Who can hear the name Zacchaeus without bursting into the song “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see…”?
Zacchaeus’s desire to see the Lord was so great he abandoned social etiquette to run and climb a tree. Jesus called Zacchaeus to come down and told him, “I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus with joy, not only into his home but also into his heart (Luke 19:6, 8).
At the end of Sunday’s sermon, Jonathan asked this question: “Have you responded to Christ when He calls you out of the tree?” For many of us, that answer is: “Yes, I’ve been saved.” But then Jonathan asked, “Is He calling you out of another tree you climbed up?”
Zacchaeus’s motivation for climbing into the tree was to better see Jesus, but sometimes when we climb the proverbial tree, it skews our perspective. We find ourselves looking down at Jesus instead of being bowed before Him and looking up. When that happens, we would be wise to heed Jesus’s words to “come down immediately” (Luke 19:5) and welcome the heart change He seeks to enact.
- In what areas of your life are you looking down at Jesus instead of looking up to Him as Lord?
- What will it take for you to heed His call to come down?
- What heart change would increase your witness and bring greater glory to the Lord?