Our ‘God Cares For’ the ONE, the individual (Christians are not clones, not so in other man made religions, nor in any ‘religion’. Religion cannot tolerate individuals! Jesus does).
At end of Luke 18 on the way into Jericho, Jesus stopped and called for the blind man, likely Bartimaeus. Jesus then restored his sight. At the beginning of Luke 19, on the way out of Jericho, Jesus stopped again, to speak to Zacchaeus. The account of Zacchaeus is only found in Luke’s Gospel.
Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector was wealthy and probably despised. He was also short and had to plan how he could see Jesus. Jesus was passing, ONE Time, ONE Chance only to see Him. We as believers today need to realise that when the Lord is coming our way, we too must go to Him. We mustn’t be so arrogant as to think we can go when it suits us. In fact the Lord may well speak to us when it’s not convenient, to see if we’ll heed Him. The account of Zacchaeus climbing the fig tree to get to the Lord has a lesson for us – there was an urgency for him to see Jesus.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus by name, picked him out from the crowd by his name. ‘Come down immediately, I have to stay at your house tonight’. Zacchaeus had Jesus as his house guest for ONE Night only, he would never have this opportunity again, and of course he accepted.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’
The people in Jericho had followed Jesus and seen what He’d been doing, but judged him by their own standards. They were quick to condemn Him for going to Zacchaeus’ house, but Jesus wasn’t bound by their views of right and wrong. He stepped outside the culture of His day and stayed with Zacchaeus, the tax collector. God doesn’t see people as we do, respectable people may have no place for God in their lives! We also, should be willing to offend and be offended for Jesus Name.
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’
Zacchaeus had his eyes opened too and decided to change his way of life. He gave away a lot of his wealth right there, before Jesus. His heart had changed since his ONE Meeting with the Lord and Jesus acknowledged him.
9 Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’
Jesus reached out to ONE man who was lost and opened his understanding to turn to God. Zacchaeus had struggled to get to Jesus and his efforts were rewarded, now he was a son.
God bless and keep you as His much loved child today.