Love Breaks In

"I bet if Jesus ever met me, he wouldn't like me."

There a lot of people whose lack of interest in God is due not to their own personal dislike of Him, but of their belief that God Himself sincerely does not like them- in fact, He might even hate them.  For some this delusion leads to anger.  However, for others, their belief that God simply does not like them, or love them, leads not to anger, but to profound sadness, loneliness, and isolation.  Lack of interest in Christianity, church, and spiritual things springs from a sincere but misguided belief that God simply does not like them.  And where does this belief come from?  Among many things, I think it can spring up primarily when a person feels that no one else likes them either.

After all, why should I expect to receive love from the Creator, if I cannot receive it from His creation? 

I think Zacchaeus (Luke 19) fell into this self-feeding cycle of isolation and anger: as a wealthy, short, chief tax collector, Zacchaeus had three strikes against him.  Most citizens in his time loathed tax collectors anyway- they were notorious cheats and swindlers.  To be compared to a "tax collector" was to be "shown the door,"  and to be treated as an outcast.  (Jesus even uses the cultural idiom in Matthew 18:17 to describe how you should treat an erring brother who will not listen even to the church!) When people are predisposed to despising you because you are a tax collector, because you are wealthy, or because you have a physical 'anomaly' like being overly short, extremely tall, skinny, or overweight, it becomes very easy to respond in anger (and to feel justified in doing so) and so to return the "predisposition of anger" to your fellow human beings.  You turn inward and your outward behavior becomes hostile and unfriendly.  And in this way you only dig yourself deeper- after all, who wants to be friends with an unfriendly, hostile person?

And so Zacchaeus was perhaps the most despised person in town- and he probably despised everyone else, too.  He felt incredibly alone and isolated, yet he responded to his loneliness in anger and continued to cheat and swindle those who decided he should be an outcast.  In other words, his life was simply a response to the expectations of others.

 So when he heard Jesus was coming to town, I truly believe that Zacchaeus thought in heart, "I want to see this Jesus, but if he met me, I'm sure he wouldn't like me.  He would probably hate me.  After all, everyone else does."  And so he climbs in a sycamore tree to see him over the crowd.  

But while Zacchaeus was looking for Jesus, what he didn't know is that Jesus was looking for him- intently.  It's one thing to be lost and think that people are trying to find you; it's another thing entirely to be lost and truly believe that no one is looking for you.  And that's where Zacchaeus was as he crouched in that tree, waiting for Jesus to walk through the streets of Jericho- waiting in expectation for someone else to show him scorn and rebuke.

 So imagine his complete surprise when Jesus not only sees him, but calls him by name, out of the tree, and invites himself to his Zacchaeus's home!  Normally when Zacchaeus heard his name it was spoken with disdain, but Jesus says it with love.  And who would ever invite themselves to Zacchaeus's house?  Most of the time people were telling Zacchaeus to leave their home, to get out!  But by inviting himself into his home, Jesus is inviting himself into his life, into his presence.  Jesus invites himself into the one place Zacchaeus went to get away from people.  That's where Jesus wants to go.

And so Zacchaeus's life is forever changed, because the love of God "broke in" to his life.  Jesus didn't just call Zacchaeus out of a tree; he called him out of his loneliness, out of his misery and disdain for people, and out of his self-made delusion that the kingdom of God had no place for him.  Jesus told Zacchaeus that he was welcome, that he had a place in God's kingdom.  

In the end, to sort of "tie a bow" on the whole occasion, Jesus uses the opportunity to again reiterate his mission: "To seek and save the lost."  Dallas Willard, in his book Renovation of the Heart, reminds us that "the condition of lostness is not the same as the outcome to which it leads.  We're not lost because we are going to wind up in the wrong place.  We are going to wind up in the wrong place because we are lost."  Zacchaeus was lost- he was "out of place" and not where he was supposed to be.  He had cut himself out of believing that he had a place with God.

Jesus simply came to remind him that he could come home.  That he was more than a welcome guest in God's kingdom, he was a welcome son.   Praise God for His abundant love for lost people like us.  Praise God that He is not waiting for us, he is looking for us.  And praise God that his love says we can come home, that there is a place for us around His table.

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