Most of us are quicker to panic over a dying phone battery than over a dying spiritual one—we coast along, confident we’re fine, while the indicator drops lower than we’d ever admit. As Jesus calls a written-off man in Jericho, He challenges all of us on this: “Do we know how much we need Him?”
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
The speaker uses the metaphor of a phone’s battery to represent spiritual readiness. At what percentage of your “spiritual battery” do you find yourself most often? What does it look like when you’re running on empty spiritually, and what typically prompts you to “recharge”?
Zacchaeus was willing to humiliate himself by climbing a tree just to see Jesus, while the rich young ruler was unwilling to give up his wealth. What does the difference in heart between these two men reveal about how understanding our desperate need for Jesus changes our willingness to let go of what we’re holding onto?
The speaker challenges us to examine the “hoof shoes” we wear to hide our sin from God and others. What are some modern-day equivalents of trying to hide our tracks? And how does encountering Jesus’s grace—as Zacchaeus did—motivate us to take those shoes off and leave them behind?
Jesus tells Peter, “What is that to you? Follow me.” How does focusing on other people’s sins or shortcomings become a distraction from our own need to follow Jesus? Can you think of a time when you’ve been guilty of this, and what helped redirect your focus?
The speaker suggests that the people the church often views as “invasive species” may actually be the ones most ready to encounter Jesus and bring life to the community. How does this challenge the way we think about who belongs in our faith communities—and what would it look like to genuinely welcome people the way Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus, before any repentance or change was visible?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Well, how about we start with a little survey tonight, shall we? Jason and I were having a conversation last week. I think it was last week. I don’t know. The weeks seem to be flying by. He’s going back too quickly. Wouldn’t you agree? I mean, Jason’s going back too quickly. Yeah. I mean, that’s clapping that you’re going back too quickly, not that you’re going, just to be clear. Yeah. But anyway, the weeks have been flying by. He and I, though, were talking last week, and I pulled out my phone, and he looked at my phone, and a look of sheer horror came across Jason’s face. Remember this, comrade? You know where I’m going, don’t you? No. So he looked at my phone, and he saw that it was at 20% battery.
Now, if you know me, you know that one of my attributes is I’m bad at charging things. And 20%, I mean, 20%, I have plenty of time to charge. I mean, come on. I have an iPhone. It’s not going to go dead for a long time. Maybe Android users should panic, but I have an iPhone. So no big deal. But here’s the question. When do you panic if you have something like a phone that needs to be charged that you’re depending on? When do you panic? How about a show of hands? Maybe you can leave it in the comments. Is that 75%? Anyone panic? Oh, no. Is it 75%? How about 50%? Any 50%-ers? Okay, we have some 50%-ers. How about 40%? 30%? Okay, a couple. Yeah. 20%? Yeah. 10%? 5%? Okay, I’m putting my hand up. Yeah, 5%. Now we’re talking. It’s time to charge, right? Yeah, okay. And that’s a lot. I’ll take all the prayers I can get. Yeah, always appreciated.
Why don’t I panic? Well, because I’m foolish. No, maybe. The other reason I don’t panic, though, is I know my phone well enough. I know what I can get out of it when, right? So if I were to grab a random phone I didn’t know, I didn’t know how healthy the battery was in it, I didn’t know what kind of battery life it ever could get, or whatever, I might panic at 50%. I was hearing about a phone not long ago that 50%, you have like two hours, it was an experimental, really exciting new type of phone, and it didn’t even look like a phone. But its battery life was horrible, so at 50%, you’re basically toast. On the other hand, my phone, 50%, it can be the beginning of the day, I’m not going to charge it, I’m just going to say, oh, good, I’m good to go. I know where my battery is, right? I know where it is.
And here’s the question, I’m not going to show of hands for this one, when do you start to worry about your spiritual battery? Is it 75%, 50%, 25%, 10%, 5%, 0, you know that moment on the phone when it’s gone dead but you can kind of press the power button and it coaxes it to come back on for just a moment longer? I’m sorry for those of you that always charge it really early; I’m giving you like conniptions at this point. Don’t even talk about this, no. But where is it when we’re actually talking about spiritual things? Now actually I’m seeing in my notes it was 25% last week, not even 20%, 25%, and Jason was panicking over my phone.
