XXXIII Tuesday, Ordinary Time, Year I

2Mc 6:18-31
Ps 3:2-7
Mt 19:1-10

He didn’t intend to stay, he intended to pass through the town;

for he had “come to seek and to save what was lost…”

“… to stay in the house of a sinner.”

As the Gospel recalls, Zacchaeus was not a tall man but he was certainly a rich and perhaps a powerful man. He wanted to see Jesus. Yesterday, we heard about the blind man on the roadside calling out to Jesus and also wanting to see Jesus. Both wanted to see Jesus: whereas the blind man saw with the eyes of faith, but wanted to see with the eyes of the body, Zacchaeus saw with the eyes of the body, but wanted to see with the eyes of faith.

What I find interesting is how he goes about doing this. We know that he is a rich man and so he probably had servants and they easily could have pushed their way through the crowds to allow Zaccheus to see. He was already hated by everyone, it would make no difference to him to get his way and push through the crowds; but he didn’t. Instead, he climbed a sycamore tree, a common tree. You can imagine what the people there must have thought of Zacchaeus. As if he was not disliked enough by being a tax collector, now he’s gone and embarrassed himself even more by doing something that only kids and disc golf playing seminarians would do.

But I see something different in all this commotion. I see a man stopping at nothing, wanting to see with the eyes of faith the one that could save him. To risk humiliation and embarrassment just to get a glimpse of Jesus. Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house. Jesus had not intended to stay, but to pass through. One could say that the humble heart and penitent acts of one man altered the plans of Our Lord. Since Zacchaeus climbed that tree and humiliated himself out of a true desire to see with the eyes of faith, Jesus desired to enter and stay at his house. Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus desired to stay in our house, to dwell in our hearts? But we are all sinners! Fortunately, we don’t have to climb a tree for that to happen. Because in the Gospel today, Jesus is saying to each one of us, “Come down from that tree so that I may take your place on the tree of life. You no longer have to subject yourself to the world’s ridicule in your sins and brokenness, I will bear it for you. Come down from that tree so that I can stay with you today.”