Tree Change

So, you’re in the crowd, watching and waiting for Jesus; suddenly you notice that there’s a bloke in the gum tree next to you, six feet up and climbing.

He’s not the normal sort to be parked in a eucalypt. They’re at the cricket, when the crowd’s too big, or outside the drive-in, dodging the cost of a ticket.

This goose is wearing a good suit and carrying a briefcase; he looks like he hasn’t negotiated a tree in his life. His balance is, to say the least, precarious. However, his ineptitude is outweighed by his energy, searching the road.

He’s looking for Jesus, like the rest of us, but no one I know would have bothered to go this far. This one is keen.

And he’s rewarded; when Jesus arrives, the crowd is the same as it always is, pushing and murmuring, with the occasional person stumbling forward, or calling out his name. People want to be noticed, even for a minute, but some want – need – more. Healing, or forgiveness, or a blessing, or to hear their name.

What propelled this one up the tree? Whatever it was, it worked. Jesus saw him, called his name and invited himself to lunch.  What brought Zacchaeus there? What compelled him? Shame, hope, self-loathing, intrigue?

What compels us to look for Jesus, even to stand out from the crowd in some desperate hope of seeing him, knowing him?

What would you hope for from Jesus? If he saw you in the crowd, would you hide? And if he called your name, what then?

Joel the prophet talked of old folk dreaming and young ones seeing visions. Perhaps this despised character saw a new vision of himself, of what he might be and do, in the hospitality of God. The desperation to risk embarrassing himself up a tree opened him up to Jesus’ invitation – not just lunch, but life.

The crowd was none too pleased; the original attention from Jesus for this lowlife (tax collectors were despised as traitors and collaborators with the Romans) and then the invitation to lunch would not have helped. This crowd that is one minute pursuing Jesus in hope of a miracle, is just as likely to grumble a moment later when things don’t go the way they want.

Thank goodness we aren’t in the crowd, or behave like them. [Irony emoji]

What does it mean to pursue our own hope in Jesus, despite the crowd? What will it mean to climb the tree, or accept Jesus’ invitation, or to embrace the opportunity, when you know that everyone will chip you, even accuse you?

Zacchaeus chooses life. Not only the welcome of Jesus, but the life which followed – returning the money, extravagantly and publicly. That’s the consequence of risking yourself with Jesus; he will take you seriously.

Jesus is seeking us out, to find and to save; when we look for Jesus, we discover he is already looking for us.