Imagine how you would feel if the neighbor down the street, who usually collects for the cancer society every year, suddenly showed up knocking at the door and said, "I'm collecting for a different charity this year," and, with six large-armed men, walked into your house and took your most precious things away while you stood by helpless, pinned against the wall by his henchmen. When he left, you couldn't even complain to anyone for fear of reprisal. You would just have to endure the bitterness of the oppression and the betrayal that you would feel.
Then you hear that Jesus is coming, and some are whispering that He is the Messiah. You know that the Messiah is the one the Holy Book promises will free us from our oppressors. And then what happens? When He gets to your street, He walks by your family and goes to visit the man who robbed and cheated you. Now can you begin to understand why the people started to grumble against Jesus?
Here is where the challenge of Jesus comes out in full force. Although the Scripture says the Son of Man has come to save the lost, it doesn't stop with this sympathetic phrase "the lost." What we really mean when we say "the lost" is the wicked, the despicable, the lowlife scum of the earth, the cruel dictator, and the heartless terrorist—those overcome with evil. God wants them all back.
Here is where the real challenge of today's story lies for us. He wants the very people we want to see punished severely to be forgiven and saved instead. That is difficult. Ironically, in this story, Jesus, by His very presence alone, was able to turn the heart of Zacchaeus away from his life of crime and betrayal to one of charity and justice. Yet, He wasn't able to turn the hearts of His own followers away from judgment and spite to forgiveness and acceptance.
Salvation has come for the lost.
Whether we are lost because we sin or we are lost because we judged those who are sinners. Jesus has come to save us all.
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