Do We Make the Kind of Efforts that Zacchaeus Made to Encounter the Divine Mercy in Jesus?

The Lucan Gospel story about Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus  and conversion (Luke 19:1-10) is one of the well-known stories of the Bible. Because of this children’s song, “Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man”, many children are familiar with this Gospel stories.

So, how do we relate this Lucan Gospel story about Zacchaeus the chief tax collector of the Jericho region to us?

When I teach this Gospel story to children, I ask them, “Do you make the kind of efforts that Zacchaeus made in order to see or to be seen by Jesus?”  I am not necessarily encouraging my little students to climb up on a tree as Zacchaeus did. 

Zacchaeus was short, as said in the Gospel story and the aforementioned song reminds vividly. He was easily lost in the crowd for his short physical stature. So, he had to climb up on a sycamore tree to see Jesus, when he came to his turf, Jericho, and a crowd swarmed.  

And Jesus recognized Zacchaeus on the tree and commanded him to come down quickly because Jesus decided to stay at his house. Yes, quickly! He wanted Zacchaeus to be with him immediately!
 

I suppose Zacchaeus was not expecting Jesus to come to and stay in his house on that day. Perhaps, he came to see Jesus out of curiosity or maybe, something deep in his heart nudged him to see Jesus, as his conscience was still alive and began to cry out deep in his heart, as if the voice crying out in the wilderness to make the high way of the Messiah to come (Isaiah 40:3), which was represented by John the Baptist calling for metanoia to prepare for the public appearance of Christ (John 1:23).  Zacchaeus and those who worked under his supervision had been known for extortion in collecting taxes for the Roman colonizers, and consequently, hated by his fellow Jews. Though Zacchaeus made himself rich by cheating, the comfort from his dirty wealth did not really kill his conscience. 

So, when he learned about Jesus coming to his town, Zacchaeous could not help but to check out who Jesus really was. And, he was willing to make any efforts for this. Thus, he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed up the sycamore tree to get the best view of Jesus.

This effort that Zacchaeus made to see Jesus is like how a zealous fan of a rock star gets himself first in line to get a concert ticket for the best seat, even he had to camp out in the cold weather in front of the ticket sale box so that he is the  first one to buy a ticket.

The question is: Are we willing to make the kind of efforts that Zacchaeus made to encounter Christ?

For us to do so, we must have a voice crying out to see Christ deep in our heart, no matter how far away we may have gotten from him due to our sinfulness.  And, heeding this voice of our conscience for conversion, we sure have the urge to encounter Christ.

Why Zacchaeus was so wee little? Well, his such a short stature may symbolically tell how he was seen in his society: being hated, seen as insignificant, marginalized, because of his sins of extortion as a puppet of the Roman colonizer. But, Jesus, on the other hand, saw him differently, because of his mercy, which is namely the Divine Marcy, as Jesus himself revealed so to St. Maria Faustina (Diary of St. Faustina, 1074).

The Lucan story of Zacchaeus’ encounter of Jesus and conversion (Luke 19:1-10) is read for Mass on the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time on Cycle C, and its corresponding First Reading is taken from Wisdom 11:22-12:2, which reflects the mercy of God. Thus, the Lucan story is about how God’s mercy in Jesus not only recognized a man, made invisible to his society because of his sins, acknowledged him and prompted his instantaneous conversion, preceded by his efforts to seek out Jesus.

Yes, Christ, the Divine Mercy, is coming to seek the lost – the sinners, who are ignored and marginalized by societies – to save them (Luke 19:10). At the same time, like Zacchaeus, we make our efforts to seek him out, also reflected in Deuteronomy 4:29 as well as in Proverbs 8:17, as we hear the voice of conscience crying out in our heart. This may also be like how David felt when his soul thirsted for God (Psalm 63:1).

Do our souls thirst for Christ, who is merciful and mercy himself?

Are we hear and listen to the voice of our conscience, crying out in our hearts, to seek Christ for his mercy?

Does this urge us to make any efforts to seek out Christ to be touched by his mercy for conversion?

If we say “yes” to all of these, then, we may experience an instantaneous metanoia as Zacchaeus enjoyed.