19 Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. ² There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. ³ He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

⁵ When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. ⁷ But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

⁸ Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

⁹ Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

Luke 19:1-10

Dear God, I almost deleted verses 6-9 because what I wanted to focus on what the connection between Jesus intentionally seeking Zacchaeus and his line at the end of this story: “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” This indicates that at the beginning of the story, Zacchaeus was definitely lost. He had gotten lost in selfishness and self-preservation. He was willing to be despised as long as it meant his life would be as comfortable and secure as possible. He didn’t care about others. In fact, he got his wealth by taking extra from others who needed it.

I had a woman come to my office this week looking for some help. I knew her as a donor, but I hadn’t made a connection in my head as to how large of a donor she is. As she told me her story, she shared with me how trying to help a loved one was draining her finances. And now she needs some expensive repairs done to her house. But still her real concern was how to effectively care for her loved one.

Later, I looked her up in our donor database and was surprised to see that all of her donations had been over $1,000 each year. She has seemingly been giving sacrificially all of this time. It was a reminder that people are trusting our nonprofit to be good stewards of their money.

So back to our story, Jesus noticed Zacchaeus in the tree, seemingly instantly knew who he was and what kind of man he was, and pursued him. He knew that Zacchaeus needed more than to just see him. Zacchaeus needed to know him. It is the knowing of Jesus that changes us.

This kind of feeds into the prayer I did yesterday from the video Fr. Mike Schmitz did on knowing Jesus. The question, “Do you know Jesus well enough to reject him?” is compelling. When Zacchaeus met and then got to know Jesus, it changed everything for him.

Father, help me to know you more and more. More and more, help me to know your entire Triune nature. Help me to then reflect all of you into this world and to those around me.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen