By Scott A. Wenig
"Once we took a vacation from our home in Rockford, Illinois to Canada. We had returned almost all the way home when we realized at the Illinois border that Pandy had not come back with us. She had remained behind at the hotel in Canada. No other option was thinkable! My father turned the car around and we drove from Illinois all the way back to Canada. We were a devoted family. Not a particularly bright family, perhaps, but devoted."
"We rushed into the hotel and checked with the desk clerk in the lobby -- no Pandy. We ran back up to our room -- no Pandy. We ran downstairs and found the laundry room -- Pandy was there, wrapped up in the sheets, about to be washed to death. The measure of my sister's love for that doll was that she would travel all the way to a distant country to save her."2
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That's exactly what Jesus did for us. He traveled all the way from that distant country called heaven to find us and save us from destruction. Perhaps, as some of us hear this story about Zacchaeus we realize that instead of him, we're the one hiding up in that tree. But what we must also realize is that Jesus is seeking us out because He loves us! He wants to initiate a relationship with us or make our current relationship even more intimate. Therefore, we have to do the same thing that Zacchaeus did -- quit hiding, come down out of the tree and let Jesus come into our lives.
Do you know why it's absolutely crucial to quit hiding and invite Jesus over? It's because He's the only One Who can cure us of the cause of our hiding which is our sin!
II Jesus came to forgive us, to die for us and our sinfulness (
vv. 6-7)
Zacchaeus hustles down out of that tree and receives Christ gladly but all the people grumble because Jesus has gone home with such a notorious sinner (
vv. 6-7). That wasn't news to Zacchaeus. He knew he was sinful, but I think he also knew, perhaps at some deep, intuitive level, that he had finally met the one person who could forgive his sinfulness and help him deal with all the brokenness that his sin had caused in his life and in the lives of others.
What was true for Zacchaeus is equally true for us. Our sin -- every aspect of it and every sin we've ever committed -- needs to be brought out of the tree of hiding and into the light of forgiveness. And the only One who can forgive our sin and heal us of our brokenness is Jesus. In fact, just a few short days after Jesus encountered Zacchaeus, He went to a hill called Calvary outside Jerusalem and there died on the cross for the sinfulness of Zacchaeus, the sinfulness of everyone in that crowd in Jericho and the sinfulness of you and me. And just a few years after that cosmic event, the apostle Paul wrote in the book of Romans that 'God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'