Often, what we read Holy Scripture goes against the norms of society and against what we might expect, since the ways of God can be very different from the ways of our world. Listening to today’s Gospel, we might ask ourselves: Would the people of ancient Israel expect Zacchaeus, a wealthy man with an important job in the Roman government, to run around like a crazy man and to climb up a tree in order to get a better look at Jesus? Since Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, he was considered to be a sinner and an outcast for the way he betrayed his own people in collecting taxes from them for the enemy government, for the way he interacted on a daily basis with non-Jews. It would be unexpected for a holy man like Jesus to eat at a tax collector’s house. It would have been a shock to see a man like Zacchaeus repent and give half of his possessions to the poor. We might ask: How can we explain this unexpected behavior in the encounter between these two men?
Something stirred within Zacchaeus as he saw Jesus passing through town. Zacchaeus was called to go outside the norms and social structures of his day in order to get a better view of Jesus. What was it that touched his heart, that struck his imagination?
God can touch our hearts in many ways through his presence in our world. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked up in the night sky and marveled at the majesty of the stars and the universe. As a Peace Corps volunteer on a small island off the coast of Guinea, West Africa, I was far away from the bright lights of a big city. I looked up into the African sky for the first time, marveling at the thousands of stars scattered in the sky, at the immensity of the universe, at its reflection of God’s marvelous creation. Although the universe seems immense to us from our human point of view, according to the book of Wisdom, the universe from God’s perspective is like a grain of sand taken from the balance of a scale, like a drop of morning dew on a blade of grass. The immensity of the universe pales in comparison to God’s majesty. Since every human being is such a small speck on the earth and an even smaller speck in the universe, we might not be able to imagine that God would love us or care about us or try to get to know us. Yet, the book of Wisdom tells us that God loves all of creation because he fashioned it and willed it. God loves us because his imperishable spirit dwells within us. Zacchaeus was a small man, a small speck in the immense universe. Perhaps the spirit of God dwelling within him called him forth to climb up that tree to see Jesus for himself. Jesus saw Zacchaeus from a distance, calling him by name, calling him to repentance and conversion.
In the beginning of his great work, The Confessions, St. Augustine states - “Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. We who are a part of your creation, long to praise you…You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and have drawn us to yourself. Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Zacchaeus reached out to Jesus by climbing up that tree. Jesus reached back to him. Although Zacchaeus lived a restless and sinful life, the kind of life that Augustine describes, God didn’t withhold his grace from him. Jesus called him, waiting patiently for him to get down from the tree. Many of us in our modern society have restless hearts, but so many in our society turn to things other than to God to satisfy these longings: alcohol, drugs, work, worldly pleasures, even things like the internet and video games. Still, there’s an empty feeling in our hearts that the things of the world cannot fill. Our hearts are only fulfilled in our relationship with God.
God meets us in our reality, he enters into our lives just as he entered the life of Zacchaeus. Where is God calling us today in the midst of our reality? Are there any trees we need to climb in order to seek out God? May the restlessness of our hearts keep tugging at us until we find what we’re really looking for, until we find that place where God is calling us.
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