This Guy?

Nobody cared about vertically-challenged Zacchaeus, the loathsome little tax collector.  For such a tiny man, he had become a big problem for his community working for the hated Romans, collecting taxes above what was due and keeping it for himself.  He didn't deserve to see the rabbi Jesus, worker of miracles.

Being short as he was and hated as he became, his only hope to see Jesus was to climb a sycamore tree.  As he gazed out over the crowd he saw this Jesus walking in his direction and then stop just below him, looking up.

Zacchaeus had to be thinking, "Oh boy, am I going to get it now.  The Prophet is going to know who and what I am, and he will really give me what for."  The crowd, no doubt, expected the same thing for this little parasite on society.

They would have all been wrong, nothing could have been further from the truth of Jesus' intention that day.  "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).

Can you see his jaw dropping as he drops down from the tree?  "Me, you want to come to my house and have dinner with me?"  And the crowd had to have been thinking along with Zacchaeus, "Him, the little toad Zacchaeus?  You can't be serious.  Whay would a prophet want to eat with a lying, thieving tax collector?" Why?  Because this was the reason Jesus came, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Lk 19:10).

Jesus didn't come to just gather the good good guys around him, he came to turn the bad guys around, to return the lost sheep.  Jesus came reach out to even the worst among us, to even your worst enemy.  You know - that guy you can't stand?  That guy, Jesus came to him.  And, to top it off, he want your help to reach him.

You've got to be kidding, right?  Nope!  Jesus came to get that guy to turn around and he want you to help him make the turn.  He wants you, looking for even that guy, to "go into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame" (Lk 14:21).  Jesus wants no stone unturned looking to save those who are lost.  Jus' Say'n