Go Climb a Tree!

S - Luke 19:1-10 (NIV): "Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! 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." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.""

O - What if Zacchaeus hadn't climbed that sycamore-fig tree?  What if his desire to see Jesus was overcome by his lifelong "shortness"?  What if he had simply accepted the sad circumstance and went back home alone?  What was it that inspired him to not settle for just trying and instead to climb the tree?  Scripture doesn't tell us but I wonder if this great differential can be described by the term desperate as distinguished from willing?  Willing would have carried him to the crowd not to the tree.  Willing would have ended in a nice try and then accompanied him back to business as usual.  Desperate is more than willing.  We normally think of it as reserved for frantic and threatening circumstances beyond our control and capacities.  None of this appears to us in the life of Zacchaeus.  He is rich, successful and healthy.  He's not looking for a miracle for himself or another--he just wants to catch a glimpse of Jesus.  Desperate is defined as overwhelmed with urgency, drastic, reckless or extreme as the only suitable response. What if we lived toward Jesus like Zacchaeus did? What if we were more than willing for this or that but we were desperate for him?  Jesus said (Matthew 7:7-11): ""Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

A - This subject of countless flannel graph stories told in Sunday School room for the last 150+ years is recorded for me/us to see more than an event in the life of Jesus but an event to be welcomed into each day.  What if I live desperate rather than willing?  What if my lifelong liabilities are not used as a definition of my limits but as an inspiration for the desperation (risk, urgency, extreme) Jesus deserves and the joy it will bring to me/us/earth?  Today, I need to desperate enough to climb a tree!  Today I am looking to climb a tree.

P - Lord who loves sinners,

Thank you for wanting us to be near you and to stay near. Lord, help me to engage the love inspired desperation which you deserve and I want to give.  Thank you for being desperate in your love for me/us.  You are extreme, urgent, in your love for us and call to us.  Lord, I yield to you and all you are doing on planet earth.  Please let me know my assignment with you in the work you are doing. I want to live out loud a desperate response to you.

All my all,

Steve