Men of the Bible Series - Zacchaeus didn't let anything get in the way.
5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, because today I must stay at your house."
6 So he quickly came down and welcomed Him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, "He's gone to lodge with a sinful man!"
8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, I'll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I'll pay back four times as much!"
9 "Today salvation has come to this house," Jesus told him, "because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost."
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem (Luke 19:28) on a trip that must have taken quite a bit of time, he was stopped by the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19), then there were the people that kept on bringing their kids to him (Luke 18:15), and he was doing a lot of teaching along the way as well. Zacchaeus must have heard about all of the uproar that Jesus was causing and he knew that he had to meet Jesus for himself.
As Jesus approached Zacchaeus location, it became clear to him that he would not be able to see Jesus over the crowds so he ran ahead and climbed a tree. Zacchaeus proved that he had a great desire to find out about Jesus and was determined to overcome the obstacles that got in the way.
Notice that Zacchaeus efforts are rewarded, Jesus calls hims down from the tree and invites himself to dinner with him, if we reach out to meet Jesus and make a bold move then we will not be disappointed. The question we have to answer for our self is "Is Jesus that important to me?" If we have the desire to get close to Jesus then it will happen, he will find us in our tree and invite himself in to get close to us.
We don't know what was said or how Jesus had an affect on Zacchaeus, but we do know that he experienced genuine change and to prove it he quickly announced that his life wasn't going to be the same, for now on he would live in surrender to Christ.
Jesus needs to be THAT important! He needs to be so important that it has an effect on the way I live, I need to desire to meet with him despite the obstacles, I need to seek him out everyday and keep my eyes on him. There are more than enough ways to be distracted but if we keep our eyes on Jesus then "the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."
Help me Lord to keep my eyes on you and not let the things that the world has to offer get in the way or cause my desire for you to fade.
