547
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S all th e ir intercourse he irresistibly- charged w ith th e Evangel of Jesus? Adventurous A ttack Notice also th e delightful and frank boldness of Jesus in H is attack upon Zacchaeus. .There is g reat humour to be found in th e story when closely studied. Driven by th e deep hidden w istfulness of his soul to seek Jesus, Zacchaeus fails in his attem p t to get through th e crowd because of his lack of statu re. It is hardly likely th e peo ple would make way for such as he. B u t he is a man of resource and he re members th e sycamore tree. He h u r ries on ahead of th e crowd till he tu rn s th e bend in th e road. I ’m sure th ere was a bend in th e road ju s t there, other wise Zacchaeus would never have found pluck enough to climb .th a t tree. It would indeed have been funny to see th is little rich man casting his E astern dignity to th e winds and climbing th a t tree. A t last;, snugly hidden among the leaves, he feels secure from obser vation and is ready to enjoy a full view of Jesus. Along th e road comes the Saviour w ith th e crowd and stops be n eath th e trees. Then, oh! consterna tion! Jesus looks up a t th e sycamore tree and calls, “Zacchaeus! come down!” Fancy giving th e whole show away like th at! Yes, it is very funny! Yet_ if Jesus had said and done nothing hut th a t it m ight have been tragic too, for Zacchaeus m ight have resented being made th e b u tt of th e crowd’s humour. Jesus, however, was never lacking in tact, and to His humorous exposure of Zacchaeus, He adds th e high compli ment from a Rabbi of inviting H imself to th e ex tortioner’s house. By th a t sim ple tu rn of the situation Jesus found H is way rig h t into th e h ea rt of Zac chaeus. T h at was all He cared for. Convention, th e opinion of the crowd, His own repu tation— these m attered nothing beside His concern for th is struggling soul. There was nothing of th a t kind of cheap self-preservation
about th is Divine evangelist. Tact and boldness, an understanding of human n atu re and courageous frankness, a tru e psychology and a power of adventurous attack , th e re is th e ideal combination for the soul-winner. Cannot the mod ern disciple of Jesus learn of Him these things? “He th a t is wise w inneth souls.” The Church today is woefully' lacking in this power of attack and the reason is not far to seek. She is too sensitive-—which means th a t her mem bers are too sensitive—to the conven tions of mere respectability, to the tra ditions and opinions of public society. Where th ere is fear of men passion can hardly th rive and so th e modern Church is singularly lacking in passion for the one purpose for which h er Lord called her into being. The Son of Man came to seek and to save th e lost. His Church today seems to spend most of her streng th in coddling the saints. Values of Conversion Yet it would requ ire very few tri umphs of a real Christian evangelism for th e unique .joy of it to kindle a blaze of enthusiasm . If we dwelt w ith th e m ind of Jesus in th is m a tte r He would rem ind us of th e inestim able value of converting a soul genuinely to God, The Evangelism of Jesus in th e case of Zacchaeus. had far-reaching results. Think of its social value! Many a home sunk in unde served poverty received four-fold for its cruel loss. Think of its home value! I don’t know whether Zacchaeus was married or not, bu t if so I can imagine his wife singing perpetual hallelujahs to the Name of Jesus for restoring the soul of her husband. Ah! th e home value of th a t new life which comes to men in Christ. Think of the individual value! How much happier a companion Zacchaeus was henceforth fo r himself. If we could once tru ly envisage these values of conversion we should esteem it the supreme privilege of our life here on earth to he able to befriend other
Made with FlippingBook HTML5