Whatever It Takes

And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.  And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.  And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.  And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.

Luke 19:1-4

Zacchaeus was probably not a “good person.”  In fact, he was likely a bad person.  He is described as being “chief among the publicans” and as being rich.  He was likely despised by the people around him, especially the Jews.  He had been little more than a legally recognized thief.  But he did one thing right.  He knew he had to see Jesus.

Being “little of stature,” or, “short,” he couldn’t see Jesus because of the crowd that was gathered.  But that didn’t stop him.  He ran before everyone else and climbed a sycamore tree to get a chance to see Jesus.  I’ve cut down sycamore trees before and they can get to be very, very tall.  We don’t know how tall the one in this story was, but any sycamore tree is going to be fairly big.  Zacchaeus climbed up in that tall tree just to see Jesus.  We don’t know what was going on in his mind during this time.  We don’t know exactly why he felt that he needed to see Jesus.  But there was something in him that knew he needed to Jesus.  And there was something in him that knew he needed to do whatever it took to see Him.

The question for today is this: how desperate are we to see Jesus?  Are we willing to do whatever it takes to see the Lord?  How far are we willing to go?  Zacchaeus was a rich publican, yet he did what it took to see the Lord.  Would we go to those same lengths?