This is an interesting reading, we know very little about Zacchaeus except from this reading, but it gives us an insight into a life that we should all be able to relate to.

First off, we know what he did for a living, a tax collector, not only that, but a chief tax collector. This guaranteed him two things in life, one that he would have the opportunity to be wealthy.

The other is that he would not make friends easily.

His money may have given him the material things he wanted, but they may have been small consolation given the way people reacted to him. Some people would have seen a guy doing a job and good luck to him. Some people would have blanked him, for fear of any retribution, while others would have been vocal in their dislike and distrust for him. It can’t have made for an easy life for him.

Many of us will know what it’s like to deal with rejection by our neighbours

Zacchaeus would have been the subject of jibes and rejection, and the reading gives us an insight into an easy target for those jibes, his physical appearance, it emphasises that he was short.

Imagine that day, word of Jesus has spread through the town and the crowd is assembling to see him. There’s excitement in the air, questions on peoples lips ‘are the things they say about him true?’ ‘Will we see a miracle?’ ‘Will he change my life?’

Zacchaeus would have heard the same stories, and wanted to see him; but his importance in terms of the job he did would have counted for nothing, as the crowds assembled, they took another opportunity to do him down by not letting him through.

Imagine his frustration; his cries of ‘can you let me through, I can’t see’ would have fallen on deaf ears;

But Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector. The outward signs of his nature were of a greedy man, prepared to do an unscrupulous job, maybe his life went that way to compensate for his insecurity about his height and body image.

But inside Zacchaeus was a very different person waiting to get out, yearning to be free. Only he knew this side to him, chances are no one would have listened if he’d tried to tell anyone
His next act took enormous courage, driven by the hero inside him.

Aware that he would probably be mocked or jeered for doing it, he started to climb a tree, expecting to find a vantage point, but finding that his climb would only be the start of his journey.
In our lives we too have to sometimes decide to do brave things, we have to look for the hero inside us to find the courage to step out into the world when we know we may not always finds it welcomes us or understands us.

I still remember how nervous I was the first time I walked into a gay bar by myself, a feeling that was heightened when I walked out of it. Who would see me? Was I in danger?  I know from one of my trans-friends that they were absolutely terrified the first time they left the house, dressed in their best frock.

To do these things takes enormous courage, it still does - even in a world where we have advanced so much in terms of legal equality and recognition.

The song ‘Search for the Hero’ personifies what so many of us have been through, there are challenges based on gender identity or sexuality but so many other experiences apply as well; the challenge of becoming a parent can mix joy with a fear that also has to be overcome.

So there Zacchaeus is in the tree. Chances are there are folk in the crowd beneath him pointing and mocking him. Having drawn on that inner hero of his, what could he expect now?

Finally, Jesus is there.

Maybe Zacchaeus thought that all he would get would be a view of the top of his head.

But Jesus is aware of him.

Instead of engaging him in conversation, Jesus says “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today”. In this one sentence we learn so much about Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and knew him. He didn’t see the short man in good clothes perched in a tree, he saw through that and saw the person inside. He saw the man who had endured the indignity of climbing a tree in the face of mockery. He saw the man whose life needed to change.

He saw the hero inside.

Through communion with Jesus, Zacchaeus finally found a way to let his inside desires come to the fore. His life was changed. He needed to be living a different life because his soul was crying out to be free from the life that it felt trapped in, and Jesus helped him on that journey.

For us, like Zacchaeus we have the opportunity to know Jesus. When we approach him we can do so in the certainty that he know us for who we are. We don’t need to muster our reserves of courage, because he sees through all of our issues and problems, all of our hang ups and insecurities and he sees us as the people he created and loves. Nothing separates us from Jesus and the love of God.

Whoever we are, Jesus knows us.

He sees through our situations and our failures, he sees the hero inside us and wants to bring them out into the world. And, just as with Zacchaeus, he isn’t put off by the prejudice and preconceptions that this world may have about us.

If we choose to walk with him, to entertain him in our homes, to feed him, to clothe him and to support him when he is in prison; then we know that he will be there for us when we need those reserves of strength to face our challenges. He will give us helping hands and encouraging voices to steady us when we are afraid of change.

He will be there to feed us with his very self, he will be there to clothe us and strengthen us whenever we feel we are imprisoned.

Amen.