Received Him Joyfully (Luke 19:6)

 


Thursday, April 3, 2025


Psalm 78:16-38

Exodus 4:1-26

Luke 19:1-10


Observance: Richard of Chichester, bishop (d. 1256)


Received Him Joyfully (Luke 19:6)


We are now half a chapter away from Jesus’ final approach into Jerusalem. And we are also a week and a half away from Holy Week, and two and a half weeks away from the Resurrection. Our Lord has been very emphatic about the difficulty of balancing a love of money with a love of God, for one cannot serve two masters. And Jesus is a much kinder and loving master than money.


Remember the rich ruler who went away very sad when he was told that he had to give away everything he had in order to follow Jesus? Jesus finished that conversation by announcing that “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) Today we have another rich ruler: Zacchaeus, the tax collector. And so what is impossible with man, Jesus will make possible; for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.


A man of small stature, hated by all, hiding up in a tree; the Word of God who spoke the universe into creation calls him down. “Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” Jesus does not ask; he commands, and Zacchaeus obeys. And his obedience is not only with haste, for who would dare keep the Almighty Creator waiting; but also with great joy.


For all that we like to say about “accepting” Jesus into our hearts, consider this episode with Zacchaeus. Certainly we have a responsibility to accept the call of the Lord. But what great comfort comes from the fact that the Lord has called us in the first place! Let the grumblers grumble that Jesus has “gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” My Lord has spoken my name; nothing else matters.


How impossible it was for Zacchaeus to find Jesus. The crowds were pressing in. He was not a tall man. And he was, for all intents and purposes, a legal thief, a social leper, a tax collector. But what is impossible for man is possible with God, and Jesus sought him out and saved him.


In St Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, he writes to the church that they now know God, or rather, are known by God. (Galatians 4:9) He is teaching a lesson that is different to today’s lesson from Jesus, however it is a curious turn of phrase that encapsulates this great mystery we are pondering. As Christians, we get a sense that we now know God. Yet there is also the sense that God now knows us; once we were strangers, and now we are friends.


If we ever find ourselves in a dry spiritual state, where our love seems feeble and we no longer know God, we ought to remember Zacchaeus: God knows us, God has called us, and the Lord Jesus is the guest of our house not by our invitation but by his command. Our faithfulness to him comes and goes and comes again; his faithfulness to us endures, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. What comfort comes from inviting Jesus to be your guest? What comfort comes from Jesus inviting himself over?


Good Master, whose incessant call disturbs our settled lives: let us accept your invitation to be our guest, and dwell with us always.

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