Zacchaeus

Michael Briggs
Jul 10, 2017 · 3 min read

We all like to be known. It’s partly why we write blogs, rack up friends on Facebook and tweet celebrities. No one wants to be unknown. No one wants to be a nobody.

Zacchaeus never expected Jesus to even look at him. As he perched himself up in that tree, he figured that he would just glimpse him as he passed by.

But Zacchaeus was seen and recognised by Jesus. Jesus called him by name and asked to spend time with him. He was known. And the bible clearly tells us that we are too.

We are open book to God; He knows all that we do and think. He knows all that has happened to us and been said to us; He knows everything. We are never out of his sight.

The God of the universe, the one created all we see and holds it all together, knows everything about us. He knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. He knows the things we are proud of and the things we hide. He knows it all.

The fact of the matter is you have never lived an unknown moment in your life!

That is an utterly terrify thought though. If you are like me you just want to crawl into a dark room at this point. I don’t mind Jesus, or anyone else for that matter, seeing my achievements but my failures.

The reason why it is so terrify is that I, we, fear rejection. Zacchaeus has already been rejected by most of the people he sees daily. Yet, Jesus seems to not only accept him but loves him. He wants to spend time with him, eat with him, drink with him, chat to him.

The God of the universe the one created all we see and holds it all together, knows everything about us and He loves us relentlessly. He knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. He knows the things we are proud of and the things we hide. He knows it all, and he invites us to come just as we are into relationship with him and live life to the full.

He doesn’t want to take us and change us into another person; He wants us to be the best version of us that we can be. When we experience this love it has a huge impact on us.

“Nothing fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing — nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable — absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” Romans 8

The fact of the matter is you have never lived an unloved moment in your life!

The realisation that he was fully known and fully loved had an incredible impact on Zacchaeus. He gave half of his income to the poor and repaid people four times over if he had ever cheated them out of money. After receiving such a huge amount grace Zacchaeus immediately starts to share.

Please note that Zacchaeus is not doing this to impress Jesus nor is he doing this so that he can get grace. No, Zacchaeus is giving away so much because of what Jesus has shown him. We cannot receive the grace of God without sharing it.

When we come to realise that God knows and loves us it gives us freedom, strength, compassion, love and hope. All of which we should be displaying in our daily lives.

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and fully loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It frees us from pretence, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and reinforces us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” Tim Keller

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