Zacchaeus, Once the Avaricious, Now the Aspiring

'Behold, Lord,' I blurted out, ' the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any many by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.'

"My voice quavered with emotion. I dared not look at the Master. But instinctively I knew that he was not condemning my baseness unduly. He was glad that I had turned from it to the nobler way. That I desired to do above all else. By making a renunciation of half of what I had acquired, I sought to prove my penitence and detestation of my wrongdoing. But that was easier than acknowledging before others that I was no better than a common thief. And all who heard me that night perceived that that was how I rated myself.

You may know that, according to our Law, when one has inadvertently wronged another, he is required to repay the sum, with on-fifth added thereto. In the case of a convicted thief, four times the full sum must be paid. And in that pure gaze stood all my sins remembered, and all my guilt lay bare. Jesus knew what it had cost me publicly to avow my shame. He must have done so. A heart so good and so sensitive, would understand as none other could. He turned those piercing eyes upon me again. I was now constrained to look him in the face. A smile of supreme satisfaction irradiated his countenance as he said, 'This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.'

I could scarcely believe my ears. Why should he dignify me with the term, A son of Abraham'? While it was meant to encourage one, yet it humbled one to the dust. But when he said that his purpose was to save the lost, and that even the most perverse were not beyond his succor, my heart beat high with hope. Gladly I felt he had not failed; the lost had been found, yea, what I had bartered away, even my birthright, had been restored to me.

Thus, in grateful devotion, have I sought to live unto his glory. I cannot tell if I have wholly succeeded. It has been hard, and many indeed the jesting words and the stinging taunts I have had to bear. They have cut me to the soul like whips of steel. And yet, it seems to me, no man can live his life in vain. His example, his influence, as well as the countless opportunities of doing some service for his fellows, abide in their effects long after life itself has ended. Thus do I counsel all men everywhere not to lose sight of the eternal riches. Thus would I point them to the pure delight and deep contentment of spirit that come to those who will, as the sacred Prophet says, 'Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God.'"

~ The Glorious Galilean, J.G.W. Ward