When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

Luke 19:5

For Meditation.

I love Jesus. Why wouldn’t I? After all that I did to hide from Him, Jesus never left me to my self-deluded and destructive ways. Sometimes, I pretended to love Him. I did church and played the role of an obedient child. Other times, I stayed as far away from everything that smelled of the church as was possible. During those times, Christians irritated me. I argued against a loving God who will send all the billions of people of other faiths, apart from those who put their trust in Christ, to hell. That did not make sense to me. How, then, could I love Him? Yet, I knew enough to make me feel guilty and ashamed of the secret life that I thought nobody knew. The truth I had learned from my Christian upbringing, which I tried to deny, tormented me. My soul yearned to be set free. 

I believe Zacchaeus had the same struggles that I suffered through in those days. A Jew who had sold his soul to the Romans and made a good fortune from their tax system he supervised. Life was good, but peace was far from Him. He was like so many people who sweat in their airconditioned vehicles. They are in search of the real peace that only Jesus offers to all who put their lives in His nail-pierced hands.

The diminutive tax collector determined to come close to Jesus, but not close enough to be seen by Him. What ignorance! The branches of the Sycamore tree could not hide him from the Omniscient Savior.   

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Lk. 19:5).

What a Savior! His voice soothed the anguished soul of the short man. He hurried down and threw himself into the arms of Jesus. Salvation came to the house of that son of Abraham (9-10).

Your ivory tower is not too tall to hide you from Jesus. Hear His voice today, calling you by name to come down to receive the gift of your life – redemption for your soul (Col. 1:13-14).