So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
We may, as it were, come up short when we try to get a glimpse of Jesus. The crowds who surround Jesus do not often make it easy for those who desire to see him. To us it may seem as though many of those who are close to Jesus are giants forming a perimeter past which we can't enter or even see. We think here even of those well meaning saints and theologians whose are too preoccupied with Jesus to notice the fledglings on the outskirts in addition to those who might be actively hostile to us because the outsiders are not yet saints.
If we are not tall enough to surmount the obstacle of the crowd let us be on the watch for a tree which we might ascend and use as a vantage point. The tree may expose us in our limitations, making a point of how we lack the stature of the crowds. In this way the tree is a little death to self, the embracing of our own cross, from which we can see Jesus more clearly than anywhere else. It is more fitting for children to climb trees than adults. In this way the tree represents becoming like a little child, precisely of the sort that Jesus always welcomed and allowed to come to him.
What might the tree look like in our own lives? It would often take the shape of prayer, perhaps prayer as preferred to entertainment, or as chosen instead of sin in the hour of temptation. Perhaps it would be the often challenging situation where we ask someone else to pray for intentions that are deeply close to our hearts. Maybe it would be going up to receive prayer for healing in a prayer meeting, or a decisive decision to recommit ourselves to Jesus. These are only a few of the possibilities. Anytime we willing allow ourselves to stand out and even to be exposed for the sake of Jesus it is an occasion which Jesus himself delights to turn into an opportunity for us to come closer to him and be blessed by him.
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.”
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
The crowds don't love it when the followers of Jesus decide to stand out for his sake. It is unsettling to see sinners repent and to witness the lost being found. Why so? Why is it not something we celebrate? It is because we in the crowd are often like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son who himself is deeply unaware of the blessings which are his in view of his living in his father's house. Rather than delighting in what is possible the crowd desires to dismiss out of hand anything that is not already theirs.
When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
“He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
In Zacchaeus we see that sinners can indeed repent, that the rich really can inherit the Kingdom. The tree he climbed was a true death to the person he used to be, and he no longer needed any of the possessions or practices associated with that past life.
“Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over.”
This is the sort of risk we take when we start climbing trees to see Jesus. If we really mean it we might actually see him. And if that happens nothing can be the same.
One those things that tends to happens once Jesus calls us by name is that we become less willing to simply blend back into the crowd. We realize that such a path would have left us miserable whereas receiving Jesus himself has given us the truest joy we've known. We are meant to become so emboldened by this experience that we now stand out not only for our own sakes but as signs to all of those who are still lost and seeking, as a caution to those to whom blending into the crowd might seem an appealing choice.
Eleazar had seen something of the goodness of God and his holy laws and was unwilling to compromise, not only for his own sake, but so that his own life could be a model and an invitation. In his own way he climbed a tree to see God more clearly. He was willing to intentionally stand out from a crowd that was being deceived and going astray. Even in torture the world was not able to take away the joy in his soul that had its origin in his own relationship with God.
I am not only enduring terrible pain in my body from this scourging,
but also suffering it with joy in my soul
because of my devotion to him.
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