Further Love Lesson from Zacchaeus - Zacchaeus vs Bro. Leo - On Letting Jesus In

In my last blog entry, A Love Lesson from the Gospel Story of Zacchaeus, a Short Sinful Man, I described the Gospel story of Zacchaeus and Jesus in Luke 19:1-10 as a story of love.  In this context, love does not mean romantic kind.  It is also a s tory of seekers as love seeks love’s object, because love unites, illustrating a mutual seeking of Zacchaeus and Jesus in light of Song of Songs 2:8-10.14.16; 8:6-7. 

The Gospel story makes it clear that it was not just Zacchaeus who was seeking Jesus but Jesus was also seeking Zacchaeus. Otherwise, he would just pass by Zacchaeus on a sycamore tree without any interaction. But, out of countless numbers in the crowd, Jesus responded to Zacchaeus,  as if he had known this “wee little man” trying to see him from a tree.  And, it was on his way to Jerusalem – in fact, to Calvary.  Though Jesus did not have to go through Jericho, as there were other ways around to go from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jesus chose to go through Jericho. 

Significance of Jericho – where Jesus met Zacchaeus

Jesus did not do anything without a reason. He always had a certain intention for his action. So, he had a certain intention or interest in going to Jerusalem through Jericho. 

Biblically, Jericho is believed to have a symbolic meaning as an impeding factor between God and us – a sort of a stumbling stone that blocks a pathway between God and us, an obstacle in our covenant relation with God.  

Jericho was a city associated with problem against God. That is why it was conquered by Joshua  (Joshua 6:1-27) and dealt by Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 2:1-25). During the time of Elijah and Elisha, Jericho was a city where King Ahab’s wickedness was so evident and needed God’s action. 

With this Old Testament background, It makes sense that Jesus chose to go through Jericho on his mission – on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified as prophesized in Isaiah 53. 

Even after Elijah and Elisha responding to Jericho’s problem as God’s representative (prophets),  there was something about Jericho for Jesus. 

And, Jesus not only met and transformed a sinner, Zacchaeus, (Luke 19:1-10) but also healed Bartmaeus’ blindness ( Mark 10:46-52).  These two actions of Jesus in Jericho bear significant meaning.

These actions of Jesus in Jericho can be symbolically understood as removing stumbling blocks on our path toward salvation. Zacchaeus’ metanoia (turn of heart back to God through penance) also means our metanoia, and Barmaeus’ gaining of vision also echoes our enlightening to God’s great power of mercy and salvation. 

Jesus needed to accomplish these as part of his mission before completing his earthly mission in Jerusalem for our salvation.  In this regard, Jesus’ path from Galilee to Jerusalem via Jericho symbolically means our path of salvation.  So, Jericho means obstacles to be resolved in order for us to attain salvation. 

A Love Lesson from Zaccaheus – Responding to Jesus’ Love Call Without Delay – Joy:  Clinical Comparison Between sinful Zacchaeus and righteous Bro. Leo

Now, I want to talk a bit more about my characterization of the Gospel story of Jesus and Zacchaeus as a story of love, expounding my last blog entry.

Besides it is story of seeking, which is a character of love, as Blessed Pope John Paul II spoke in his 6 June 1984 address to general audience,  it is a story about our response to love’s call. 

Lovers seek and search each other, because seeking is love’s nature.  Even though loves are together, they still continue seeking and searching each other further on deeper levels.  As Blessed Pope John Paul II addressed, love’s seeking nature is everlasting.  In fact, this is how God has been to us, and we are to be the same to God. 

Jesus, the incarnation of God’s love for us, seeks us,  especially those who are in more need of God’s providence, like sinners.  That is why Jesus intentionally and symbolically went through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem and sought out Zacchaeus, showing how God seek us in His love. 

When God seek, God call us. That is why Jesus told Zacchaeus, “ Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house”(Luke 19:5).   

