If You Can't See, Well then Climb a Tree!

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.

Now a man there named Zacchaeus,

who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, 

was seeking to see who Jesus was;

but he could not see him because of the crowd,

for he was short in stature. 

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,

who was about to pass that way.c

When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, 

"Zacchaeus, come down quickly,

for today I must stay at your house." 

And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 

When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, 

"He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." 

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,

"Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,

and if I have extorted anything from anyone

I shall repay it four times over."

And Jesus said to him,

"Today salvation has come to this house

because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. 

For the Son of Man has come to seek

and to save what was lost."

Today we read the story of Zacchaeus a man of some importance in the town of Jerricho.  The town of Jerricho was an important place because it was from this area that balsam was exported.  Balsam was used to make a rare perfume known as the Balm of Gilead. It was used by young women to attract eligible young men but it also was used to anoint the heads of some of the kings of Israel when the oil that was normally used was not available.  It was said that Jerricho was the only place one could get the genuine balsam.  The product was, therefore, considered very valuable and the Romans stationed a trusted tax-gatherer in this town so not one denarius of tax would escape the emperor's treasury.  The man that they put in place was Zacchaeus who is called a man of small stature.  To be blunt, he was short.  His name in Hebrew means "innocent" or "pure" which is kind of ironic since his chosen occupation was most certainly looked down upon by the people.  Israel could never get used to being subjects of another country.  The Romans were seen as invaders. The Romans for their part did their best to keep the situation calm in this small backwater of the empire, going even so far as to circulate coins that did not depict Caesar on them for the Jews would not even touch those coins as they believed that they were against the commandment of God.  The Romans even put local people in charge of collecting the taxes due to the empire.  They felt that payment would be made with less fuss if a local citizen was in charge of collecting the payment.  They told their collectors how was was due and it was the job of the collector to provide that amount of money to the treasury of Rome.  The people saw it just a bit differently.  They saw the tax collector as a collaborator of Rome, as a sinful man and he enjoyed only the company of other sinners.  Since they were not considered worthy of being friends and neighbors to their friends and neighbors, the tax collectors typically extracted more from the people then was actually due.  These extra funds, to which the Romans turned a blind eye, went to line the pockets of the tax-collectors and many of them were made very wealthy indeed. 

So, here we have Zacchaeus, a despised man who is very short.  He wanted to see Jesus but he could not because he was too short and I would imagine that the people lining the streets did their best to keep the hated puppet of Rome in the back of the line and for once not getting his way.  It must have been a bit of sport for the crowd to irritate the tax man in this manner.  Now, Zacchaeus could have handled this in two ways.  First, he could have just given up, cursing the day he was born a short man.  Second, which is the way he took, he could take his lemons and make lemonade with them!  He rushed ahead and climbed a tree, so great was his desire to see Jesus.  Jesus noticed him and told him that he meant to have dinner with him that day.  Can you imagine how Zacchaeus felt?  He must have been almost giddy with joy.  The people in the town hated him for what he did for a living but the Jesus would come and dine with him.  He made the arrangements and a lavish feast was prepared. In a moment of inspiration, he repented of his sin and told the Lord that he would give half of his possessions to the poor and repay those he had defrauded four-fold.  Jesus saw the goodness in this mans heart and told him that as of this day, salvation had entered the house of Zacchaeus.

What can we learn from this story?  I think that we should always be ready to do whatever is necessary to get closer to Jesus.  If we do this and if we repent of our sins He will come into our homes and stay with us.  No one is so evil that they cannot repent.  While life flows through our veins we are given the opportunity to do what is needed to be a friend of Jesus.  Climb the tree today, the view from the top is magnificent!