A Seeking Saviour

And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." - Luke 19.9-10

Our grandchildren love the song ‘Zaccheus was a wee little man.’  It is a fun song and having worked with kids forever it is hard to read this account and not think about the song.

One day as Jesus was approaching Jericho the crowds began to gather, as they did all over. Everyone was curious. He couldn’t see because of the crowd. Crowds can be very bothersome. We were in Dublin last weekend for the Tall Ships Festival. There were half a million people there that day. At points we literally couldn’t move because the crowd. I like how the KJV would have described that kind of a situation – just as we could not move because of the ‘press’ Zacchaeus couldn’t see Jesus because of the ‘press.’ Sorry, I just love that word there.

Anyhow, Zaccheus did what I wanted to do, he escaped the press. He climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus.

As Jesus passed by something strange happened. Jesus stopped, looked up in the tree, and spoke to Zaccheus. Imagine the surprise. My closest experience came about 35 years ago at Tennessee Temple University. We had a ‘Christian Athlete Day’ and one of the athletes there was Billy ‘White Shoes’ Johnson who had been a friend in another college. He was an NFL star and there was a huge queue to get his autograph. Mary and I, dating at the time, joined the queue with little hope that he would recognise me. After all he was Billy ‘White Shoes’ and I was just Roger. But he looked up, saw us in the queue, stood up and called out ‘Roger, come up here!’

Anyway, this must have been something like that – only negative. He knew who he was. He knew he was a thief. He knew he was considered a sinner.

But Jesus said (well, sort of) ‘Zaccheus, you come down, for we’re going to your house for tea.’

Think about all the teachers and rabbis and religious leaders who surely though that Jesus would want to talk to them! But He is going to eat his dinner with a sinner – a tax collector – a crook! So they did what they always did; they condemned and criticised.

But Jesus clearly explained himself, ‘Today salvation has come to this house…for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.’

Praise God! Jesus came to save, but He also came to seek. He sought out Zaccheus all those years ago just like He sought me out in 1974. Praise God for a Seeking Saviour!