Now so that is one thing with a phone, but how often are we at 25% or 10% or 5% or we’re dead and it just says your phone is still searchable but it’s not going to do anything and we’re not panicking when it’s actually where we are in relation to our God. That’s what we’re going to be challenged with tonight. Last week Jason took us to a healing miracle, right? We had a man who needed desperately a miracle and what did he do? Well, we saw several things that Jason outlined. First, we saw that he called out to Jesus. He knew who Jesus was, right? He was reaching out to Jesus. He was blind, and as Jason pointed out, even though he was blind, he was the only one who actually understood who Jesus was. Isn’t that interesting? And you think about that for a moment and you think, well here’s a man, a lot of people are looking at him and thinking, your battery is low but ours isn’t. And the thing was, they weren’t looking at the battery indicator. Or maybe they were actually looking at their own. I’ve sometimes had that problem. If you’re driving in a car and you have your car set to do Bluetooth or maybe you go in a rental car and so you’re not really used to it but everyone that’s in it hooks up their phone to the Bluetooth and it shows a little battery indicator on the center console now. My car doesn’t have a center console screen so it’s kind of novel, right? And so you hook it up and then you think, boy, my phone is charged and then you realize, no, that’s someone else’s phone that’s in the car, right? Ooh.
A lot of times we do that with spiritual batteries. And here’s the irony of what we saw last week. Here are people looking at this blind man thinking, what’s wrong with him? It’s really their own spiritual batteries that are low. As we go into Luke 19 and go over to the next passage, we’re just picking right back up where we were in chapter 18, we see another case that’s very, very similar. Now we’re not dealing with a man that is blind. He actually looks like he has everything together. We’re going to look at a tax collector. We keep coming back to this, don’t we? And here is a tax collector named Zacchaeus. And he wasn’t just any tax collector. He was the chief tax collector of the area. He was really, really important.
He was probably the person who employed other tax collectors, right? So thinking about the way tax collecting worked in the ancient world, you had all kinds of corruption. So you had the individual tax collectors who took a little bit more than they were supposed to put in their own pockets. But then they had to take even more than that because they needed to have extra to put in Zacchaeus’s pocket. That’s who Zacchaeus is. And that’s who we’re going to encounter tonight as someone that people were looking at and His spiritual battery is exhausted. It doesn’t even say your iPhone is still searchable. It just doesn’t come on at all. And it’s not even clear if you plug it in if it can be revived. He’s dead. But Jesus had a different idea for him.
As we think about how Jesus approaches Zacchaeus, it helps us to understand how Jesus approaches each and every one of us. Let’s pray that we can see each other and ourselves as Jesus sees us. Would you pray with me, please? Father, as we come to this story, we come checking our spiritual batteries. We sometimes overrate them. Sometimes we put too much faith in our own ability to somehow recharge them. But we become unaware. We miss out on how much we need you and how much those around us need you in just the same ways. We pray that you’d guide us and help us to have your heart for the people around us and your heart for ourselves as well. Pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
We need to start with the fact that we need Jesus more than we even know. Take a look at verse 1. It says, He, that’s Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today. And so he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, the crowd around, they all grumbled, he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. We need Jesus more than we know.
I think a lot of the people standing around in that moment didn’t think they really needed Jesus. But here’s Zacchaeus, and he gets it. And we really need to pay attention to who Zacchaeus is. I don’t know about all of you, but as I’m reading that passage, don’t you kind of want to break out in a song about a wee little man, and a wee little man was he, right? Yeah, I mean, I see some recognition, at least, I mean, we have a Zacchaeus song and we need to sing it, right? And, oh, look at the little bitty guy climbing up into the tree. Well, that’s true, but Zacchaeus was so much more than that, and not necessarily all in a good way. Zacchaeus was a wicked man at that point. Zacchaeus was the picture of government corruption.
Now, we all know our upstanding officers of our tax-collecting powers today. We have one here with us, right? So we know how much we appreciate the IRS. Yeah, thank you for your service, and to all of our civil servants. But picture whomever it is that you turn on cable news and you hear about in government that makes you angry. It’s Zacchaeus. And I’m not just jesting there, right? We do think about how our taxing authorities, we think about the IRS, they have more laws than we know what to do with, but they have all these laws and regulations, right? I mean, it’s very strict. It wasn’t like that at the time.
