zaccheus

id been meaning to get around to blogging this for a couple of weeks now so here goes. i remember a couple of sundays ago when pastor gary was talking about zaccheus, the chief tax collector whom nobody liked and was so short that he had to climb up the tree to see Jesus. as i was listening to pastor gary speak, god really opened up my heart as to how there was nothing that Jesus spoke of and nobody that He encountered that we dont come across today i saw hoe Jesus looked beyond the outside and ministered to the inside man behind the outer actions.
a couple of things really stood out...the fact that zaccheus WAS so short and that he was in a position to rob his people. i see someone who all his life was probably what we would call today a geek...smarter than the average bear, sort of an oddball, probably someone who got made fun of, the kid whom the neighborhood bullies probably took his lunch money, got beat up on more than one occasion. but he was smart. go figure they didnt pick dummies to be auditors and tax collectors. we see this alot today..kids who have a miserable childhood because people just dont like them very much who later in life get put in positions of power and authority that give them a chance to get their own back, where everything they do when they rob step on and fleece other is like saying HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!!! im pretty sure if you try to establish a sense of loyalty to zaccheus"s people his response to you would have been LOYALTY??? TO MY
PEOPLE?? WHY??WHAT DID MY OWN PEOPLE EVER DO FOR ME?? i think he thought that by being in a position of power wealth and authority would somehow banish that frightened kid who just was trying to get thru another day without being hungry because his lunch money got stolen without getting beat up without being called a nerd and a geek too afraid to tell anyone knowing it would made it worse for him. that finally being able to get even with his tormentors would silence that deep need just to be loved accepted for who he was to have friends. but it never did. that frightened little boy was who was climbing up that tree to see Jesus because he knew that deep emptiness inside of him hadnt been and never would be filled by any of that. thats all of us who are lost..that frightened kid who never ever healed. some of us were able to let Him in behind the mask because we saw He WAS the one who COULD heal us.
many of us however never do.

zaccheus being willing to give half his goods to the poor and restore manyfold what he had stolen came from that place that matthew 6:14-15 talks about..in order to recieve forgiveness from God he first had to be willing to forgive those who had wronged him. and forgive himself