Weird, right?
Here was a despised, short, wealthy man of Jericho. He would not have been young: he was a chief tax collector and he had made a very good living through it. I suspect he was a man wired to be on the immune side when it came to how he responded to the slights of others. Perhaps he was even driven by the hatred’s of others. Still, he was an observer, a thinker maybe. He wanted to know for himself rather than be bowled along by the opinions of the day (with social media, COVID, Trump, Biden, vaccines, masks, George Floyd we know about being bowled along).
Zacchaeus was aware of Christ’s reputation. He would have had spontaneous and not so spontaneous discussions of this thing happening in Israel. Curiosity gathered Zacchaeus up in its paws, slung him over its back and ran out into the human fray Christ’s arrival evoked in Jericho that day. No salvation had yet settled on him, but a keen interest had.
Zacchaeus hoped for but a view of Jesus. “May I at least put my eyes upon this man,” went his thoughts. Then he took an approach he had perhaps used for years to see what was going on: find a tree, get up that tree. Truth stranger than fiction it seems. Oldish fellow, rich fellow. Were there jeers aimed at him? He was probably vaccinated against those. Or, perhaps the arrival of Jesus dissolved the standard scorns.
Then Jesus came up under the tree of Z. Was the presence of men in trees odd? I don’t know. I cannot imagine, though, that it was normal for available places to perch to be empty. After all, every where that Christ went the crowds were sure to go. All wanted to see this man; even King Herod wanted to see Jesus (see Luke 23:8).
Position yourself to see Christ 1
Once curiosity the cat dropped Zacchaeus into the Jericho-day-fray he was not going to be able to see Christ; he had personal issues: shortness. Were trees near Christ occupied? Probably, but you get to think about it too. This is just me wondering up the circumstances. Or, maybe, there were only certain places where trees grew in the city. So, Zacchaeus considered his options and ran ahead on what had become a parade-route of sorts.
He would get himself ready for the arrival of Christ. He could wait until the crowd clambered into view and would then sit back an watch the procession, watch the man.
What about us? Obviously Jesus does not physically walk down our street. The Holy Spirit, though, is everywhere looking not for a soul to steal, a human to devour or trip. No he is looking for a soul to help, to rescue, to save. He wants to reveal himself to us, to teach us how to be responsible in our world. He is keen to set your stage and my stage for caring into the troubles around us.
I don’t know where you are or what shape your personal world is in. I don’t know what shapes are bustling, busting into the goods, bads, and uglies inside and outside of your brain. I know a lot of mine though. I also know that the scriptures are available and God is ready to teach from them. This whole thing on Zacchaeus was new to me for goodness sake. “But I can’t see anything from the scriptures?” you lament. “They don’t make sense to me.” Flick those excuses off, look up the street and go find a tree. Climb that thing, open your Bible, read and wait. Jesus will walk up to you one way or another. Maybe it will be a person, maybe it will be a thought. Position yourself and never, ever give up.
(An attribution: cartoon Zacchaeus: FreeBibleimages :: Zacchaeus the Tax Collector)
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