The Romans wanted their cut, and it was sort of like opening up a little franchise grocery store or something. You can charge whatever you want as long as we get our cut. I mean, maybe not. They didn’t have totally free reign. They could do pretty much whatever they wanted. And Zacchaeus had been doing whatever he wanted. So here you are. Imagine yourself in Zacchaeus’ shoes.
You hear about Jesus. And you know that you have been corrupt. You know that you need a savior. And you’re like, I want to see this man. But you know that crowds are coming everywhere he goes. You know something else. At least around here, the crowds don’t like you. So what are you going to do? Well, you’re of no relevance, it would seem, to this messianic figure coming and preaching about the kingdom of God. So you’re not going to call ahead to the disciples and say, hey, I’m a really important person in this town. Would you give me a special seat? No, you can’t do that.
And you’re not going to tap on the shoulders of the people in front of you and say, hey, can I scoot up so I can see? Would you let me through? Why? No, because they’re going to spit on you, if anything. They don’t like you. So Zacchaeus says, okay. Can’t count on any ordinary means to get up to see Jesus. So what am I going to do? I’m going to embarrass myself. I’m going to have to climb up in a tree. And maybe you thought, you know, I don’t think anyone’s going to see me. There’s lots of leaves on the tree, I’ll just kind of peer through, but at least I’ll get to see Jesus. And I know that it matters. I need to see Jesus.
Have you ever been in that place where you know that you need to see Jesus, but you don’t want anyone to see you coming to see Jesus because you’re afraid of what they’re going to think of you? Friends, that too often is the church, where people feel like they need to peer from the leaves around the church because they’re afraid if they actually come in, what will happen. Zacchaeus isn’t afraid. He knows what’s going to happen. People aren’t going to like him. He knows he’s going to be hated. Why? Because he’s defrauded everyone there. They’re still smarting from their last tax bill. And it’s not because they didn’t have enough withholdings on their income.
Now, in chapter 18, Jason and I, as we’ve been going through this with all of you, we’ve seen a number of people come and talk to Jesus, right? Richard Newt Ruler, for example, he comes and talks to Jesus, but notice something different about Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is willing to make a fool out of himself just to see Jesus. He’s not coming so that Jesus can say, yes, Zacchaeus, you’re a staple of this community and everyone should give you more money. He’s not doing that. Why is he coming to Jesus? He knows that he has a problem, and he knows if he just gets to see the Savior from a tree, that’s what he needs.
When we first talk to Jesus, the difference here that we see between someone like the rich young ruler, between him and the Pharisees, between him and the other teachers of the law, the scribes and the theological lawyers, the difference that we see here is that Zacchaeus wants to welcome Jesus. One of the beautiful things that we see over and over again as we look at the Gospels is that the people who are ready to welcome Jesus are often the ones who are most rejected, the ones who look the most wicked, the ones who are the most despised by everybody else. But one thing is different, which is that they understand how much they need him.
You might say, well, he wanted to climb up in a tree, but how do we know that he really understood? Well, there isn’t a lot of conversation here before we see a dramatic change in Zacchaeus. All he needed to know was that the Savior actually knew him. And what happens? And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
Now, let’s be clear here, that’s a rhetorical if. No one, no one is holding their breath to say, I wonder if Zacchaeus is going to find if he’s defrauded anyone. Zacchaeus is not saying that and thinking, you know, I’m going to look back at my files and see if it adds up, and maybe I’ll find some pennies there I can give to someone. No, Zacchaeus knows as he’s saying this, he’s talking about giving back a massive portion of anything that he has because he has defrauded people from the first day he was ever a tax collector.
The rich, young ruler comes to Jesus and says, look how good I am. I’ve done all this stuff. Now what do I need to have the kingdom of God? And Jesus says, well, give up your riches. He says, well, I’ll do anything, but I won’t do that. Zacchaeus, rich man, comes to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t tell him to give up his riches. Zacchaeus says, I’m going to give them up.
And to be clear, just like when we talked about the rich, young ruler, this isn’t about if you have wealth in this world that you just need to give every single dime of it up because otherwise Jesus has no interest in you. The point is the difference in heart between these two men. You see, the rich, young ruler, his identity, his purpose, his meaning in life was that he was rich, and all the doors that opened up. Zacchaeus, the only thing he has going for him is that he’s rich. He says, compared to you, Jesus, I don’t care.
