You Can't Be Short with Jesus

Do you ever have those moments when you wander around, overtired, restless, unsatisfied...? Do you ever have times when you head out to find something, anything, that can fill your time thinking that it will be THE thing that will really turn your life around? It is kind of amazing how so many of us have grown up being told that we don't have enough, that we need something else to make our lives "complete". And so we wander aimlessly about seeking but never finding, sometimes at the cost of friendships, other people, our environment. Sometimes what we are looking for is right in front of us but we just don't see it.

I'm thinking today about the story of Zaccheus, let's just call him Zach. If you ever went to a summer Bible school, you might even recall a song that goes: Zaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he..... Well, Zach does have a problem. He's so short that when a crowd forms around Jesus, Zach cannot see anything. Can you just see him, hopping about, up and down like an impatient child trying to get a glimpse of the floats at a parade. There is something more important going on here than meets the eye.

You see, Zach is pretty wealthy, but he makes his money by collecting taxes. We could probably delve into Zach's psyche to see if his zeal for tax collecting was an overcompensation for his height, but I'll leave that alone for now. Zach is also a person whom the crowd is not going to have much regard for though...I mean who likes a tax collector, right? So, he cannot find a way to get past everyone else to see a glimpse of Jesus.

I always wondered why Zach was so interested in the first place. What had he heard about this Jesus? What did he expect from Jesus? But the story that appears in Luke (19:1-10) is about something completely different. As Zach runs ahead to climb into a tree in order to see this Jesus he has heard so much about, it is Jesus who calls to him. It turns out to be an odd invitation because Jesus basically says, "Hi Zach, what are you doing up there? Didn't you know I am staying at your house?" Doesn't that seem a bit odd to you?

That is just the way it is though with this Jesus. Everytime we run to see him, we find out that he has been looking for us. It is a key realization that we at By the Way discover everytime we sit down with someone to share a cup of coffee, or a pint. When we come together to share the stories of our own lives, God's presence in shaping and calling us together becomes ever clearer. We re-discover the presence of something holy in our every day search for meaning that is revealed when we enter into community with one another.

I think that is perhaps what Jesus came to reveal to Zach as well. Zach's response initially is to say the right things, "I'm going to give to the poor now, Jesus. And if I have been sneaky with people I will repay them four times what I took." Jesus' response is a bit interesting because he pronounces that Zach has been "found". He is no longer a slave to a directionless life. Zach has received a glimpse of equity for all that changes the way he will deal with the abundance of his life. Zach goes from coming up short to growing generous.

These encounters with Jesus are opportunities we share with one another in community. They are places where we can be reminded of our own wealth and how often we short-change our neighbors, the poor in Nashua, and others who are restless like ourselves and mask their restlessness by thinking they have little, all while consuming even more.

Consider in the coming week how you can "go long." Stop by to discover how Jesus is present in your everyday life, and reveal to me, and others, how you see the same in ours.