Climbing Down to Jesus

UV 1514/10000 Leadership Climb Down
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.

Luke 19 v 5

Jesus asks us to leave our troubles behind and come down so that we can abide with Him in His house just as He asked Zacchaeus to hasten and come down from the tree on which he had climbed so that He could stay in the latter’s house. It is written in scripture that Zacchaeus came down quickly and received Jesus joyfully. We too need to receive Jesus joyfully in our hearts and lives. When we do so, the Lord will build our house. He will build our lives on rock- the unchanging principles of God’s Word. He will preserve us from great evil. He will bless us with Shalom. Often like Zacchaeus, we climb places in our quest for God where we are out of reach even for Him. The Lord is willing to be at arm’s length from us where we can see Him, touch Him, be touched, listen to every word and watch every gesture. He is always willing to get intimate with us and He is not bothered about our status, stature, past or what others would say. We only need to get level with the Lord- get on level ground with Him, look in His eyes, watch His lips and listen to His words. We need to climb down instead of climbing up and seeking ring side seats or vantage points for God does not want us to be a spectator. Nor does He want to be a spectator in our lives but a participant. He wants us to be a part of Him. He wants to be part of our party and not left out of our celebration of life. We need to climb down from our positions, from our past, to climb out of our comfort zones.

If we like Zacchaeus are contented to see Jesus from a distance, from the high perches of human status and distinction or from the many standpoints of a human being, we will miss the Lord’s grace. We will only have a glimpse of Him when He would like to fellowship with us over a meal. He will feed us with divine victuals or spiritual manna. His words are the words of eternal life and and as we feed on it. we will be able to live forever. Zacchaeus made peace with God by inviting Jesus into his home and by restituting all that he had extorted from others by returning a fourfold. We too need to make peace with our past by repenting in practical ways for our past faults and failings. It was difficult for the short statured Zacchaeus to climb the sycamore tree but he was ready to go the extra mile to seek God. It was that zeal that was rewarded with a divine visitation by the Lord and a re-ordering of priorities in his life.

We need to “make haste” and “ come down”, implying that we cannot procrastinate about our repentance. We need to come down or humble ourselves under God and before Him. We need to make a clean breast of our past. We are hosting the Lord in our hearts and therefore, we need to keep it clean and honourable. We cannot be casual and indifferent towards the Lord. We need to hereafter produce the fruits of repentance. We need to rejoice in our salvation and not get entangled in the travails of our past. Zacchaeus was a man not just of low stature but of low status or esteem. He was hated as a foreign collaborator, an exploiter, a traitor of Israel by serving the interests of Rome as a tax collector. But Jesus was drawn to him by his great desire to see Him. The Lord is similarly not concerned about our stature or esteem. He is only drawn by our zeal for Him. He honoured Zacchaeus by visiting his home and having a meal with him. Similarly, He will bless us as we continue to fellowship with Him in humility, repentance and love.

Prateep V Philip