“And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”” Luke 19:5 ESV
Reflection: how would you describe something that is urgent for you?
In a way, we all seem to go through seasons in life, each with its own and unique chapter that we get to write. Everyone has some similar chapters, such as “Childhood”, or Teenage Years”. There might be a chapter in your story called “The Car Wreck”, where everything before and after that point was different. I had such an experience as a teenager. Three friends in a car, enjoying life, and in an instance, one young life was taken. None of us knew that morning what was about to unfold that day. But God knew, and I am sure He was in a very different mood than us. He knew of the situation, perhaps the urgency for certain matters to be dealt with before this event occurred.
In our focus verse today, we read from the story of Zacchaeus, who was a very wealthy tax collector in Jericho. He had heard that Jesus was going through his town, and was so curious, so interested in hearing and seeing Jesus that he climbed up a tree, waiting for him to walk by. And when Jesus gets close to him, he says “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” Now, why in the world would he say “hurry”? What was so urgent? We don’t know for sure, but we can speculate.
When we read ahead in the gospel, we can see that this was the last time that Jesus would be physically walking through Jericho. This city is at the foot of the mountain, on where Jerusalem is, and Jesus was on his way there to fulfill his mission; the atonement for our sins. So this was in a way, the only time Zacchaeus would see Jesus; the closest he would ever be to him. This one opportunity to receive Jesus into his home, as Jesus invited himself to come to his house. So what did Zacchaeus do?
“So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.” Luke 19:6 ESV.
Did you notice that same word “hurry” is used here to describe Zacchaeus response, his action. This word is only used 6 times in the New Testament; two of which are right here. And it has two meanings; the first being the obvious one “to make haste of”, and the second one “to desire earnestly”. Zacchaeus desired earnestly to be with Jesus, and he hurried to make that happen. And we can truly see here a man with a changed heart as he is distributing his wealth to the poor, and to those he has taken money from. Quite a contrast to the other wealthy man we looked at previously who could not part with his money.
We don’t know if there were additional reasons why Jesus asked Zacchaeus to “hurry” that day. Maybe if he had put it off that day, gone to work instead of climbing that tree to hear Jesus, the opportunity might have passed him by. The rest of his story, the chapters of his life, would have been different. But we get to hear about his story, even 2000 or so years later. And I wonder, how many similar stories are missing from the Bible, of those that did not respond to Jesus’ calling with urgency? That thought they would have another day, another opportunity to invite him home.
The prophet Isaiah wrote about these seasons of life, to not put off when the Lord is near, when he walks by ““Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6-7 ESV. And as we think about the chapter and page in life we find ourselves in today, are there things we urgently need to address? Is Jesus calling you to do something today? To invite him in to your heart, perhaps? Repentance of some sin? A relationships that needs mending?
Don’t put it off.