shamed: Saved from Sin in a Sycamore Tree
‘For here is the way God so loved the world—He gave His only unique Son as a gift.’ (John 3:16a, TPT)
April 11th, 2022
FOOL-ish, i.e. lacking judgement or sense; ill-considered; unwise; preposterous; thoughtless; reckless; absurd; idiotic.
1 Corinthians 1:18: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.’ (NKJV)
The forgiveness from sin and unconditional love is so powerful and vastly far-reaching, it can even extend into the branches of a blossoming tree. It can seek you anywhere you hide. It will chase you down. It outruns shame. The gaze of it upon our lives is convicting and life changing. The cleanliness of it wipes the stain of sin away and erases any mark left behind on the chalkboard of your character.
Take Zacchaeus, a (fraudulently) wealthy man who exercised his title of chief tax collector to extort people. It interests me that a dishonest man was so eager to catch a glimpse of this Jesus, who everyone was talking about. Guilt usually causes us to run in the opposite direction, but Zacchaeus went as far as to climb a tree because he was so small in stature that unless he climbed above the crowd, he would be unable to sneak a peek. I wonder what it was about Jesus that mystified Zacchaeus. I wonder if he wanted to get caught. Had the shame and the constant hiding induced remorse to churn in his heart? Did the financial rape he was perpetrating on his fellow man keep him awake at night, cause him to be incapable of peering in the mirror at the face staring back at him? Had he heard there was this man who had arrived on the scene, who was causing people to change their ways, who was forgiving people of their sin and healing their sicknesses and restoring them to goodness? I don’t know what it was about Jesus that drew the fool-ish, the messy, broken and sinful people to Himself, just like Zacchaeus, just like me, but He is still doing it today. And until all of humanity has a chance to hear about His grace and His sacrifice for us, He will continue to magnetize mankind to Himself.
It almost makes me weep when I picture Zacchaeus hidden in those branches, chancing a glance through a privacy screen of leafy green foliage. He is a small man with an enormous hole inside of himself. What profound love—that’s the only way it makes sense—that stopped Jesus in His tracks to look up, to peer through, to seek within, into the lost and dying soul of a sinful man. Jesus doesn’t know Zacchaeus is there because Zacchaeus hollered at Jesus while He was walking by. Jesus knows Zacchaeus is in hiding and watching Him because his lostness and need for grace and healing gave him away. Our heart condition summons Jesus in every situation. I hear the gentle words and see the kind way the Savior reaches out to Zacchaeus.
‘”When Jesus got to that place, He looked up into the tree and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry on down, for I must stay at your house today!” So, he scurried down the tree and found himself face-to-face with Jesus! As Jesus left to go with Zacchaeus, many in the crowd complained, ‘Look at this! Of all the people to have dinner with, He’s going to eat in the house of a crook.’ Zacchaeus was amazed over His gracious visit to his home and joyously welcomed Jesus. Zacchaeus stood in front of the Lord and said, ‘Half of all that I own I will give to the poor. And Lord, if I have cheated anyone, I promise to pay them back four times as much as I stole.’ Jesus said to him, “Your repentance shows that today life has come to you and your household, and that you are a true son of Abraham. The Son of Man has come to seek out and to give life to those who are lost.”’ (Luke 19:5-10, TPT) On this day, Zacchaeus got something of greater wealth than he had ever received before, salvation and forgiveness. And I think to myself, isn’t it great that Jesus doesn’t listen to all the snide remarks of the crowd, that His heart-song drowns out all passing comments, and instead He gives us grace where no one else will, and where it certainly isn’t deserved. Except through the eyes of a redemptive Lord. Even when we think we are hidden and unreachable in the branches of sin.
I wonder if Jesus said He was coming to my house today if I’d be ready and willing to welcome Him to come away with me like Zacchaeus or if I’d feel I needed to tidy up some stuff in my corners, hide things out of view. Would I allow His gaze to sweep over me, convict and change me, make me clean? Isn’t it grand that the snarky voices of the crowd don’t keep Jesus away from coming in to hang with me and allowing me to hang with Him?!
John 3:16b, ‘SOW NOW: whoever believes in Him will never perish, but experience everlasting life.’ (TPT)
