When our kids were little my son would come home from school and tell us about his day. This included some of what he learned but most important was who was fastest on the playground. My daughter who is a few years older, also in grade school at the time, was confused by the constant ranking. I explained to her that for her brother and all of his buddies, ‘it is always a competition. ‘
Being competitive has a good place in our lives. It helps us to strive to be a better athlete, a better student, a better coworker, and a better volunteer. In all of these areas, and more, the desire to be better or faster, than my neighbor drives one to peer inward and develop the areas of their mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual lives.
But what happens when I look at myself and there is a trait I do not like but I cannot change, like my height?
“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.”
Luke 19:1-4 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.19.1-4.NIV
Zacchaeus seems to be one who over compensated in other areas of his life because he did not like something he could not change. Physical stature is an easy differentiator and often determines one’s power, presence, and status. Zacchaeus was dealt a bad hand when it came to height, he was short, and it seems as though everyone else was taller.
I am guessing that his vertical challenge drove him to seek power elsewhere. He sold out and took the job of a tax collector which, while despised by his neighbors, provided him with power and status over them. He had the Roman military behind him to force payments and he also had the ability to become very wealthy as compared to the taller ones.
Zacchaeus stature and possibly difficult childhood provided an opportunity to justify abandoning and even stealing from his people. He could very well have worked up stories both true and imaginary of the injustices received and the righteous penalties he wielded.
However, his encounter with Jesus transforms him.
First, he was so deeply drawn that he went to great lengths including climbing a tree like a child in order to see. This in and of itself may have been a transformative event. He didn’t seem to care what others thought about his height. He is more intrigued by Jesus than worried about how it would look as he climbed a tree to see. The very act of shifting my attention off of oneself and off of the perceptions of others and on to Jesus starts his journey toward freedom.
Then Jesus recognizes Zacchaeus . I don’t think it was his height or tree climb that drew Jesus attention. There were many in the crowd seeking him, often pushing and performing rather extraordinary stunts to see him. My guess is that it was the Spirit who led with compassion to the encounter. Think about how often Jesus was moved with compassion toward someone and then healed or delivered.
Jesus does something incredible, he invites himself over to Zacchaeus’ home to stay. A rabbi, a holy man, a prophet, a person of great power and significance, recognizes Zacchaeus as one whose home he wanted to stay in. This is radical. Pharisees, the religious ones, would never enter into, eat in, or sleep in a sinful persons home. This would make one unclean. The shame of the little sell out tax collection would run off on them. Jesus actions are scandalous, even the crowd is stunned saying,
“All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.””
Luke 19:7 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.19.7.NIV
But Zacchaeus is transformed. Jesus acknowledges his worth, strength, value, and significance. And it was not tied to his height, wealth, sin, or shame. This encounter so rocked Zacchaeus that he, on the spot, releases the very thing that he had spent his life building to compensate for what he perceived as lacking. He released is money.
Today our world is fixated on one’s self. My truth. My feelings. My happiness. Mine mine mine… and the corollary is the persistent need for external affirmation from everyone in proximity. The inability to work with the body and circumstances one is given drives an insatiable desire to distort reality. This can result in both self harm, trying to escape or the harm of others seeking their affirmation.
It is only in our Zacchaeus moment, when we no longer care what other think and no longer accept our self-perceived inadequacy, that we can seek and be found. For when we find Him He in all reality has already found us. And the movement of the Spirit can transform even the greatest pain in our lives.
“But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.””
Luke 19:8-10 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.19.8-10.NIV