Overcoming Obstacles

There are always obstacles that can keep you from Jesus if you let them. Luke 19:1-10 shows how Zacchaeus experienced and overcame such obstacles. We know Zacchaeus best for being short. Little children sing, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man. . .” Luke informs us that Zacchaeus “sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way” (19:3-4)

Remember what it was like for you as a child being unable to see over the heads of taller people. It’s still a challenge for short adults. Zacchaeus overcame the obstacle by climbing a tree! We might expect such from a young boy, but Zacchaeus was a grown man, old enough to have advanced to the rank of “chief tax collector” (19:2). Imagine the hoots, jeers, and snickers as the crowd saw him up in the tree!

Being short, however, wasn’t his greatest obstacle. Zacchaeus was a social outcast. Collecting taxes from fellow-Jews for the pagan Roman government marked him as a traitor in the eyes of many. Besides, tax collectors, including Zacchaeus, had a well-earned reputation for lining their pockets with extorted money. No wonder the crowd grumbled that Jesus had “gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner!” (19:7).

The good news is, Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (19:10). Under Christ’s influence, Zacchaeus repented, restored fourfold what he had taken wrongfully, and gave half of his goods to the poor (19:8). “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham’” (19:9). Zacchaeus didn’t let obstacles keep him from Jesus. Your obstacles may be different than his, but I urge you to overcome them as Zacchaeus did!

~Joe Slater