Never Assume.

Assumptions will always cloud reality and truth.  They will pervert our sense and possibly convict us to go in a direction that we were never intended to travel.

For all of his faults, Zaccheus did not let his desire to see Jesus hold him back.  He didn’t assume that he had no chance.  He didn’t assume that he couldn’t change his identity.  And he didn’t assume that a prophet like Jesus couldn’t help him.

Zaccheus did not assume that he couldn’t go to God.

And most of all, he didn’t assume that God was the reason he was in the place he was.

Yes … I am sure that all of us have a story where we wondered:  “God, where are you?”  And I am sure all of us can attest to that silent answer and probably be right.  But that is not what Zaccheus was doing.  He was in the back.  He was “unseen” by all of the standards that we might describe.  And he was seeking the Savior in a way that all of us can—he simply wanted to watch him, to see him, to admire him.

For all of my declaration and desire, there are so many times where I simply need to shut up and see him from the back.  

Jesus is not our genie.

He doesn’t fulfill all of our selfish desires.

He is not in our life so that we can have Him make things the way that we want them.

Just the opposite.

He comes to us and changes us.  He rewrites our story and changes our path.

Luke 19  1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.  5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.  7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The same Jesus that walked that path is the same Jesus that looks over the earth today.  He is not looking for perfection, or protocol, or pretenders.

  • He is looking for the one at the back of the line—the one who doesn’t have it all together and needs a change.
  • He is looking to put a new identity over you this very day.
  • He gives you something that you cannot lose in exchange for you giving up something that you can never keep.

Our lives are a fleeting moment.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

Our imprints will last a short time after we are gone, but they too will disappear.

But God has a different plan.

His plan is to give us an eternal promotion that can very well start today.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J