Friends in Christ Message for October 30, 2010

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Friends in Christ Weekly Message
October 30, 2010

     Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
     When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
     All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'”
     But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
     Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Luke 19:1-10 (NIV*)

Christ looks at people quite differently than we normally do. The crowd looked at Zaccheus as defined by the role he had played in life - a tax collector, who in those days was normally something of an extortionist. But Jesus saw Zaccheus as a person who was ready to turn over a new leaf and become a changed man.

The encounter with Jesus led Zaccheus to repent of the wrongs of his life, and offer much more than fair redress. The encounter with Jesus was a truly transforming event for Zaccheus.

How do we look at people? Can we grow to see them as Christ sees them? Are we ready for Christ to truly transform our lives?

Bill Samuel

* New International Version © International Bible Society.