Jesus was walking through Jericho and saw a man
named Zacchaeus perched in a sycamore tree. Zacchaeus climbed the tree because
he wanted to see Jesus, yet he was too short to see over the crowd. Jesus
decided to go to Zacchaeus’ home for a visit.
Zacchaeus was a tax collector, which meant he was
not a very popular guy. Tax collectors had a bad reputation, they were often
accused of stealing and lying. The best modern profession to compare them to
would be a lawyer. Not to say that lawyers are sinners, but for some reason
they have a reputation for being dishonest.
Zacchaeus though, is one of my favorite characters
in the Bible. Upon meeting Jesus he said, “Here and now I give half of my
possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay
back four times the amount.” (Verse 8)
Zacchaeus gets it! When Jesus entered his life, his
life changed.
So often in life we offend others and offer a
simple, “I’m sorry.” We ask forgiveness, but that’s as far as we are willing to
take it. On a rare occasion, we will buy our wife flowers.
Zacchaeus isn’t just going to say he is sorry, he is
going to pay back anyone he cheated. And not just pay them back, he is going to
pay them back four times the amount! Those people who he defrauded are lucky!
It takes a long time for your money to quadruple in the stock market!
I have a friend who has a policy we should all
adopt. If he offends someone, he buys them lunch. He has been doing it for over
fifty years. Over the years, I’m sure that has been a lot of lunches, but his
friends know how much they mean to him. He
is not only willing to admit he is wrong, he actually does something to make up
for it!
Have you lost friends over disagreements?
Was it worth it?
Is there more you can do to seek forgiveness?
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