DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

St. Luke 19:1-10         (2/10)         For the 37th Sunday after Pentecost (The 32nd Sunday APe)

 

To See Jesus: St. Luke 19:1-10, especially vs. 4: “So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.”  Visualize the Lord Jesus, the Incarnate God in human flesh, traveling with His disciples.  He passes through Jericho, a city well below sea level, close to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, a busy center for date farming - being tropical in climate.  There in Jericho, He meets and heals a sightless beggar, Bar Timaeus (Lk. 18:35-43, Mk. 10:46-52).  Then, hiking on, the Lord Jesus ascends the steep road up to Jerusalem where He meets a ruthless little man, a Chief Tax Collector, Zacchaeus (Lk. 19:1-10). Take care here: do not miss the underlying message concerning both men.  Christ heals the eyes of their hearts, their inner spiritual eyes - of both Bar Timaeus and Zacchaeus.

What a blessing to see the Lord Jesus with the eyes of the heart!  St. Nikolai of Zica observes that Christ is a mirror, “in which each of us sees himself as he is.  This unique mirror has been given to men for them to see themselves as they are.”  The physically blind Bar Timaeus saw himself healed, and he was healed.  Zacchaeus, the spiritually blind, looked into the mirror of Christ and saw a shriveled, grasping self.  In addition, he also saw his true nature as a caring, generous, giving man fashioned in the image of God.  Christ opened his inner eyes, and Zacchaeus found the path to repentance and the true person hidden in the recesses of his heart.

Beloved, look closely at Christ and see in Him the whole truth of yourself.  St. Peter looked at his fishing boat sinking under an enormous catch, and the sight of his sin arrested him.  He fell to his knees: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Lk. 5:8).  Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming, and he yearned to see the wonder-worker and teacher from Galilee for himself - to see “...Who Jesus was...” (vs. 3).  So he climbed a tree to enhance his view, for his physical stature was too short to look through the throngs that lined the roadway (vs. 3).  But notice what the text says: it was the Lord Who first saw the inquiring publican.  Christ saw the little man in the tree, and He saw into Zacchaeus’ heart, a heart folded in upon itself and shriveled.  But the Lord Jesus saw more - yearning and openness.  The Divine Physician saw a man who would be healed.  Hence, He called out to him, “...come down...” (vs. 5).

“So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully” (vs. 6).  Notice that when Zacchaeus looked into the mirror of Christ he saw the “new man,” his true self reflected back.  Clearly, the little publican had grown to loathe “the old man” within himself.  He longed to be rid of him, and so it was that he hastened toward Christ, that the Lord might enter his home and his life.  Hope was born.  He received “Him joyfully”(vs. 6), the Savior Who bestows “the new man” on anyone who will invite Him into his life.  Oh, do receive Christ and be healed!

The Evangelist tells us that there were others who saw the Lord “...gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner” (vs. 7).  “They” saw only “the old man” Zacchaeus, for their hearts also were shriveled.  Being trapped in their sins, they did not see Christ the Physician.  They did not see Jesus going to a patient in need.  In their blinded sight, the Lord was merely Jesus of Nazareth, a fraudulent teacher of lies.  Why not yearn to see Jesus as Zacchaeus did, with the eyes of your heart opened, that Christ may truly work His new creation in you?

Finally, Zacchaeus caught sight of the blessed path of healing repentance, not some theory, but practical steps to true life.  Blessed Theophylact points out that “If we consider well, we see that nothing at all remained of Zacchaeos’ money.  Half he gave to the poor, and of the half that remained to him, he gave fourfold to those whom he had wronged.”  May Christ our God show us the way of life-giving repentance and supply His grace to walk therein.

May I ever remember Thy grace, and live unto Thee, our Master and Benefactor.

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