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Just the Beginning

You’re walking into a mess,” my mother-in-law said in a fair-warning tone. Peggy had gone to visit her for the weekend, and upon arriving, learned a pipe had succumbed to Michigan’s winter temperatures, bursting and flooding the furnished garage-apartment that stood a short distance from the house. Where does one start amid so much damage but at triage? So, that is what Peggy did—assess the situation, begin at “first-things-first” and go from there.

Most of us would agree that when Jesus comes to us, He too walks into “a mess,” one of the spiritual variety. What we learn from the story of Zacchaeus, fortunately, is that God doesn’t leave us that way; He begins at once to restore us from the inside out. For a chief tax collector turning from greed, first-things-first was generosity and restitution. “Here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount,”1 exclaimed Zacchaeus. It was an exciting beginning to an undoubtedly long transformation, for surely not all his sin was greed, and certainly not all his change was immediate (as I’m sure Mrs. Zacchaeus would attest).

We only come to know our heart as God reveals it. “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent,”2 confessed Paul of his natural inability to know the depth of his own sin. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts,”3 implored David, for he himself could fully understand neither one. Yet even these, our shortcomings, ultimately glorify God, for He does know the depth of our sin, and His love reaches deeper; God does know the breadth of our wrongs, and His forgiveness reaches wider. God knows our “mess,” and He transforms us in His time.

Occasionally we wonder if we’ve progressed at all in our relationship with God. In such times of discouragement, we do well to remember it was Jesus who “came to seek and to save what was lost.”4 He is the initiating God—faithful in all He does—so, with the confidence of Paul, we can live in the assurance that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”5 Salvation is just the beginning.

Father, thank you for sending your Spirit to change me increasingly into the image of your Son. I need Him. When I am discouraged, may He remind me of the work He has already accomplished and assure me of His faithfulness to complete what He has begun. Amen.

1 Luke 19:8
2 1 Corinthians 4:4
3 Psalm 139:23
4 Luke 19:10
5 Philippians 1:6

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Changing for Good

An attorney once told me, “Do you know what I’d really like to be? A gym teacher.” Chalk up one more for the “golden handcuffs,” the allurements in life—income, status or power, for instance—that entice us away from what we really want to do, be or become. More sinister are the temptations that, perhaps one small step at a time, coax us away from what we know to be right and down a deceptive path to disillusionment and despair. We awake one day in a place seemingly far away from God and with no apparent way back to Him, but this too is temptation—temptation to doubt God’s seeking love and His saving power. For God knows our proclivity to stray from His ways, and yet in great love He draws us back to Himself, where we find a new and refreshing life of purpose. “God’s Kingdom is near!” proclaimed Jesus as He traveled from town to town, “Turn from your sins and act on this glorious news!”1 It remains today the promise of redemption and freedom and an invitation to change course.

Today’s post is our second look at transformation through the life of Zacchaeus, and standing tall amid all we learn from him in 10 short Biblical verses is this: The change to which God calls us is not an obligation we endure, it is the opportunity we desire. “Look, Lord!” exclaimed the liberated tax collector, “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.”2 His was not the “have to” humiliation of penance, but the “get to” enthusiasm of release. Behind him lay the discarded handcuffs he once thought golden, and before him “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”3

Most of us don’t need to be convinced of our wrong turns in life or the directions in which they’ve sent us; we are well acquainted with them and have lived to regret them. What we all need to realize is that God calls us, saves us and then leads us for a lifetime through the change we seek—change for good on His paths of joy.

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11 ESV)

Father, it is a privilege to know your love; it is a relief to know your redemption; it is an honor to walk your paths. Send your Spirit to lead me in your ways and use me for your glory. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Mark 1:15 TLB
2 Luke 19:8
3 Ephesians 3:8

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He Sought Us First

“He wanted to see who Jesus was.”1 The chief tax collector may have been short in height, but he was big on desire—determined, a doer we might say. So, when Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, not even the towering crowd would stand in his way. He found a suitable sycamore, climbed to an acceptable height, and waited—a curious man curiously perched in a tree. What happened next is something no one of any stature could have seen coming. “Zacchaeus,” said Jesus, stopping now and looking up at the man, “come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”2 The tax collector had become accustomed to religious scorn, but this man of God was different—engaging and unafraid to befriend a person cast off by others as “a sinner.”3 And He had called him by name.

With the exception of a couple notable exchanges, we are not privy to any detailed conversation that ensued between the rich man and his house guest that day, but we do know this: He who had harshly seized from others amounts they did not owe now humbly received from God a gift he could not earn—salvation. It was a grace that would change Zacchaeus forever. “Look, Lord!” he exclaimed, “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.”4 Said Jesus, “Today salvation has come to this house.”5 Indeed it had, spiritual birth already bearing spiritual fruit.

Luke opened his gospel narrative with Zacchaeus wanting to know who Jesus was, but the story began quite differently and long before then. It began in the heart of God, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”6 It is Jesus who seeks us out, both as a people and personally as individuals. And when He stirs in us, we respond by seeking Him, too—the sheep recognizing his Shepherd, the created reconciled with her Creator, neither content with separation but each finding joy in the other. Then being born of the Spirit, we begin to grow as He transforms us into the likeness of Him who knows us best, loves us most, and calls us by name. In this very real way, Zacchaeus’ story is our story, too.

Father, thank you for sending Jesus to seek and to save the lost. Thank you for sending Him to seek and to save me. Change me to be ever more like Him. Amen.

1 Luke 19:3
2 Luke 19:5
3 Luke 19:7
4 Luke 19:8
5 Luke 19:9
6 Luke 19:10