I don't wanna get off the tree!

Ever wondered about having a real life encounter with Jesus? You could be at work, at school, on the way to the doctor, perhaps doing shopping. And somebody told you that Jesus is passing by. Would you run over to see Him? I think I would. I might even get on that Sycamore tree like Zachaeus did to get a good look at Him. I am not good at climbing trees, and I am scared of heights. I am sure I will make a fool out of myself my clinging onto that tree, doing everything not to fall. But now I am worried, not about making a fool out of myself or falling, but what if Jesus sees me? I know what He is going to tell me. He would say: "Come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house" (Luke 19:5). You might be wondering why I am worried about Jesus inviting Himself to my house. I am worried because at some point during his stay at my house, I would have to get up to say, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over" (Luke 19:8). Now you see, that's a lot of moolah my friends!

I don't think I am the only one with a problem to let go. And I also know that letting go is what a follower of Christ is all about - it is giving ourselves away to the One who poured Himself out for us. It is living the life as St. Paul wrote: "No longer do I live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live by faith in the Son of God" (Galatians 2:19). To live as a Christian - to invite and accept Jesus into my home and my heart - I must live and love differently. I am sure that a lot of his peers must have thought Zachaeus as a fool, somebody who lost his mind, for giving away his possessions like the way he did. Jesus didn't ask him to give anything away, there weren't any accusations or advices. But by getting off the tree to accept Jesus into his heart, Zachaeus felt the urge to live differently and love differently. In doing so, he gave away more than required by the law of his time. Looking foolish didn't bother him - he was happy being the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem, rather than the Cross that Jesus carried out of Jerusalem into Golgotha.  

Of all the people we encounter in the gospel, Zachaeus is probably the hardest act to follow in todays society. He is right up there with the widow who offered two small coins (Luke 21:1-4). She gave away everything that she had. Nobody would have said anything had she chose to keep one of the two coins for herself. But she was there to respond to God's love, while others were offering large amounts into the treasury seeking attention from others. If I am looking for someone to relate to in the gospel, I would say that I am more like the rich man who went to Jesus seeking "to inherit eternal life" (Luke 18:18-23). Jesus not only asked him to follow Him in order to obtain eternal life, but also told him to "sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven". The scripture says that he became sad and left. Now that sounds more like something I would do, something many of us would do. 

Wonderful is the love of God through Jesus Christ, it is hard to resist it. Deep down though, we are scared of Jesus looking up the tree and finding us. We love Jesus, but we love our possessions also. We only want to see Jesus - to admire Him and to be astonished at the crowd that follows Him. His call to follow Him is irresistible, so we simply act as if that can't be us Him calling. We look around to see if anybody else has climbed up the tree, in hopes of pushing him off the tree - let him follow Jesus, I just want to watch. I don't wanna get off the tree.

I don't think Jesus is a socialist left winger and He has any problem with people having money or possessions. The problem is our attachment to this materialistic world. We often spend too much time accumulating, maintaining and enjoying things of this world that we forget about the true source of happiness. Jesus says, "No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13). 'Mammon' is material wealth personified as a deity. And this is what the key is for having wealth - money shouldn't own us, we should own the money. 

Wealth looks at how hard we work to make it and maintain it, and it thinks that it has the power over us. Money gets the impression that he is the boss, and that without him we are nothing. This is what needs to be changed. We need to show wealth who the real boss is. The best way to do that is to give some of that wealth away. Tell him that you don't care for him or love him that much.  When many of us splurge on that hard earned wealth by doing and buying things that are inconsequential to true happiness, many others go hungry and live in humiliation for not having the daily necessities. With so much poverty in this world, isn't it scary to know that there is more than enough resources in this world to feed every human being everyday, if we show willingness to share from our abundance. Perhaps we should let one of those needy ones help us get off the tree. Don't cling on to that tree for the rest of your life just because you think that you are "evolved from an ape". You belong down here, in the company of Jesus - the God who nullified Himself in His infinite love for us.

"The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth." (1 John 3:16-18)