These words of Jesus certainly echo the following words of Jesus in Revelation:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me”(Revelation 3:20).  

The reason why I find these words of Jesus from Revelation 3:20 to be paralleling the words of Jesus in Luke 19:5 is Jesus’ words in Revelation 3:19:

Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.

In Revelation 3:19-20, Jesus is calling us, the sinners, inviting us to dine with him at our homes.  Spiritually, “homes”  means our hearts.  And, this invitation of Jesus to us is with the same pattern  as the way Jesus invited Zacchaeus to dine with him at his home. 

Of course, Jesus has a specific intention in calling us to let him into our houses – our hearts – as he asked Zacchaeus to let him into his house,  as Jesus’ words in Revelation 3:21 indicate:

I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne.

It is clear that Jesus is inviting us to sit with him on his throne as he is the victorious King.  This eschatological and soteriological image in Revelation is very important to understand why Jesus said to Zacchaeus:

Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham (Luke 19:9).

As the throne of Christ the King is an important image of salvation – heaven, where Saints and saints are,  as in the case of Zaccheus, we must say our willing “Yes!” to Jesus, when he calls us – whether he tells us to come down from a tree immediately (symbolically, Jesus asking us to come closer to him) or knocking on our doors (symbolically, knocking on the door of our heart) – in order for us to be entitled to salvation.  And, this is definitely a call and seeking of Jesus, the lover. 

As Jesus wants to visit and dine with Zacchaeus at his home, he also wants to visit us and dine with us wherever we are. It is because Jesus is the ultimate lover, who seeks us.  And, when Jesus seeks and wants to dine with us, it is him, who provides “dinner” as he offers himself – his body and blood – as the Eucharist at every Mass. 

So, when we attend Mass and receive the Sacrament of Eucharist, we are saying “Yes!”(Amen!) to Jesus’ call – in a way, as Zacchaeus joyfully responded to Jesus’ call by coming down from a sycamore tree and had him over dinner at his house. And, it was there salvation came. 

So, how willing are we to let Jesus into our own hearts? 

This question is a good indicator of how genuine and authentic our relationship with Jesus is. In other words, the aforementioned question can be:  

How intimate and genuine your relationship with Christ is? 

Would you immediately open the door and welcome him in, regardless of the cleanliness of your home?

Would you rather tell him, “Lord, I’m glad you have come! But, I wish you would have told me before so that I could have clean my house and be more hospitable. I’m sorry, Lord. Since you just came unannounced, I cannot let you in. My place is a big mess. Could you please come back tomorrow so that I can be more welcoming to you? “

Spiritually, many of us tend to respond to Jesus’ call as Jesus never tells us when he is going to visit us.  He sure did not tell Zacchaeus he would come to his house and dine with him until he met him on that very day.  And, Zacchaeus did not have the luxury to make a grand plan to provide best hospitality to Jesus the special guest.  He just did his best to host Jesus at his last minute announcement. 

So, this is how we must act in response to Jesus’ calling us and knocking our hearts’ doors, as Jesus wants to visit our hearts, whenever he wants and feels like. Not when we feel ready to host Jesus into our hearts. 

As sinners, we tend to feel reluctant to let Jesus into our hearts immediately upon his unannounced contacts, because we know our hearts are not clean enough to be seen by Jesus.  Don’t we all feel some reluctance, though we know we need, upon going to confession? 

The same reluctance manifests when Jesus knocks our hearts’ door – if we feel our hearts are not clean enough to please Jesus.

So, we rather prefer to wait or postpone Jesus’ visit to our hearts until they are clean enough. 

This intention seems to be a nice gesture on the surface. But, from a pastoral psychological view, this actually leads to psychospiritual disorder. A good case study is found with Bro. Leo, who slipped into despair as a result of his diligent pursuit of the purity of heart. In my 10/13/13 blog entry, St. Francis as a Morita Therapy Practitioner – A Case Study of Bro. Leo”, I extensively addressed this issue. 

