Daily Devotional • November 27
A Reading from Luke 19:1-10
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
Meditation
If tax collectors are bad, working for the Romans and often fleecing the people, then Zacchaeus, a chief collector, must be much worse — just ask the grumbling crowd.
Jesus is not deterred by a little grumbling though, and he is not ignorant about who Zacchaeus is when he calls him by name. As Jesus enters the life of Zacchaeus, coming and dwelling in his home, Zacchaeus is changed before our very eyes as he welcomes Jesus with joy. Jesus did not say to Zacchaeus, “You must become righteous before I can enter into your home.” Instead, what he is saying is that he must enter our lives and must dwell with us in order that he may make us righteous.
Soon those things which once defined the old life and self are changed in the presence of Christ. Money on which Zacchaeus’s life was built is turned over without a second thought. Jesus transforms this tax collector’s life by being a gracious guest, by tabernacling with a sinner.
None of us are perfect, and yet, if we’re honest with ourselves, we can tend to identify too quickly with the crowd, jumping on the grumbling bandwagon. When we do, we forget the shared story we have with Zacchaeus. We forget that salvation comes to him as the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Jesus calls the likes of Zacchaeus and of you and me that he may dwell in us and that our joy may be in him.
The Rev. Benjamin Hankinson serves as Director of Community Life and Operations for his alma mater, Nashotah House Theological Seminary. He also serves as Priest-in-Charge of St. James Episcopal Church in West Bend, Wisconsin.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Kinshasa – Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Essex Fells, New Jersey