A PURPOSEFUL LIFE; NEW TESTAMENT STORIES

                                 NOT WORTHY OF ATTENTION D PART II 

"I, Zacchaeus, live in Jericho... I am a wealthy tax collector... All tax collectors tend to be wealthy.... We are being accused of getting our money in a deceptive way... Perhaps there is some truth to it.... But it is hard to change a system.... I have learned that money cannot buy friends.... So I am a very lonely person.... Will that ever change?.... I am not hopeful.... This morning I went out to run some errands... I noticed a crowd... I asked them why they had gathered.... They told me that Jesus is coming.... I have heard of Him... I have heard that He heals people and delivers people from demonic spirits... The people told me as well that Jesus had healed the blind man who sits on the road just outside Jericho... I know who he is... He is a nobody... But Jesus stopped for him to heal him!!... I decided I wanted to see Jesus.... But I am short.... Everyone is taller than I am.... That means I would never be able to see Jesus if I remained part of the crowd....I looked around... I spotted a good-sized tree.... It was a sycamore-fig tree.... I decided to climb into it.... I could hear Jesus getting closer to the tree... I then realised He stopped underneath my tree.... Was He perhaps tired?... Or a little disoriented and needed to get his bearing?... No, He did not look around.... He looked up!!... He looked into my eyes... And He then spoke to me.... Can you imagine?... Jesus spoke to me.... And He called me by my name.... Jesus knew my name!.... And He told me to come down.".... Please read the typed out attachment when you will learn that Jesus stops at the tree Zacchaeus has climbed into....

                 ATTACHMENT S PURPOSEFUL LIFE; NEW TESTAMENT STORIES

                                      NOT WORTHY OF ATTENTION D PART II

The man God has chosen for Jesus to minister to that day in Jericho is Zacchaeus. Like the blind man, Zacchaeus has heard of Jesus and he too will do what he can to see Jesus. His problem is not that he is blind but that he is short, so he decides to climb into a tree enabling him to have a view of Jesus anyway. What is Jesus going to do about this short man Zacchaeus? Will the fact that he is too short to see Jesus hinder him from meeting Jesus? Let's read Luke 19:5 to find out

When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."

Jesus, being aware what Zacchaeus has done to see Him, stops at the right sycamore-fig tree.