Luke 19:1-4
And after entering, Jesus was passing through Jericho. And behold!
A man – by name being called Zacchaeus – was chief of the tax-collectors
and he was rich. And he was desiring to
see who this Jesus is, and he was not powerful enough for the sake of the
crowd, because he was of such a small stature.
And after running ahead, he went up into a sycamore tree in order that
he should see Him because that one was about to pass by.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
The tables are suddenly turned. Instead of meeting a nameless blind man that
the crowd loathes, we now meet a very man whose name we know. What can we learn from the fact that these
stories are put back to back? We can’t
conclude that because Jesus cares about the nameless that He doesn’t want
anything to do with those whom the world finds important. In fact, it is the opposite. Jesus loves the nameless. Jesus loves the famous. Our popularity in the world – or lack thereof
– does not mar the love that God bestows upon us.
Is it easy to forget that God loves both the famous and the nameless? Who in that group are you most likely to
overlook yourself?
Second Thought:
Zacchaeus desires to see Jesus. In this we begin to understand why God
loves. He doesn’t love us because of who
we are. He is not impressed by our
station. What He wants is that we desire
to be with Him. Jesus notices Zacchaeus
because Zacchaeus’ heart is right. The
rich man who probably already has everything he could want desires to meet with
Jesus. That should be inspirational to
us.
How badly do you desire to meet Jesus? How do you live this out?
Third Thought:
In spite of his desire, he cannot meet
the focus of his desire. He can’t come
to Jesus because he is too small. He’s
not powerful enough. Once more we hear
that the crowd gets in the way. Once
more the crowd tries to prevent someone from meeting Jesus. But like the blind man, Zacchaeus is not
going to be stifled by the crowd. He
climbs a tree so that he can see Jesus.
When does the world around you desire
to keep you down and try to keep your spirit from desiring God? How do you conquer in such moments?
Passage
for Tomorrow: Luke 19:5-6
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