Zacchaeus Sunday

(Luke 19:1-10)

Over the course of the next several Sundays we will be presented with different themes which spiritually prepare us for the season of fasting and repentance… today we hear of Zacchaeus, and then in the following Sundays we shall hear of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, and the Final Judgment of all mankind. Our holy mother Church is guiding us through these Sundays to warm our hearts and set our minds upon the proper context for us to approach the fast in the right spirit, so that we can reap the greatest benefit from the blessing of the Great Fast.

Today we read the Gospel account of Zacchaeus, a despised tax-collector, a man who came to get a glimpse of Jesus as He was passing by, but because of his short stature and the great crowd of people, he could not have a clear view. So Zacchaeus, in his zeal, climbed into the branches of a sycamore tree to get a view of our Lord as He passed by. When Jesus came along this way, He made a point of stopping and looking up to Zacchaeus, calling out to him to ‘make haste and come down – for I desire to stay in your house this day’.

Each time we hear the Holy Gospels, we must recognize and realize that the Lord is speaking to us, here and now. We must ask ourselves – what is God saying to me?

Just like Zacchaeus, our sins make us ‘short of stature’ spiritually. Our vision of God is often lost and obscured because we cannot see past the obstacles of the world and our daily concerns. These worries, distractions, and temptations block our view from seeing God. We should take inspiration from Zacchaeus… we must take action and find the means to somehow climb above the tumult of the worldliness in which we live in order to gain perspective and get a glimpse of God. We must pull ourselves up from the obstacles of the world… we do this primarily through prayer, through a conscious awareness of God in our daily lives.

Once we’ve raised ourselves above the worldliness of our lives, we then need to have the courage to ‘go out on a limb’ and step forward in faith and trust. We must take the risk of reaching out to God in faith… How often do we hesitate to put our faith in God because we are bothered by doubts and cold heartedness of the one side, or by a sense of defeat and futility on the other side?

Look at the example of Zacchaeus… what drove him to climb up that tree and to go out on that limb? He was certainly breaking the mold of the typical tax-collector, who were generally seen as men of terrible selfishness… opportunists who preyed upon their fellow countrymen in order to gain the favor and money of their Roman lords. Zachhaeus could easily have listened to the voices of his rational, calculating, ‘tax-collector’s’ mind and doubted all that he had heard about the miracles of Christ. Or, on the contrary, what if he had faith in Christ, but gave in to the faintheartedness that must have whispered in his ears that he was nobody, that Christ would never look his way, that there was no point in trying because he would forever be a nothing.

Neither of these voices prevailed in the case of Zacchaeus, because both of these voices are coming from the same place… they are two sides of the same coin… they are the voices of self-centeredness, of self-preoccupation.

One side tells us that we don’t have all the facts we need to proceed with confidence, that we don’t have all the answers, so we must not take any risks. This is placing all of our trust in our self and in our limited knowledge and perception of things. Placing our trust in ourselves puts us on a very short leash indeed! It is arrogance and pride to presume that we have all the answers or that we are the measure of all things.

The other side tells us that we are no good… that we’re beyond repair, that there is no hope. We see our sins stacked before us and they are the same week after week after week. There is no hope! Maybe we think we’re being humble thinking along these lines, but this is actually the other voice of pride and self-preoccupation. If we succumb to this kind of defeated thinking, then it shows us that we are trusting in ourselves and not placing our trust in Christ. The Scriptures tell us:‘With men it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.’ 

Zacchaeus was despised, he was short of stature, he was probably pushed aside as he attempted to maneuver himself in the crowd to gain a view. But he did not submit to doubt, nor did he submit to defeat… his thoughts were directed toward Christ and he climbed that tree motivated solely by zeal and love for Jesus Christ. He did not over think it… he acted out of a pure heart. And, what do we hear in the Beatitudes?... ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’

Brothers and sisters in Christ! This must be our attitude toward Christ as well. This must be our attitude toward the blessed season of Great Lent. Let us lay aside the thoughts that pull us toward a calculating sense of superiority, of scrutinizing the wisdom of the Church to prescribe what is best for us. Let us lay aside the thoughts that pull us toward the other side of defeat and an expectation of hopelessness before we even begin…

Christ approaches… let us remove all obstacles and raise our point of view above all that distracts us from seeing our Lord. Let us approach all things from a pure heart… a heart that is burning and melting with love for God and that strives to please Him simply as a response of love.

If we can begin to prepare our hearts in this way, then we position ourselves to be in the right place for Christ to see us and to exclaim, ‘Make haste to come down, for today I must stay at your house!’ …For ‘today salvation has come to this house, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’