“And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.”

He comes to the walled city within our hearts. Advent. Yet this day it’s Zacchaeus’ heart that’s laid waste, breached by the blast of a trumpet that only he will hear.

“Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.”

The Word in the flesh comes down to scoundrels. And this scoundrel, this man “little of stature,” has this day become little in his own eyes. All his sestertii and denarii, i.e. his 401K and his IRA, have lost their luster so that he’s ready to renounce them.

Not really, right? I mean, even though ill-gotten, his riches have come to define him.

“And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.”

But wait. He is giving it all away! His riches. Up to half of them, at least. What do these amount to if not his private little bankroll; his nest egg; his grandchildren’s future; his peace and security in this God-forsaken Roman backwater? Verily, verily, what we’re talking about is the grand prize: a shot at the green card that leads to Roman citizenship!

Oh, Zacchaeus, with the rest of the crowd I despise you for your stealing and your money-grubbing, but now I despise you for the reckless abandon with which you’ve turned your back on what all seek, whether Greek or Roman: good life, good fortune and a good name. And now you say you desire a better country? But you can’t turn your back on these things. You can’t, because … I can’t. Don’t you see: by your action, little man, you make me question my pursuit of happiness. And that’s unsettling. Watching you, in your joyous abandon … well, I begin to think all is lost. That I’m lost!

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

But with so many voices today in this worldwide wilderness, where is this Son of man to be found?

He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside,
He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: “Follow thou me!” and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.

So concluded Albert Schweitzer in his The Quest of the Historical Jesus*.

He comes to us. Advent.

I, too, then will run ahead of the crowd. I, too, will climb the sycamore. I, too, will look forward to His coming. And I, too, will receive Him joyfully.

*(Schweitzer paragraph used by permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press)

-Anthony Verdesca Jr.
Reference Librarian, Palm Beach Atlantic University