He does with us. He comes to us daily, through prayer, through the sacraments, and as Zacchaeus took Jesus into his home, so we take Him into the secret home of our hearts. And how can things ever be the same for us again? How could we possibly continue as though nothing has happened? How can we possible do less than to make Jesus the honoured Guest by turning away from our old ways of self-interest, our old ways of thinking little of others, our old ways of being less than who God intends us to be. How can we do less than give ourselves completely to God and to His service, since He has given himself so completely to us?
Did Zacchaeus ever sin again? We don’t know for sure, but probably he did. But Christ had changed him, and as he had repented once, so Zacchaeus could again. The important thing is that Jesus had visited him and had changed him forever. No longer was sin easy for him – no longer was it a way of life. Zacchaeus had been lost, and Jesus had come to find him.
So our own actions often lead us into lost ways. But Jesus comes to us, He waits for us, especially in the Blessed Sacrament, and He finds us. And in being found by Christ, so we’re strengthened by Him to go into the world in His Name, where Christ would have us transform and heal and strengthen with His saving truth – the truth that God has visited and redeemed His people; the truth that what was once lost is now found; the truth that Jesus isn’t just to be “looked at” but that He has come to change us and to stay with us today and every day.
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Image: Claes Brouwer, the Alexander Master,
"Jesus Encounters Zacchaeus"
from Bible historiale
Dutch (Utrecht), ca.1430