GREEDY NO MORE

Jericho:  Zacchaeus, an evil tax collector received a wonderful guest to stay in his place. It was a talk of the town. The guest was no ordinary person. Everybody considered this fellow a very righteous person and some worshipped him as God. His name, Jesus. The biggest puzzle they had was that how a righteous man like Jesus wanted to come and stay in the home of this wicked man. Everybody knew that Zacchaues was a greedy man who liked to threaten people. He cheated people of their money and had a band of thieves with them, all tax collectors.

But deep inside of Zacchaeus’ heart, he knew he had done wrong. Especially so when he heard of Jesus doing so many marvellous things for the people. Being a greedy person, Zacchaeus did some very bad things. He could not bear the guilt anymore but didn’t know who to turn to so that he could change into a better person. He was shattered and devastated.

Suddenly, Jesus came into his mind. He heard of Jesus forgiving the sins of the people and of the many who worshiped Him as the Son of God. He thought that if he could get hold of Jesus, he would be set free from sins of greed. Furthermore, this will stop people from grumbling and gossiping about him once and for all. So, he resolved in his mind to find Jesus.

Zacchaeus was a short man. When he knew Jesus was coming into the part of the town, he was extremely delighted. But when he saw that Jesus was surrounded by a sea of people, he could not see nor reach Him. He promised himself that no matter how he had to see Jesus that day. Nothing stopped him from meeting Jesus. He found a tree nearby and straight away climbed up just to get a glimpse of Him.

With so many people clamouring over the Son of God, he was glad that he could at least see Jesus’ face. Then something happened that day that changed Zacchaeus’ life forever. Jesus noticed him up on that tree. He was stunned and couldn’t utter a thing. “He’s seen me! He’s seen me!”, the thought kept ringing in his mind. But then a marvellous thing happened which completely took the tax collector by surprise.

Jesus spoke. He not only spoke but He spoke to Zacchaeus. This was too good to be true. Jesus asked him to come down from the tree for He wanted to stay in his house.

“The Son of God wants to stay at this short, wicked, and greedy tax collector’s place,” he thought to himself, completely surprised!

Yes! It was true. Immediately, he reached out his hands towards Jesus and hugged Him, oblivious of people who cursed him and gossiped about him. They were also annoyed with Jesus for making friends with this sinner.

With tears in his eyes, he told Jesus that he would be a better person. He promised the Son of God that half of his possessions will be given to the poor. Furthermore, he would give back four times as much as those whom he had cheated.

Jesus forgave him because he genuinely repented of his sins. The greatest thrill of  Zacchaeus ‘ life was when his sins were forgiven and the second greatest must have been to have had Jesus staying in his house. “WOW!” – PSBIBLE News

REFLECTION

This story is found in Luke 19:1-10. Jesus said “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). Are you lost in your sins of greediness, or grumbling or gossiping? Call on Jesus and He will come into your heart and forgive all your sins. Your heart is like Zacchaeus’ house which Jesus can come in and be a friend to you even though you are a sinner. Hallelujah!