Life of Christ 141
Jesus Summoning Zacchaeus William Brassey Hole, 1890 |
It is Thursday. Jesus
will die in six days. He and His Apostles are traveling with the pilgrim
caravans through Jericho up to Jerusalem. Already today, on His journey, He has
taken the time to minister to blind Bar Timeaus. Now, we shall see Him minister
to a different man and another need (Luke 19.1-10).
Jericho is known to us as
the city that Joshua conquered by marching around it. Sitting just west of the
Jordan River, and north of the Dead Sea, it was the first city captured by
Israel after their 40 years wandering in the wilderness. By Jesus' day, 1400
years later, it had been rebuilt a little distance away from its original
location, and it had grown substantially. The Jews were resistant to the idea of
traveling through Samaria. Consequently, most of the merchant traffic between
Galilee and Judea went through Jericho. Further, it was also astride major
trade routes between the Mediterranean Sea and destinations north of the
Persian Gulf.
This constant stream of
business attracted tax collectors like a gooey banana attracts flies. You will
remember that these tax collectors, the publicans, worked on a for profit
basis, and that they were the single most despised class in the Jewish system
(see Life of Christ 48).
Jesus is the most famous
man in Israel at this point. Hundreds of thousands are flocking to Jerusalem
for Passover, and His name is on their lips. Will He go to Jerusalem? What will
the Sanhedrin do if He does? Tens of thousands of them are camped for the night
at Jericho, and suddenly, here is that very same Jesus they were just speaking
of, strolling through the crowd. Recognizing Him, a crowd formed, and another
crowd came to see what the crowd was about.
In the crowd that day
was a publican named Zacchaeus. Being a short fellow, and spotting the direction
the crowd was flowing, he ran on ahead and climbed a tree so that he could see Jesus as He walked by. Guess who stopped right underneath Zacchaeus' tree? Guess
who informed Zacchaeus that He and His Apostles were going to spend the night
with him? What an honor! And to such a man! 'And he made haste, and came down,
and received him joyfully' (Luke 19.6). Thus it was that Zacchaeus' entire life
was turned upside down in the very best way. 'And Jesus said unto him, This day
is salvation come to this house' (Luke 19.9).
We see in this familiar
story several things that are so sweetly characteristic of Christ. We see His
compassion for those rejected by the rest of society. We see His willingness to
fearlessly contradict the stuck up religiousity of His day. But what makes this
story unique is one explanatory phrase which issues from Jesus' mouth. It
contains a truth which we might well have suspected, or even inferred, from how
He spent His life but now there is no need to suspect or infer. Instead, we
have a clear, plain, contextual, self-given reason for why Jesus came.
You are.
'For the Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost' (Luke 19.10). That is you. And
that is me. In other words, what motivated Jesus, what drove Him to be Who He
was and to undergo what He endured was people.
What is your motivation?
What do you want? What are you trying to get? What are you trying to do? What
moves, drives, impels you forward in your life? For Jesus, that answer was the
souls of men. He pursued them with a single minded ferocious love.
Beloved, His motivation
ought to be our motivation. His love ought to be our love. His aim ought to be
our aim. Jesus loved His world, and making salvation available to them is what
drove Him.
What do you love? Does there beat, inside your heart,
tender thoughts for the hordes of humanity that fill the sidewalks and buses
and trains and cars and bicycles of your city? Do you love the immigrant? Do you
love the life-long American? Do you love the Hispanic, the Jew, the Eastern
European, the Arab, the Asian, and the African that call your city home? Do
you love those in the barrios, and in the hood, and in the high rise condo
developments? Do you love the homeless who sleep under the bridge? Do you love
the waitress, preoccupied with her son's troubles at school, who mangles your
order? Do you love the nurse, weary from another double shift, who speaks to
you with annoying arrogance? Do you love the petty bureaucrat who thinks the
sun won't rise tomorrow if you don't have the proper stamp in the proper place
on the proper paper? Do you love the gang member who terrorizes your
neighborhood? Do you love the Jehovah's Witness who rings your doorbell? Do you
love the politician who grows fat eating from the trough of corruption and
vice? Do you love the neighbor across the hall who swears at his children? Do
you love your world?
If His motivation becomes our motivation and His love
becomes our love then His priority will become our priority. This is why soul
winning is so important to me. This is why teaching my children to witness is
to important to me. This is why training soul winners is so important to me.
This is why the one battle I will win in my church at all costs is the battle
to make it a soul winning church. This is why I have preached about it dozens
of times in my years as a pastor. The souls of men are the very reason Jesus
came.
Is that which is important to Him important to you? Is
that which He loves what you love? Is that which drives Him the same as that
which drives you? What are you seeking? Who are you seeking? What or who will
you pursue with a single minded ferocious love this week?
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