Because this is a profound act of faith. Think about it. If you are hated by everyone in the area, and the only reason that they’re not going and just murdering you right on the spot is that they know you have money and power and that if they don’t succeed, it might turn out badly for them. If that’s what’s holding the line and keeping you safe, imagine to say, I’m going to give it all up because I know I’ve been wrong. You’re putting your life in the hands of an angry mob, essentially.
Now I don’t know that Zacchaeus gave up every single dime he had, he doesn’t say that, but what he’s saying is anything that I shouldn’t have had, I’m going to give it up, and I’m going to give it back with more, I’m going to give it back fourfold. Imagine that. I’m no mathematician, I’m certainly not an accountant, I don’t even play one on TV, but I know that if you’ve defrauded people, say $1,000, and you give back $4,000, unless you’ve made, rightly, $3,000, you’re in trouble.
He’s saying, whatever I’ve defrauded, I’m giving back fourfold. Here’s an interesting thing about what he chooses to do there, and it shows that difference of heart in him. If we go back to the Torah, to the beginning of the Bible, to the first five books, the law, what does the law say? Well, the law, Leviticus 5.16, Numbers 5.7, if you want to look at those later on, we’re not going to turn there right now, but in essence what they say is there’s a small percentage you should give back in addition, essentially what we might call today interest, if you’ve withheld something from somebody, if you’ve taken something wrongly from somebody, you self-confess it, then you pay back a small penalty.
That’s reasonable, right? They haven’t had it, you’ve deprived them of it, you’ve inconvenienced them, you give them back something. What it doesn’t say is that you should give back four times. The only law that says that you should give back four times is Exodus 22.1. It says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. So outside of livestock, anything else, it didn’t require that. If you took a living thing, yes, it had a steeper penalty, but here’s a key, it says, it doesn’t matter if they weren’t technically livestock, I want to give back the maximum anyone could ever demand over anything I’ve defrauded because I’m in the presence of Jesus.
And if I’m in the presence of Jesus, why am I going to hold on to this stuff? Why am I going to do anything other than not only just try to make amends, but actually make people’s lives better? Imagine you’ve been defrauded for years from Zacchaeus and he comes up to you and he hands you four times what he’s taken from you. Suddenly it goes from a curse to a blessing. That’s Zacchaeus responding as God’s spirit works in him.
It’s interesting to me when I think about how far we’ll go to avoid doing something. Did you know during the prohibition that if they had the underground operations creating moonshine and the authorities were trying to crack down on it, that they actually made special shoes to hide their tracks? They made shoes, they’re fascinating looking shoes that had what looked like two hoof-shaped heels stuck, one in the front and one in the back, so it looked like a cow was walking. And so that way, if you only had one, you’d still see the front of the shoe, but by having two, it just looked like some animals had been walking down the path.
And so when they were going to their secret den where they were making moonshine, they would put these shoes on so that as the authorities were trying to find them, they’d just think some animals had been walking by. All the things that we would do, we may not be making moonshine, at least as far as I know, no one here is making moonshine, but we’re brewing up other things in our hearts, bringing up all kinds of things. And what do we do? We do the same thing, is that still is working in our hearts, coming up with all kinds of sin to output. We try to figure out, well, what kind of shoes can I put on so no one knows that I’m walking in this path of sin? And maybe, maybe even, God won’t notice.
What am I going to put those shoes on for? Zacchaeus has had those shoes on for years, he’s tried to look like the important member of society while he’s been defrauding the society, and he sees Jesus, and he looks down at his shoes with those hooves on them, and he reaches down, and he takes off his shoes, and he climbs up that tree and says, I don’t need this, I need Jesus.
And as I thought about how earnest that desire is that he has, it struck me, how often is it that as I’m confronted with the gospel, and as I’m confronted with God’s grace, that I’m still trying to slip those hoof shoes on? Because I think if Jesus really sees me, he’s just going to arrest me and throw me in jail. Or I want Jesus, but I don’t really want to give this up. How often is that? Now that’s certainly a challenge if you haven’t yet accepted Jesus. If you’re just trying to figure out this church thing, here’s a challenge for you. Look at your shoes and consider taking them off, but I want to be clear, I’m not only talking to those of you that might not already believe, I’m talking to every single one of us, because this is a lifelong battle.
