Valerie Rae Hanneman
Luke 19:7 “Everyone who saw this started grumbling, “This man Zacchaeus is a sinner! And Jesus is going home to eat with him.”(CEV)
Luke 19:9-10 “Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today you and your family have been saved, because you are a true son of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save people who are lost.” (CEV)
I once worked in the finance department of a computer company. It was my first job that involved computers and my first job in a multi-person office. I really enjoyed the job but it wasn’t a “golden” time for me. My partner and I were both using drugs and his drug abuse was causing him to take out his anger on me - physically. I was a functioning addict so nobody at my job had a clue about what was really going on. Although I did not let anybody get too close to me there was one woman who I considered a friend. We would take breaks together, have lunch together and I even went over to her home on occasion. One day she came up behind me and playfully poked me in the ribs. I almost collapsed in pain because she happened to poke me in the same spot that my partner had punched me two nights before. And he hadn’t punched me playfully. When I was able to breathe and straighten up I saw the shocked look on her face. Unexpectedly she lifted my blouse and saw the bruise that covered my ribs. “Who did this to you?” she asked. And I did what I had always done when somebody got too close to my “real” life. “Nobody “did” this to me,” I lied through my teeth, “I slipped in the bathroom and hit the edge of the sink.” She didn’t believed me because there was a cooling down in our friendship. She started skipping breaks and bringing her lunch, the invitations to come over and go swimming ceased. I guess that she just couldn’t handle the situation. But it got worse. She told others in the finance department, who told others in the company. I knew that there was a change towards me but I didn’t really understand it until one person told me what was being said. The truth was bad enough, but in the telling and retelling - like the childhood game of “telephone” - the story had taken on a life of it’s own. For a person as intensely private as myself, to say that I was humiliated is an extreme understatement. I started looking for another job and was out of the computer company just a few weeks later.
You remember Zacchaeus’ story - don’t you? We all know the song - “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the LORD he wanted to see. And as the Savior passed that way He looked up in the tree. And He said, “Zacchaeus you come down - for I’m going to your house today - for I’m going to your house today.” (You’re singing it right now - aren’t you?)
Zacchaeus was a wealthy tax collector - the scum of the scum in those days. Everybody despised him because he a tool of the hated Romans and his riches were at their expense. And yet, it was this bottom feeder who Jesus singled out - this chiefest among sinners and Jesus was going to his house for supper. Boy - wasn’t that causing some unpleasant talk around Jericho! Sometime during that meal Zacchaeus realized for himself Who he was eating with. In repentance he confessed his sins and promised to turn his life around. And as He always does - Jesus saved Zacchaeus. After supper, Jesus went on to the next town. I love this story because - like so many of the stories in the Word - it is a picture of my story. The story of a sinner beyond redemption by the world’s standards who has a personal encounter with a God Who doesn’t give a hoot about the world’s standards.
But do you ever wonder what happened to Zacchaeus next? What was his life like after Jesus left? Here is what I think - I think that Zacchaeus’ life changed on that day and I think the grace and mercy that was extended to him by God was reflected in him as he kept his word to Jesus and dealt honestly with those around him. And I think the everyday people - the ones who loved Jesus - welcomed a changed Zacchaeus (particularly when he started giving their money back!) But I wonder about those religious folks. I wonder if they were so trapped in their ironclad laws of righteous and unrighteous that they were unable to accept a changed Zacchaeus. I personally don’t think they could accept him. I think that they continued to hold him guilty of his sins, shunned him, and called him a sinner - regardless of the changes Jesus made in Zacchaeus’ life. And I think that Zacchaeus was not the only one they continued to shun after Jesus changed them. Did they welcome back into the fold the adulterous woman? The woman of ill-repute? The sinners? The tax collectors? The broken and wounded who lived so far below their standards of rightousness?
We look back at the religious folks of that day and wonder why they could not rejoice and accept the lives that Jesus changed through His grace and mercy - but the sad truth is that there are some in the Church today who are holding the same attitudes as the religious people of Zacchaeus’ day. I have heard too many stories of people who have been hurt by church members who hold past sins against them. I have a friend who will not discuss her past life in the church she currently attends out of fear that they will gossip her out of the church - like they did in the last church she attended. This type of behavior in the Church is not good.
By the world’s standards I don’t think you can find two more different friends than Joy Nolte and myself. Joy was practically born a Christian. Her parents were in full-time ministry, she was raised in the Church, she went to a Christian college, married a man in full time ministry and settled into her own life of ministry. When I try to imagine the worst thing that Joy could have done in her life what I come up with is pretty weak. (Maybe she Tee–pee’d a couple of houses when she was a girl - but if she did - she felt bad afterwards!) Joy’s whole life has been influenced by Christ and when she surrendered her life to Him there were not many changes He needed to make in her. I, on the other hand, lived a completely different life. I was raised by an abusive step-father, I was in several abusive adult relationships, I was a substance abuser, I was immoral - and worse. The truth is that I have done some things that I am so ashamed of that I will not speak of them on this side of the grave. When I surrendered my life to Jesus, He had to do a real overhaul of me. If Jesus had an “Extreme Makeover” TV series - I would be the featured project. Joy has lived a Christian lifestyle for her whole life. Jesus had to reach pretty far into the sewer to fish me out. Considering our backgrounds - do you know the what the difference is that Jesus sees between Joy and I? NOTHING! He sees no difference because His blood that is sufficient to cover Joy’s sins is also sufficient to cover mine.
And when the religious folks look at Joy and I and think more of her because of her history and think less of me because of my history then they deny that Jesus’ blood is sufficient to cover the most grievous of sinners.
We need to be careful that when the Zacchaeus’, those of ill-repute, the abusers, the spiritual lepers, the broken, the prostitutes and the tax collectors come to start a new life in Jesus that we do not deny the power of Jesus’ blood to cover their sins by holding their sins against them.
Jesus said, “Behold, I make all things new.” - and if He has made someone new - we had best not be smearing them with old mud.
My LORD Jesus, I have never done anything to make me worthy of Your blood that covers my sins. Your grace and mercy to me is a gift that I can never earn. And neither can anybody else. Help me to remember that You made me a new creation and You make others a new creation as well. Help me to never - through my own self-righteousness - deny the power of Your blood to cover sins of everybody.
Posted by Valerie at February 4, 2005 07:54 PM