Luke 19:1 – And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.

Luke 19:2 – And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

Luke 19:3 – And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.

Luke 19:4 – And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.

Luke 19:5 – And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.

Luke 19:6 – And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.

Luke 19:7 – And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

Luke 19:8 – And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

Luke 19:9 – And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

Luke 19:10 – For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Hello readers, back with a new blog today! Hope you had a great week, and I trust this thought from the story of Zacchaeus will be a blessing to you. I do pray that if you cannot see Jesus Christ for who he is, that this will be the day that you do finally see, and that this be the day that salvation comes to your house.

I’ve heard it said that the only day anyone ever got saved was “to day”. And that is true. Salvation is for today. The Bible only has a promise for you today. You have no promise for anything beyond right now. Jesus said our time is always ready. And the Bible does say that now is the accepted time and today is the day of salvation. Salvation is business only done “today”. You will only ever get saved when you get saved “to day”.

But I’ve called this blog “The Tree That Helps You To See”. Because Zacchaeus is remembered for being the little guy in the book of Luke who climbed a tree to see Jesus as he passed by. Zacchaeus didn’t want to miss out, and he wasn’t going to let others get in the way of seeing Jesus. And that’s still one of the greatest reasons people do not get saved, because they can’t see Christ for all the others that are in the way. Who’s in your way? Who’s obscuring your view of the truth?

There were masses of people pressing on Jesus trying to get at him. And today, this is still true. My blog is hosted by Word“Press” and you can search and find masses of material on Jesus. But much of the material will prevent rather than point and hinder rather than help. You may have heard of the term “the press” being used to refer to news media, which is veritable press of information that Satan uses to prevent people from ever getting to the truth themselves.

But there is a tree that can take you higher, there is a tree that can elevate you above the press so you can see clearly for yourself.  Jesus Christ died on a tree, and it is at the cross of Jesus Christ that you will see him for who he is. It is at the cross where a personal relationship between you and Jesus will be started. There is no dialogue between you and God until you climb that tree. As Zacchaeus took hold on the branches himself, you have to take hold of The Branch for yourself… no one can do it for you.

But it wasn’t just others, it was also Zacchaeus himself preventing him from seeing. For Zacchaeus had a literal shortcoming… he was a little man, and his littleness was preventing him from seeing. It’s the same for all of us. And you may be taller than he was physically, but spiritually our smallness is what prevents us all from seeing God. We must recognize how inadequate and insufficient we really are, and I’m sure that it wasn’t that dignified for Zacchaeus as he scrambled up the tree. But he didn’t care what others thought anymore.

Another notable fact about Zacchaeus was that he was chief among the publicans, and that Bible says he was rich. But how did he get rich? Well we know that it was by cheating and scamming his own people. You see, publicans were responsible for collecting taxes from their own people for their Roman occupiers. And he can and did leverage his own position to extort people and make a nice little living for himself. He was a sinner, and he was known for his sins.

But when someone gets saved, it always produces conviction of sin, acknowledgement of sin, repentance of sin, restoration for sin, and clearing of sin. And his salvation was validated in action… it’s funny that Jesus didn’t really need to order him to do it, he just knew what to do. When you get saved, the Holy Spirit in you teaches you what you need to do in accordance with God’s word. It’s just in you now, as it was in Zacchaeus now.

I thought about Jesus Christ saying “make haste” when he had seen him in the tree, and then how Zacchaeus “made haste”. And I thought back to Passover night in Egypt and God’s instruction in Exodus 12:11 “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’S passover.” This is amazing. Because we know that it was Christ our passover was who was dining with Zacchaeus that day. Incredible parallel. Zacchaeus had his first true passover feast that day.

But with the word “haste” comes the sense of utmost importance and urgency. And salvation is a matter of urgency. The Passover that they had in Egypt was a meal to go. They ate it ready to leave. And we see that Zacchaeus made haste to receive Jesus, but that his salvation was “to go”. What I mean by that is that salvation immediately translated to a changed life. He didn’t need his arm twisted, he willingly and voluntarily restored all he had and much more. Out of his belly flowed rivers of living water, the fountain having been turned on. He was used to giving other people’s stuff to the Romans while taking his cut, but now he had truly given his own life to God. And it was validated by action from his heart.

But I had said I would be talking about the tree that helps you to see. Because maybe Christ is passing your way in life, but you can’t quite see him for who he is. The thing is, to see him because of your own shortcomings and others in your way… you need to see him from a certain tree. That tree is the cross of Jesus Christ. You need to go to the cross, where at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the Light, and the burden of my heart rolled away, rolled away. It was there by faith, I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:24 “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

Zacchaeus saw Jesus Christ from the tree. It was there that the personal relationship by name started. And you will never see Christ who he is, and you will never get to God except from the vantage point of his cross. Jesus Christ was born into this world to die for our sins, that’s why he came, and he died for Zacchaeus’ sins also. See, the people murmured against Jesus going to his house because he was a “sinner”. But that’s who Jesus Christ had come to save… sinners from their sins. You think Zacchaeus got saved from his sins? Absolutely. The problem is, many of the masses didn’t need salvation from their sins, because they were already righteous in their own eyes… but Zacchaeus wasn’t, and Zacchaeus did.

Zacchaeus found true joy in salvation. When will we realize God is the Most High? When will he be our most high? Because he was giving away all his money because his fulfillment was in God first and foremost. For many of us, we don’t have true joy, because Christ is nowhere near numero uno in our lives. We’re too tight with what we’ve got, we’re already satisfied with our sinful lives. And many professing Christians even do not have true joy that Zacchaeus experienced, because they never have been saved from their sins. And really I’ve been thinking about this, that people don’t want to be saved here and now from anything, all they want Christ for is to not go to hell. But Zacchaeus’ life was changed here and now, that very same day he got right and he made it right. All because he climbed the tree to see. Get to the cross, because the cross of Christ is what our salvation is based upon. He died for your sins and for mine, and he will save you today if you grab hold of the tree that helps you to see.

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