He Went First
“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 because he was short he could not see over 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.”
— Luke 19:1-6 (NIV)
Jericho sat on a busy trade road, and Rome auctioned off its customs post to private contractors. A chief collector ran a whole district and took a cut from every agent under him. To his neighbors that made him a traitor who got rich off his own people. His name meant clean or innocent, which in that town sounded like a joke. A wealthy man in long robes did not run down a public street. The sycamore-fig grew by the road, with low branches and cheap fruit for the poorest. He threw away his dignity for a glimpse of a traveler who was not even stopping. Eating in a man's home was a public verdict that he was decent company. The crowd complained out loud that He had gone in as the guest of a sinner. Before the evening ended he gave half his property away and repaid four times what he had taken. God goes first to the people everyone else has already crossed off.
You know how fast a person can get written off. A name comes up and the room already has its verdict. Maybe it is a relative whose calls you stopped returning. Maybe it is the neighbor everyone already has a story about. You have been on somebody's list yourself, more than once. Jesus called a man his town despised down from a tree and ate in his house that day. Someone can hear a kind word from you before they have earned one.
Go First Today
- 1Today, pick one person your circle speaks badly about, or one you have quietly given up on, and reach out first: a message, a phone call, or a word over the fence. Use their name and say one ordinary, warm sentence. Do not bring up the past, do not correct them, and do not wait for them to deserve it.
- 2If there is nobody you can reach today, write that person's name on a slip of paper, put it beside your plate at dinner, and pray for them by name instead of repeating what everyone says about them.
Jesus, You walked past the whole crowd and went to the man that town had written off. You did not wait until he was better. I have crossed people off too, and I have been crossed off myself. Today I want to say one kind sentence to one of them, out loud or in a message. Keep the judgment out of my voice and give me the words. Amen.
God came to me before I had anything to show, so today I go first to someone I had written off.
Who was Zacchaeus and why did the town hate him?
He was a chief tax collector in Jericho, a customs town on a busy trade road. Rome auctioned off the right to collect duties there, and a chief collector ran a whole district, taking a cut from every agent under him. To his neighbors that made him a traitor who got rich off his own people, not merely an unpopular official.
What happened after Jesus went into his house?
The crowd complained out loud that He had gone in as the guest of a sinner. Before the evening ended, Zacchaeus gave half his property to the poor and repaid four times what he had taken. The change came after the visit, not before it.
What if there is nobody I can reach out to today?
Write the name of the person you have written off on a slip of paper, put it beside your plate at dinner, and pray for them by name instead of repeating what everyone says about them.