Last Sunday, Jesus used the parable of the Pharisee and the
Tax Collector to teach us that sincere humility and repentance are what is
required of us to be saved. Today, he is telling us that he came to search and to
save the lost. “The lost” here does not mean those who are damned or condemned
to hell fire but those who have derailed and lost their way through sin and
have the hope of coming back to God. In fact, Christ is in search of them as he
came to Jericho today in search of Zaccheus. He shows in practical gestures in
the story of Zaccheus that salvation is possible in our crowded world today.
The reading says that Zaccheus was a chief tax collector, “the
oga at the top” in his profession in a commercial city of Jericho and so he was
very rich. His profession made him to be seen by the Jews as an outcast, public
sinner and public enemy. He was like many today who are fraudsters, who take
bribes, who pocket the money meant for the development of their states, constituencies,
ministries, (name them) and carry them to some foreign banks. Like many people who
use public funds to find comfort, fulfillment and joy, to ride on private jets,
to purchase N225m bullet proof BMW cars, to save for up to the sixth generation
of their descendants after their death. But history has thought us that real happiness
eludes such folks. Zaccheus was rich but not happy. But he saw something in
Christ which money cannot buy.
However, he had two obstacles: the crowd and his small
stature. As Zaccheus’ small stature and the giant crowd prevented him from
seeing Christ on a plain ground so does sin dwarfs us and prevents us from
seeing Christ coupled with the fact that the world is crowded with many forceful
things like detrimental social trends and sexual anomalies. Our world is
crowded with latest lifestyle and media technologies (imagine the crowd you
follow on facebook, twither, instagram, BBM and other social network sites),
harmful theories and ideas, and relativism which have created new channels of
offending God. Hence, the need for extra effort to re-position ourselves to see
Christ clearly beyond the crowd. The sycamore is a tree that stands meters
above the crowd. Jesus is looking to see us on the tree. So, we must climb the
sycamore of prayer, holiness, generosity, forgiveness and love to have a glimpse
of Jesus in our crowded world and surely Jesus will see us.
Here is the paradox of Zaccheus. Before
he met Jesus He was rich in materially but small in stature. After he met Jesus
he was rich spiritually but poor materially. Jesus made Zaccheus 10ft taller
spiritually. It tells us that every true encounter with Christ adds something
to our spiritual stature. God neither looks at our appearance nor at our
wealth. He looks into our hearts. So we should work hard to overcome the
defects which block our access to God. Zaccheus’
stature has something to say about our lives. Stature is a relative word.
Relatively, it represents the quantity or quality of values we possess. When we
sin, we decrease in the stature of holiness and grace of God. When we compromise our identity and integrity, we diminish in the
stature of honor and dignity.
The story has something to say about our occupation. Some
people have to sell expired, fake and substandard goods to others. Some men on
uniform extort innocent citizens on the road to add to their salaries. Others
with their positions of authority deduct something illegally from the skimpy
salaries and wages of their employees and subordinates with the threat of facing
the hard way of being fired. The truth is that if your honest salary or wage
cannot be enough for you, all other dirty income can never be! We have done all
sorts of dirty things to make money. Perhaps in our work, by failing to live fully
the implications of our faith we have lost hope for salvation. The good news today is: no matter how dirty
you are and how small you feel, Christ is coming as a guest to the household of
your heart and I can hear him say: “Today, salvation has come to this
household”. But we must make some commitment and pledge to God. It was only after Zacchaeus said, “I’ll give half of my money away and
if I have defrauded anyone, I’ll return it fourfold” that Jesus said, “Today,
salvation has come to this house.” Every true repentance is followed up by
restitution (returning what you have stolen, defrauded or extorted).
My dear friends in Christ, as we reflect upon this story, may we ask God
the grace to catch the glimpse of Christ in our crowded world. If we are buried
in the crowd it will be difficult to define ourselves as Christians, and hence,
our salvation will be jeopardized. One who follows the crowd will go no further
than the crowd. So we should focus on Jesus and not on the crowd because they
rarely lead us to God. And we should not allow our past to chain the present
and the future we have. May God help us. Amen.
