There is a column in a popular magazine for women that explores case studies of marriages in trouble. It asks the question: “Can this marriage be saved?” In today’s Gospel passage, St. Luke tells us about a man who seems to have been a crook and asks, “Can this man be saved?”
Zacchaeus, the person in question, was a small man who became wealthy and powerful by extorting money from his fellow Israelites and cozying up to the enemy, the Romans, who were occupying the land. Not only was he a tax ...
There is a column in a popular magazine for women that explores case studies of marriages in trouble. It asks the question: “Can this marriage be saved?” In today’s Gospel passage, St. Luke tells us about a man who seems to have been a crook and asks, “Can this man be saved?”
Zacchaeus, the person in question, was a small man who became wealthy and powerful by extorting money from his fellow Israelites and cozying up to the enemy, the Romans, who were occupying the land. Not only was he a tax collector, a despised occupation at the time, but he was very good at it and earned a tremendous amount of money in the process.
And yet, when Jesus came to town, Zacchaeus paid attention. He even climbed a tree to get a better look. There must have been something about Jesus and His message that gave Zacchaeus something all his money and power couldn’t supply. Despite all he had, deep in his heart, Zacchaeus wanted what Jesus was offering. This meant that he could, of course, be saved.
Redemption is a matter of the heart; Zacchaeus’ heart was in the right place. The Pharisees who objected to Jesus spending time with Zacchaeus, never knew what was going on in his heart, let alone in their own hearts. They worried about appearances, how they looked to others and how others weren’t making the grade.
Many religious zealots of our time, many self-righteous people, will make statements about the sinfulness and salvation of others, all while ignoring their own sinfulness. It would seem that the spirit of hypocrisy that existed in the hearts of the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, is still alive and thriving in our own time.
I was on a website a few years ago that, for whatever reason, had recordings of phone messages left by a self-appointed prophet for one of his former followers. In the course of the different phone messages, the so-called prophet insulted, criticized, cursed at and threatened to bear false witness against the former follower, all while proclaiming the certainty of his own salvation and the impending damnation of the former follower. Jesus had a phrase for people like that, for people like the Pharisees that Jesus encountered: he called them “Blind guides, blind fools.”
They didn’t have a clue about the salvation of others nor their own salvation. They didn’t know what was in the hearts of others and, because they were so busy pointing the finger and ignoring their own failures, they didn’t even know what was in their own hearts.
Only God knows what is really in the very depths of our hearts. Up to the point that Zacchaeus met Jesus, he lived a life that earned him the scorn of his neighbors but, it seems, his heart was searching for more and he recognized that for which he was searching for in the person of Jesus.
In our first reading today, from the Book of Wisdom, we hear the about God’s love for each one of us, how God does not loathe us despite our sinfulness, and how God encourages us to abandon that sinfulness, that we may accept and be transformed by His love.
Zacchaeus did exactly that. His search for fulfillment brought him down the wrong path; he was filling his life with money, possessions, and power, but his heart was looking for something more. He found it when he met Jesus and he amended his life and opened up space in his heart and soul, a space that can only be filled by God.
Let us pray this week, and always, that we will be constantly searching for the things of God, that we may recognize them, and that we will open space in our lives and our very selves, that God may have room to dwell in us. +
