Jesus visits Zacchaeus' House and Brings Salvation

“Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house,” (See today’s Gospel, Luke 19: 1-10).  Zacchaeus was a wealthy man, a tax collector, hated/despised by the people for his extortionary activities among them.  He cheated them on taxes and pocketed the money. Zacchaeus had heard that Jesus intended to pass through the town so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree so he would see him. No way, in the crowd, would he have gotten a glimpse of him, because Zacchaeus was too short of a man. Did Zacchaeus expect that Jesus would even notice him, much less, say: “[C]ome down quickly, for today I must stay at your house”?  Zacchaeus is a public sinner. Everyone knew that his deeds were despicable. What is Jesus doing? Some of the people were outraged.  Jesus dining with a tax collector!  He clearly says to the crowd: “…the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

Jesus says those same words to you and me, to anyone seeking the Lord. God notices!  God reads hearts!  In the first reading of today’s liturgy, John heard the Lord saying to him that the people of the Church in Sardis and in Laodicea both needed to repent.  To one of the Churches the Lord said: “I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead…I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God…repent.” To the other Church, the Lord says:  “I know your works;  I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot…[but] you are lukewarm……….I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’ and yet do you realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed….Be earnest, therefore, and repent.”

Zacchaeus realized that he was “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” before God. He repented. What about you and me? Do we know ourselves as God knows us? Are we aware of how much we need God’s mercy and love? At the right moment, as we are seeking the Lord, the Lord will say to us: “Come down from your prideful position, “for today I must come to your house.”