Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Transformation

UV 2232/10000 Transformation
And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.
Luke 19 v 6


The gospel gives us information that leads to reformation and transformation. Zacchaeus, a man of short stature wanted to see Jesus standing in the milling crowd around Him. He climbed a branch of sycamore tree in order to see Jesus. But Jesus asked him to come down immediately and come near Him. We do not crutches or supports to see, talk, meet, fellowship and learn from Jesus. Each of us do not have to climb a perch to see Jesus in our real life situations. We only need to come down, close the distance between us and Jesus, draw near to Him, calm down and welcome Him gladly into that situation. Jesus sees us before we see Him. He knows the goings on in our hearts, minds and lives. He brought healing wherever He went. Zacchaeus had no physical disease but he had a moral and social disease that needed the healing touch, presence and words of Jesus.

Like the man who had a shrivelled hand showed his hand to Jesus and was made whole and his hand healed, we should come to Jesus and show Him our area of weakness in our lives where we need healing. Like Zacchaeus, we should hasten to obey the word of Jesus. His zeal in seeing Jesus touched Him and Jesus offered not just to be near him but to visit him in his house and have a fellowship meal with him. The fact that Zacchaeus was not physically impressive, that he was socially an outcast being a tax collector and a collaborator with the Roman rulers, did not dissuade Jesus from accepting Zacchaeus as a man of faith like his forefather Abraham. Our deficiencies and defects do not distance Jesus from us. All we need to do is to believe Him, that He is the Saviour sent by God for all mankind. All we need to do is to come down from our high pedestals of egoism, pride, conceit, self righteousness and welcome Jesus joyfully into our hearts, homes and lives. Zacchaeus felt greatly honoured that Jesus chose to visit him, enter his house and fellowship with Him over a meal.

Jesus is calling us to feast on His Bread. When He shared His spiritual Bread with Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus shared his physical bread with Jesus, the little man became one of the tallest persons of faith in the record of the gospels. Whatever be our situation or weakness or challenge, the Lord will divide His Bread with us such that we are strengthened in our inner person, so that we make amends like Zacchaeus, so that our lives are transformed. We too should feel honoured that the Lord has chosen to visit us, dwell in our hearts and invite us to an eternal fellowship meal with Jesus. If our faith is complete, it should be manifested in our decisions, our life’s choices and acts of transformation. We cannot remain inert and unaffected by our faith. Every expression of faith should be accompanied by a change of heart or attitude followed by practical acts to demonstrate that transformation. Zachchaeus gave up his habit of exploiting and extracting undue taxes from the people. He engaged in acts of restitution.

Prateep V Philip

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