The Zaccheus story in Luke 19:1-10 remains one of the most beautiful stories in the New Testament and in Luke. If one reads it from the perspective of spirituality, it yields the following two fascinating perspectives.
1. The divine-human relationship.
Jesus, the intinerant, wandering preacher, on his way through Jericho, tells the children of Abraham, his Jewish compatriots, about God’s new plan for the people of Israel. He has a new message about God. He speaks of a God in language that they find difficult to understand. His God looks a bit different than the God they are used to pray to. Their neat ideas about God differ from who God really is, says Jesus. God “now”, “today” includes the outsiders. The divine love invites also the despised into the family of God. Things are changing, nothing will ever be the same. God is doing the unthinkable. Those who shouted at the tax collectors, who regarded Zaccheus as the enemy of God, must now hear that he is also a “son of Abraham.”.
This is so important that the whole life of Jesus consists of proclaiming this message: The Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. The whole life of Jesus is focussing on embodying this message. He seeks the lost, he travels to embrace them, to bring them back into the fold. This is his life, his message, “who He is.”
This is beautiful, especially for us who know how people can draw boundaries around themselves to keep out the “intruders,” the marginalized, those that they find unworthy of them. We as believers appreciate this wonderful image of the divine outreach to humanity which tolerates no discrimination.
And yet, after my reading of mystical literature over the last number of years, it is something else which intrigues me in the episode. For just as fascinating as the reaching out of God, is the reaching out of humanity to God. There is not a one-sided traffic in the relationship of God and humanity. Like God reaches out for us, we too yearn for God, like Zaccheus. On the surface of things, this is the last one expects of him. He who had everything in life, who was a powerful rich figure who could abuse others without fear of consequences, his existence was empty. His life no longer had meaning. We see him, the powerful, rich one, running desperately after an unknown man, a prophet of all people, one who does not mix with the powerful of this world. He, who is clothed in linen, who sleeps in the softest of beds, desires to see this man who travels with a simple message about God, who ownes nothing and who does not even have a place to lie down his head.
The strange desire for the deeper things breaks power to pieces and makes wealth and riches meaningless.
Zaccheus heard of Jesus, he heard enough to fill his thoughts. Over and over again the story plays out in his mind (lectio). Somewhere in his inner being a prayerful longing for God flamed up. Note the languageof Luke: “I want to see him.” And then the key addition: I want to see him, “who he is.” It is not mere curiosity. It is a yearning to experience, to see his countenance, to look the prophet in the eyes, to see infinity, to open the heart. The desire consumes him. He fights, in vain, to get to Jesus through the crowds. And then, desperate, he runs to a tree, Luke writes. He knew, he planned (meditatio!), he worked out Jesus’ route, he considered the options, he thought deeply about what to do – he wanted to see Him. It is a deep desire, flowing from his innermost being, this desire for the divine. His climbing the tree is his oratio, his prayer, his fragile reaching out to the “One who Is.”
2. The transformation
The moment of recognition happens. The paths of God and humanity cross. Note how the relationships are dramatically reversed. The rushing Zaccheurs, panting and sweating up in the tree, sees how the Human One, The Son of Man, stops at the tree. He wants to see Jesus, but Jesus looks up at him. And then, the most intimate moment in the story: Jesus calls him by his name: Zaccheus. I know you. “I have called you by your name....”
In meditiaton on this passage one could think of many things: the thronging crowds, Jesus walking through then, then the place under the tree, Jesus standing still, looking up, the crowds staring up in total surprise at the peering tax collector, falling silent as Jesus begins to talk to him. And, then, Jesus quietly talking to him, calling him from under the tree. The hated tax collector who abused and deceived so many, sitting in a tree, looking down at the face of the Man. The face to face meeting, ultimately initiated by the One who Is. At last Zaccheus sees who He is. He is the One who know me without me having seen him....
And the intimate moment is intensified when Jesus says to him to get down “quickly”. What a response! Quick to embrace, this is how we know God. There is no mocking from Jesus. Not like what happened to him when he was up a tree and despised by the crowds. Here is compassion, outreach and love. Quickly Zacchaeus, quickly, let us meet, the divine heart is impatiently looking out for you. My desire is greater, more urgent, deeper and stronger than your quest for me.
But the deepest moment is in the mystical: “I must stay with you today.” The contemplatio, the visio Dei, living in the presence of God, at home with the Father. The running Father embracing and kissing the Prodigal Son.
And then the dark side. The embrace comes at a price, Luke tells us. The dark shadow of the cross falls menacingly over the two who embrace, because the darkness cannot stand love. Luke pictures Jesus as the one who loves the sinners and who shares God’s grace with them ( The Son of Man saves, you are a son of Abraham who belongs to God as well). So the expected happens where people do not “see who He is”: the crowds murmur and complain. The pious and the religious prescribe to Jesus. They stand in stark contrast to Zacchaeus who desires to “see” Jesus. How soft is the profile of Zaccaeus suddenly: the one who yearns stands in contrast with the ones who hate and reject. So, the one who is transformed, who feels the embrace of God, is the one who waits for God.
But, even then, there is still the deepest moment in those unfathomable words of Jesus: “I must stay with you today...” Who is Jesus? wonders Zacchaeus. He is the divine One, answers Luke, who must reach out. His divine father heart drives him. He cannot but reach out. He is driven by merciful love. He “must” do it. “The son of Man must....”
So much to add about the story’s remarkable end. Hopefully some day more...
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