Bro. Leo felt that he had to attain the purity of heart to attain salvation. Thus, he worked very hard in his own way to achieve this goal. But, in his efforts to attain the purity of heart, he lost himself, resulting in despair.  And, it was St. Francis who pointed out this problem to Bro. Leo, stating:

“The sadness of not being perfect, the discovery that you really are sinful, is a feeling much too human, even borders on idolatry. Focus your vision outside yourself, on the beauty, graciousness and compassion of Jesus Christ. The pure of heart praise Him from sunrise to sundown……… holiness is not a personal achievement. It's an emptiness you discover in yourself. Instead of resenting it, you accept it and it becomes the free space where the Lord can create anew. To cry out, ‘You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,' that is what it means to be pure of heart. And it doesn't come by your Herculean efforts and threadbare resolutions…… Simply hoard nothing of yourself; sweep the house clean. Sweep out even the attic, even the nagging, painful consciousness of your past. Accept being shipwrecked. Renounce everything that is heavy, even the weight of your sins. See only the compassion, the infinite patience and the tender love of Christ. Jesus is Lord. That suffices. Your guilt and reproach disappear into the nothingness of non-attention. You are no longer aware of yourself, like the sparrow aloft and free in the azure sky. Even the desire for holiness is transformed into a pure and simple desire for Jesus.”  (taken from “The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus” by Brennan Manning)

As these compassionate yet powerful words to Bro. Leo also teach us, it is our narcissistic excuse to delay in opening our hearts to Jesus because of impurity of our hearts. And, if we keep prolonging our self-induced blockage to Jesus’ path to come into our hearts out of our ego’s ego-centric attachment, as St. Francis analyzed, we can suffer from psychospiritual disorder as Bro. Leo did. 

So, a great lesson here is to simply open our hearts’ door – opening our hearts – to Jesus even our hearts are in “mess”, even far from pure.  In fact, Jesus already knows that our hearts are not pure – yet. That is why he comes to us – just as he sought Zacchaeus, a sinner.

And, as Zacchaeus did not hesitate to let Jesus in, we are to let Jesus into our hearts, in spite of impurity.  Let us not make imperfection and impurity be our excuse to block Jesus! If we do, then,  we are symbolically holding up Jesus in Jericho! 

Another important lesson from Zacchaeus is that he was able to resolve his ego attachment through his contact with Jesus and by letting him into his house to dine with him, as he let go of what he was holding – at least a half of his treasures. And, he gained more joy.  Interestingly, St. Francis was also pointing out this to Bro. Leo. 

No wonder Zacchaeus did not suffer from a psychospiritual disorder as Bro. Leo did, though the former was a sinner and the latter was rather a righteous man.  Zacchaes was able to save himself from slipping into despair because he immediately let Jesus in. But, Bro. Leo had to suffer because he became too busy focusing on purity of his heart though he should have just let Jesus into his heart. 

The more intimate we become in our love, then, we become much less reluctant to let our love objects further deeper into our hearts.  If it is our hearts’ deep desire to have true intimacy with our love objects, then, we must first strive to attain the intimacy with God through Jesus the Christ.  

Christian couples who let Jesus into their hearts without preoccupation of purity, as Zacchaeus let Jesus in,  tend to be happier and intimate couples. But, Christian couples, who let their preoccupations with perfection or purity become hindrance to invite each other deeper into one another's hearts,  tend to suffer from intimacy deficiency and a host of its consequences. 

As Jesus loves us as we are, including our imperfection, things to be improved, and impurity, lovers in genuine intimacy love one another regardless of each other's imperfection and so forth. And, as Zacchaeus let Jesus in though he was a sinner (while righteous people thought he was not worthy to let Jesus in), we, sinners, also let not only Jesus deep into our impure hearts but also we, genuine lovers, let one another in love deep into one another's hearts. The intimacy that enables us to do this means salvation!