Thirty First Sunday of the year October 30, 2022
Wisdom 11:22-12:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10
A true seeker finds. Zacchaeus the chief of the tax
collectors is introduced into the story because he wanted to see Jesus and find
for himself who this person was. Tax collectors had never been popular in Roman
Palestine and they were particularly hated by everyone including the Jews
themselves. It was bad enough that the tax
collectors collaborated with the foreign oppressors, namely the Romans. They
also oppressed people by collecting taxes more than demanded by Rome. In the Gospel of today Jesus' encounter with
Zacchaeus was not by chance. Jesus called him in a unique way. Zacchaeus had
heard that Jesus was coming and out of curiosity, he wanted to see Him. We are
also told that he was short in stature and, because of the crowd blocking his
vision, he could not see Jesus. So, in spite
of being a rich and important man, he did not hesitate to climb a tree to get a
better look. He risked public ridicule
to see Jesus.
As the chief tax collector of the city of Jericho, Zacchaeus
would have been stinking rich by those days’ standards. The chief tax collector
was not a worker on a fixed salary, he was the sole proprietor of a business
enterprise. The Roman administration would levy a city the amount of money they
expected the city to contribute in a year. The chief tax collector would pay
that amount to the Roman authorities and then have the sole right and freedom
to impose and collect taxes from the inhabitants of the city. He himself
determined how much each person would pay. He would employ the actual tax
collection agents to go round and take the taxes. Whatever money they collected
over and above the lump sum he paid to the Roman administrator was his profit.
Though the chief tax collector made a lot of money, he was hated in the city,
not only because he overtaxed the people, but also because he was helping the
pagan Romans to exploit his own people. He was regarded as a public sinner, as
a traitor and as someone unclean before God. You can see that, although he was
financially well to do, the chief tax collector lived a life of loneliness,
alienated from his own people and alienated from God.
I would like to take five lessons from the story of
Zacchaeus.
1. Make a solid effort in life and be sure that Jesus will
reward you. It means seeking him with all your heart and doing everything he
would have you do!
2. Never judge the appearance. Far too often we make a
judgment about someone based on how someone looks or acts. This makes us
impotent to help someone change their lives.
3. Never to judge someone’s bad reputation. People gain a reputation for better or worse from the lives they have lived and the reports that have been spread about them. When you hear a negative talk from someone, let God be the judge.
4. Practice looking into the person’s heart. My spiritual
director once told me, “in prayer see your opponent’s heart. There we can see
the person with his own struggles and joys, desires and disappointments.
5. Focus on seeking and saving the lost. We are surrounded
by people who don’t know or follow Jesus. I am convinced that the very best
life comes to us when we follow him. Are you? I want to help people find that
life. When we do that, God changes lives and we become participants in that
transformation!
Happy Sunday
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