Understanding, Through Zacchaeus

As this first week in the new academic and church year, comes to a close, we stand in the full light of hope, in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that He sets us free from sin.

On this final day, we are looking at some powerful words as found in Romans 6:18. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

We shall understand this truth, as we continue to look at Zacchaeus. There will be some repetition of what was already said this week, and that’s okay. Repetition is one way Jesus used and continues to use in teaching His disciples. Yes, we thank God for repetition. I, for one, welcome His repetition.

As has been noted previously, Zacchaeus was a very short man indeed. The truth is that his shortness was extreme. He was what we would call a midget. Having to climb that sycamore-fig tree, was precisely because he was very short indeed. On this occasion, his shortness was the human factor which impeded him from seeing the passing Jesus. Many of us are as Zacchaeus, in that we have some human ‘shortness’, which hinders us from seeing Jesus in our midst. But we need to see that just as there was a sycamore-fig tree for Zacchaeus, a place of higher ground, there is always a place of higher ground for us also. It is a place on which we can climb, to see Jesus. Today, your hope, your surety is to know that your very ‘shortness’, does not have to be your disadvantage in seeing Jesus, for there is a sycamore-fig tree for you to climb.

Let’s look at the quoted Bible verse again, as we lift the first part. You have been set free from sin. Will you, by faith, see it this way? Sin has been your hindrance, your problem, your ‘shortness’. You are a midget, not a giant, in sin. I say midget, because sin keeps you stunted, and to the ground. But you have been set free from sin. You have been a slave to your shortness. You have been a faithful servant to your demons and evils, but look, Jesus has set you free from that bondage, that impediment. To do this, Jesus made you slaves to righteousness. Here, we have the second part of the text.

Let us use Zacchaeus again. The truth is that he is a midget, a short man, and will always be a very short man, but his shortness no longer controls him. He no longer has to be a slave to his shortness and act, react and respond in ways which show his obedience to ‘shortness’. No! He has found that which gives him difference. Your sins are real. You are a sinner and will always be a sinner. But Jesus has given you Grace. It is in Grace that you are given perfect vantage and vision to see Jesus. Like Zacchaeus, you remain ‘short’, you remain a sinner, but your sinfulness no longer rules you, just as his shortness no longer ruled him. Grace, like the sycamore-fig tree, gives you vantage and vision and it is upon grace that Jesus looks and sees the sinner. Jesus looks and offers the sinner a new and different life with Him.

But alas! Too many of us forfeit His gift of abundant life in Him. Here are some facts.

Just as Zacchaeus always remained short, so too you will always be a sinner.
Just as his shortness no longer dictated and controlled his life’s walk, so too your sinfulness no longer has to determine, control, dictate and direct your walk any more.
Just as his ‘shortness’ made him confess to Jesus and want to do all that he could to make amends for his ways, so too our sinfulness, when exposed before righteousness, makes us confess to Jesus and we want very much to produce the fruits of repentance.
Just as he was the servant of ‘shortness’, but now is the servant of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, now ‘tall’ in Christ, so too we become slaves to righteousness, as we offer our lives to God in Christ Jesus and become ‘tall’ in Him.
Just see, that although Zacchaeus remained with his human ‘shortness’, so too you remain with your human name of sinner. But it no longer is your master. Why? Because the undeniable fact is that the sinner now has a Saviour.

Praise be to God! Thanks be to God!