We can take off the shoes and climb up that tree and say, I need Jesus, and then, you know, a funny thing happens. We climb down that tree, we encounter Jesus, and we start walking away, and we say, well, you know, did Jesus really say I need to give back four times when I’ve defrauded people? Maybe, maybe he just said I shouldn’t defraud as much. We go right back into it, right? Put the hoof shoes right back on. Am I willing to give up more than’s required because I’m saying with wild abandon, I just want Jesus? Or am I looking at what I can get away with when I encounter Jesus?
Now to be clear, we’re not saving ourselves by finally taking off the hoof shoes. Jesus is the one that’s ultimately going to do that for us, but we can miss out on an awful lot of his grace and an awful lot of the joy in being with him when we put those shoes back on. If Zacchaeus came down from that tree, met Jesus, and then went right back to his old ways, you know what he would have missed? He would have missed actually spending time with Jesus. He would have missed going and being a light in this world for Jesus, and so often, that’s what our sin does.
It doesn’t prevent us from actually having some relationship with Jesus, because we’re not saved by our works, we’re saved by God’s grace, but yet we hold onto it so much that we can’t really rejoice in our relationship with Jesus. What allows Zacchaeus to give up four times what he’s defrauded people is that he’s right in the midst of rejoicing in something that he realizes is far better than what he has. The money’s nice. Jesus is better. That’s what he sees. That’s what he knows, and so he acts.
Now there’s something else that we should say that I’ve been kind of dancing around here, which is we see in this passage something really amazing, which is that Zacchaeus earnestly wants Jesus, but what happens? Jesus earnestly calls out Zacchaeus, and that’s exactly what God could be doing for any one of us tonight, because note here, Zacchaeus is up in the tree. He’s not saying, hey, Jesus, I’m up in the tree. Look up there, and you will see me, and look at me. What does Jesus do? He says, hey, Zacchaeus, come down from that tree. I see you up there. I’m going to come and stay with you.
Imagine that for a moment. Here is a man so hated in his town that he can’t even ask, excuse me, could I stand in front? That’s terrible, because I’m so short, I can block a mouse from seeing Jesus. He doesn’t even try that, because he knows it’s not going to work. He’s up in this tree, and Jesus says, hey, I know your name, you’re Zacchaeus. Not only do I know your name, and not only do I want you to come down and meet me, I want to come and stay with you.
Friends, there we see a picture of God’s grace being enacted, because there we see that Zacchaeus hasn’t given up the money yet. Zacchaeus is in that tree, and maybe even as he’s in that tree, I can imagine he’s doing a little negotiating in himself, well, how much do I really need Jesus? I have a feeling I know what he’s going to ask. I heard about the rich young ruler. That story’s been going all around, and he’s going to ask for my money, and what do I want to do if I actually would have the chance to talk to him, but I’m not going to because I’m up in a tree, and then Jesus calls out to him, and Zacchaeus comes down, and he doesn’t need Jesus to say anything more. He’s right in the midst of being called by Jesus, and he experiences God’s grace, and he says, this is what I want to do.
Jesus loves him. This hated man, Jesus loves him. Take a look again at verse seven. It says, and when they saw it, they saw that Jesus was going to go stay with Zacchaeus, they all grumbled, he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Skipping over to verse nine, we’ll pick back up from where we started before. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Jesus loved him. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves Zacchaeus before he does anything right. We see the beauty there of how God works, that God has Zacchaeus up in that tree, Zacchaeus is up there, has no chance to really think he’s going to get to talk to Jesus, and Jesus gives Zacchaeus exactly what he needs. He calls him down and encounters him. And so as Zacchaeus is recognizing how much he needs Jesus and he’s ready to respond to Jesus, what is it before he even gets to say anything, Jesus has already responded to him.
