Small Man Acting Big

Zac was short and overweight. He was highly skilled at making money and enemies. He was light on friends, in fact he wasn't sure he had any. Zac was public enemy #1. But Zac had a heart and it was hurting. It was hurting for peace and longing to be really loved. Years of rejection a thick skin could no longer cover drove him buy pleasures and people's kindness. The pain would not go away.

Zac heard about a travelling preacher coming to town who had a growing reputation for mixing it with the unloved and social sinners of the day. "Could this man cure the ache in my heart?" wondered Zac. What money could not buy, curiosity just had to find. But how could a short dumpy man on the towns most wanted list ever get through the crowd ? Zac climbed a tree at the side of the road and waited.

As the man approached the crowds pressed in. This preacher was different, he wasn't out to fleece the people or beat them with religious rules and regulations, rather he gave people a very special gift - unconditional love. As he came under the tree where Zac was perched he stopped and looked up at Zac hidden in the branches. "Zac", he said, "Come down out of your tree. I'm coming to your house for tea tonight." It wasn't a case of coming down out of the tree, Zac fell down and picking himself up, stood in front of the man. The crowd now stood silent waiting to see what the man would do. If He didn't arrest him they surely would. Zac, however was already arrested, by the one who was able to see the inside of the human soul. He could see loneliness, rejection, deceit and pain and yet still love him.

In a mixture of self preservation from the angry crowd and a profound change of heart happing within, Zac turned to the crowd and shouted, "half my wealth I will give to the poor and any I have cheated I will pay back four times" (He had done a quick add up. He was still rich). The crowd appeased and his soul relieved, Zac went home and prepared a meal for his first real friend.

How Zacchaeus changed as he encounter Jesus is open to speculation. Was it a lightening bolt transformation, an on going process or a bit of both?

We don't know what happened or became of Zac. Did he go on for Jesus? Did he back slide? Or did he convert to become a religious legalist persecuting other Tax men? They often do!

What happened to the years of acting big on the outside while feeling small on the inside, did they disappear in a flash?

What about his feelings of rejection and his learned habits of being thick skinned, keeping others at a distance so they could not hurt him? Were these deep inner issues solved by having one evening meal with Jesus? I think not.

If Zac lived in today, chances are he would not find his healing in the local church but in a Recovery Group called Taxmans Anonymous. A group of people who have come to realise they have an inside story that needs healing and have discovered a safe environment of welcome, belonging, acceptance, forgiveness and love in which healing can begin to take place.

Each of us have an inside story that needs healing. Many of us would like a lightening bolt transformation making us completely whole in one zap. The lightening bolt experiences are special gifts (transformation moments) of God's grace to us all from time to time but the next day we still struggle with fears, insecurities, grief's and hurts that have patterned our way of living. The on going process of becoming whole takes a life time and it is unrealistic for us to expect of God or ourselves for this to happen in a flash NOW! Healing as a process is a transforming lifestyle. Check out Luke 19:1-10.