Salvation to this house - Fri 9 Feb 07

I can’t remember when it first started, I mean I was always small for my age but there comes a time when you realize that is a disadvantage. When the others began to pick on me at first I was scared. I had no hope of winning the fight so I came home day after day with bumps and bruises and didn’t tell anyone. I was too ashamed.
Then the anger began to grow on me and the determination, one day I would be greater than any of them, one day they would pay.
So I got into the tax business. I was always good with figures and quick on the mark so I stopped at nothing to establish myself in Jericho. I had to be ruthless but step by step I made it to the top. Chief tax collector of Jericho and with the daily pleasure of seeing my former enemies cringe when I walked past. And I was rich, very rich. I had everything I needed. A beautiful, well connected wife, servants and a good education for my children. Most days I don’t even have to work, I laugh at the poor suckers who toil all day long just to pay my dues.
But just lately I had begun to wonder why I still needed to do it. I’d made my point after all. And I had begun to see through the glamour a bit. I would have given everything I had away for the real love of a genuine friend. Sure I moved in high places but I could tell that none of my so called friends really wanted me, just my money.
Then one day I was just going about my business and I heard a commotion going on. There was a bit of a crowd forming and I heard the name Jesus. I wondered who this man was that he could cause such a stir. Well of course I couldn’t see over the heads of the others so I shinned up a tree to get a better look.
I saw him from a distance making his way down the street. Every now and then he’d stop and touch someone and speak to them, even the beggars. I found myself wanting him to come my way, then to my amazement he did. He stopped under my tree and looked up as though I was his oldest friend. ’Zacchaeus, come on down now. I have come all this way to stay at your house today.’
I knew, I knew that it wasn’t just my name he knew, no it was more than that, he had come to be my friend.
Oh, that didn’t go down very well, people began to grumble as I climbed down from the tree and led him to my house ‘Don’t you know what a sinner this man is’ they all said.
Suddenly I was anxious to prove that I was really a decent bloke. I’m not sure why I said it but suddenly there I was telling everyone that I would give half of what I had to the poor and that I would restore anyone I had cheated by four times the original amount.
And the crowd cheered, they smiled at me, they patted me on the back and you know what, it felt amazing.
Then Jesus said ’Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what is lost’
And that was the beginning of a complete change in my life, now I’m so popular, everyone loves me, I’m always the first to give alms and help in community projects and to use my influence to help those in trouble. And it feels good all the time.

‘The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what is lost’ Luke 19:10