Luke 19:1-10

In his Peanuts comic strip Charles Schulz created characters with flaws that we find in human beings.  He created Lucy as a very self-centered person. Linus is pushing Lucy in a swing and Linus tells her, “It says here that the world revolves around the sun once a year.”  Lucy responds, “The world revolves around the sun once a year? Are you sure? I thought it revolved around me!”

Charlie Brown has little self-confidence.  The teacher says to Charlie Brown, “Your turn.”  Charlie asks, “Me? My turn? Yes, ma’am, my name is Charles Brown.  My Dad is a barber. I guess my favorite hobbies are baseball and reading.”  Then he returned to his seat and said to Linus, “I thought I did pretty good.  Why did everyone laugh?” Linus tells Charlie, “You walked out the door and gave your speech in the hallway!” 

Linus lives with many fears.  His blanket gives him security.  Linus is holding his blanket and he says to Snoopy, “Watch it Beagle!  If you touch this blanket, I’ll destroy you! I’ll destroy you and all your cousins and the place where you were born and all the records at the courthouse.  Small craft warnings will be posted along both coasts! I will pounce on you like the last days of Pompeii! So back up!” So Snoopy backs off and backs off until he reaches his dog house.  Then Snoopy says, “When I back off, I back off!”  

In these three characters, you see the flaws of a self-centered person, a person of low self-esteem and in the last character with the power of fear when it grips our lives.

In our scripture lesson today, we meet a man named Zacchaeus. He had many flaws in his life, as do most humans.  He had become a very self-centered man. He was the chief tax collector in the region and had become very rich. But Zacchaeus was not happy with his life.  His riches had not given him self worth. He had little self esteem because he was hated by the people who knew him as a cheat and an evil person. When you reach a certain point in your life and you know no one cares if you live or die, you may seek a way to find respect and love.  Many of our political leaders, government workers, and judges at local, state and national levels have become like Zacchaeus

With his riches Zacchaeus was still an outcast where he lived in Jericho.  He had heard about Jesus and he wanted to see him when he came to Jericho. He joined the crowd, but he was so short he could not see Jesus.

Some times we get lost in human worldly crowds.  This is not because we are physically short but because we accept the evil and sin-filled ways of the world.  Zacchaeus made a decision to find a way to see this man named Jesus. He ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree beside the road, because he knew Jesus was going to pass that way.

Jesus comes seeking us by name.  “When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. ‘Zacchaeus!’, he said, ‘Quick, come down,  I must be a guest in your house today.”

The response of Zacchaeus was to climb down and take Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy.  Jesus became more that a house guest for Zacchaeus that day. The people in the crowd that knew Zacchaeus could not believe that Jesus would go into the home of Zacchaeus.   “Jesus has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,’ they grumbled.”

Inside the walls of Zacchaeus home, he stood before Jesus and in his confession, he emptied his bondage of evil and sin.  “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much.”

Confession brings us to the place that we can say to Jesus, “Lord, forgive me of my sin.”  Then God’s grace and love is poured out on us. The grace, love and forgiveness comes from the very heart of God that died on the cross.  In His death he paid off our sin debt. He rose to life that we might rise to life also.

Jesus responded to Zacchaeus, “Salvation has come to this home today for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

This describes all of us until we come to Jesus and confess to him our sins, asking for his forgiveness.

In truth our confession could start when we say to Jesus these words from an old hymn: “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”  Zacchaeus could say, “It’s me Oh Lord, standing in the need of your forgiveness.” Jesus became Zacchaeus’s Savior that day. Jesus became much more than just a house guest having a meal with a rich man.

Lucy said, “Someday you’re going to have to give up that blanket.  Someday you’re going to have to stand on your own two feet. Someday you’re going to have to grow up and face life without any help from anyone.”  Linus says, “Someday.” 

Someday we will face God who gave us life and sent us on the journey of this life.  We can stay as we are: self-centered people with low self-esteem that see ourselves as worthless and this life as worthless, living with the fear that we will be found out for who we really are, lost and empty hulls of human beings; or we can say to Jesus, “I want you to come to my house today.”