Please consider Luke 19:1-10 …
Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”
Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
What might we learn from the story of Zacchaeus?
Perhaps, first, we should note what we know so far:
- Zacchaeus was not a perfect man. Who is? Like all of us, he had sin in his life. Essentially, as a tax collector, he was a thug for the Roman government. In fact, he was the chief tax collector for his region … and was rich because of it.
- He wanted to know who Jesus was, but because of his size and the crowd, he had to climb a sycamore tree to see Him. It is reasonable to assume that just seeing Jesus from a safe distance was satisfactory … for him, not for Jesus.
- Jesus said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” Jesus did not merely invite Himself to Zacchaeus’ house … He invited Zacchaeus to be with the Savior.
Isn’t this the invitation that Jesus makes to us all? Do we sometimes believe that we satisfy this invitation in being in the worship service? This article is intended to challenge this thinking.
Imagine that the assembly is our own sycamore tree. If this is as close as we get to Jesus, then we are keeping ourselves at a safe distance. While our corporate worship is pleasing to God and according to His will … He expects our relationship with Him to be much more personal.
Let’s look back at our last week … after we left the assembly last Lord’s day:
Sunday Evening
Did any of us open our Bibles and consider the lesson we heard? Did we, as the Bereans, search the Scriptures to see if the things taught “were so?” (Acts 17:11)
How many of us left the worship assembly, got really busy with what we had planned and didn’t look back … or forward (for that matter) to our Lord until we had our next meal?
How much of the Lord’s day did we give Him? Did we ever get out of the sycamore tree?
Monday
What was our Monday like? How much time did we spend talking with our Lord in prayer? The Apostle Paul says to us “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
By “pray without ceasing,” Paul tells us that we ought to go to God in prayer often throughout the day … about everything … to praise Him, to thank Him, to ask His guidance, to ask for peace and healing on our behalf and on the behalf of others … we are even to pray for our enemies, those who would wish us harm. Does any of this describe our Monday last week?
How much time did we spend in His Word? Did we consult the Bible about any of the challenges we were facing? Listen to the Psalmist:
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes.
With my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth.
I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.
I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
Psalm 119:9-16
I am persuaded that the Psalmist wasn’t describing a chapter reading and a thirty minute sermon a week. He was talking about a real investment of time. How many of us were just so busy with work, family or entertainment that we didn’t get into the Word on Monday? How many of us didn’t get out of our Sycamore tree?
Tuesday and Wednesday
Was Tuesday a lot like Monday? It usually is … we are creatures of habit.
How about Wednesday? How much time did we spend talking to God and in His Word? Did we spend any time encouraging a brother or sister in the Lord? Listen to Hebrews 10:23-25:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
I have always found this passage fascinating. We often turn to it when a brother or sister has willfully missed the assembly as a reminder that we need to be in the Lord’s day worship service … either at home or in another congregation. Is it possible that it has a broader application? Is it possible that Paul is telling us that we ought to be leaning on each other even more often than Sunday morning … perhaps with even more frequency as we consider our Lord’s return? Can we do this from the safety of our sycamore tree?
Thursday
Now it is Thursday. In the last several days, have we yet taken time out of our busy schedules to share the blessings of the Gospel with another person? Have we let anyone know that we serve a risen Savior? Or is that just a little too embarrassing … a little beyond our comfort zone?
The Apostle Paul says with confidence:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:16-17
If we aren’t sharing the Word of God with our friends, family and neighbors, what is keeping us back? Is it because we have become too comfortable in our sycamore tree?
Friday and Saturday
Most of the week has passed and now it is Friday or Saturday … these days notoriously run together. Either we scurry tirelessly on Friday preparing for our Saturday outings or we play so hard and late on Friday that we spend Saturday doing as little as possible.
By this time, we are not just comfortable in our sycamore tree … we have built a treehouse and can think of no reason to get down. Many convince themselves that Friday and Saturday belong to them. They have worked hard all week, they have met their obligations … finally, it is time to relax or play.
If I have even come close to describing any of our weeks, then we have certainly not met our obligations … not to our God, at least. If we have not been often in prayer, reading God’s Word, encouraging one another or sharing the Gospel with the lost … exactly what part of our lives have we given to our Lord? When did we get out of our sycamore tree?
Sunday Morning
Of course, there is Sunday again!
How do we start our Sunday mornings? Do we spend anytime in meditation on His Word as we prepare ourselves for worship? Do we talk about God with our family around breakfast? Do we commit ourselves to getting to worship in enough time to be used in the assembly and still our minds before our worship begins? Do we prepare to be a blessing and not a distraction to our brethren during our corporate worship?
What is our commitment level?
When do we ever get out of the sycamore tree? Are we so committed in every other area of our lives that we have a hard time finding a place for Jesus? Is an hour and a half on Sunday morning all the time we can give Him?
Listen to the Apostle Paul on the matter:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2
We have to get out of the sycamore tree. We have to have a real, personal and daily commitment to our Lord. Our lives our not our own!