"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..."
Luke 19:2-3
Does anyone mind if we revisit Zacchaeus from Tuesday's Gospel? I must admit the Revelation readings baffle me...they seem science-fiction-y and I like more concrete stuff, like a guy climbing a tree to see Jesus! Our Deacon had a wonderful thought about Zacchaeus that I have been thinking about since he preached on this Gospel a while back. It says in the reading that Zacchaeus had to run ahead and climb a tree to get a better look at Jesus. Deacon Chris explained that Zacchaeus, being a wealthy tax collector, would have been hated by the crowd. It would have been hard for him to walk through the crowd because of their distain for him. The Gospel saying he ran ahead and climbed a tree because he was short was, perhaps, just a nice way of explaining his actions. The real reason was that the crowd may have roughed him up. I have thought about this long and hard in light of our divided state as a nation. It pains me to think of the negativity in our country today. Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus completely changes him from that day on. Encounters with Jesus do that for people. Let's pray for each other today! Love, heidi
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