But as all this beautiful, redemptive story is unfolding, what are the other people saying? They’re saying, Jesus! Jesus, don’t you realize whom this is? Haven’t you heard the stories about him? I thought you were a prophet or something. Most of them probably didn’t get that he was actually God incarnate in the flesh, but at least we’ve heard stories that you were a prophet, and come on! A bad prophet can tell that Zacchaeus is bad news. Why are you doing this, Jesus? Why don’t you talk to people who are righteous? Why would you pick, if you’re Jesus, someone who’s hated? Why would you pick, if you were Jesus, someone who’s going to cause other people to wonder about you? Oh, is Jesus getting paid off by Zacchaeus? Is Jesus just dumb? Or does Jesus just realize how much everybody needs him?
This wasn’t the first time this happened with Jesus and a tax collector either, incidentally. And not just the parable, actually another real, live, in-the-flesh tax collector is traveling with Jesus. What do we see back in Luke 5? And Levi, that is Matthew, made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Which I imagine they would go on to say, which is to repeat ourselves, right? You’re with the worst of the worst. You’re with these people who abuse us by taking our money. We’re barely surviving, and don’t you realize when we barely survive, they rip the bread right out of our mouths. Do you understand, Jesus, whom it is that you’re hanging out with?
What does Jesus say to us when we ask that question? He looks at us and says, do you realize whom I’m hanging out with? Because here’s the thing, sometimes we know very clearly, here is an unrighteous person, here is a sinful person, and sometimes it looks really beautiful and nice and the person knows all the right words in church and the right times to stand up, the right times to sing, and they know the song even if the lyrics aren’t up for some reason, they still, they keep singing full tilt because they listen to Joy FM every single day when they’re driving around in the car. They are the model of everything good and righteous, right? Except they don’t realize how unrighteous they are.
The rich young ruler, upstanding member of society. The Pharisees, the really upstanding members of society, right? They’re the best of the best, they’re the best selling Christian authors. You go to your favorite Christian blog and read the book review, they’re the ones writing the books, and they’re the ones doing the blogging about the other books. They’re the heroes of YouTube and TikTok that everyone’s watching to hear the word of God preached. Those people, they’re very desirable to hang around with. Trying to build up your stature as an up and coming preacher, yeah, those are the people you want. They’re the ones that you want to write the endorsement on the back of your book.
What they don’t have is an understanding of how much they need Jesus, Zacchaeus does. And that’s the one thing that really matters, that we understand how unrighteous we are before our God so that as we come to him, we’re not saying, Jesus, look at my gifts, my works, my wonders that I do in this world and how much better I am than the person next to me. We say, Jesus, I don’t know how you stand me because I can’t even measure up to the worst person next to me. When we come to Jesus like Zacchaeus does, we come to him understanding how much we need Jesus and therefore how much everyone else needs him and deserves him just as much, which is to say none of us deserve him, but certainly no one else is less deserving of him than we are.
I think that’s how Zacchaeus can come up there at that moment because if he looks around, he doesn’t see himself in any way better than the people that won’t allow him up front, that have probably cursed at him and done everything they can to make his life miserable in exchange for the corruption that he’s put upon them. He just sees other people and all he wants to do is see Jesus.
You know, I think the challenge in this is that when we talk about this, this is the thing that other people do. We hear other people and we say, well, other people need to understand how much they need Jesus. They need to see it. But do we actually come back to how much I need to see Jesus and a lot of times I don’t. A lot of times I can see the faults and the foibles in everybody, but I see as I come to Jesus, but Jesus, I’m even worse. I just want you to help me.
If we look at John 21, 22, Jesus and Peter are talking and Peter has been conversing with Jesus, he’s been struggling with Jesus because he’s betrayed Jesus and Jesus is restoring him, but it’s painful. And yet here he is back to being classic Peter because it comes up that maybe, just maybe, John won’t die before Jesus returns. And Jesus says to Peter, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me.
And I think about that question and I wonder if maybe this is actually the turning point. You have a twofold turning point for Peter. You have that series of opportunities to repent and be restored as he conversed with Jesus earlier in that chapter, as Jesus asks Simon Peter, do you really love me? But then this is really, really important too, because Peter’s always trying to figure out, well, what about these other disciples? They’re not as good as me. And Jesus looks at him and says, what is it to you? You, Peter, you, follow me.
He looks at me when I’m doing that, he says, Tim, you, you follow me. What is it to you what I’m doing with that other person? And I think, but Lord, I think you don’t quite understand who it is, whom it is that you’re hanging out with. You don’t understand in this case whom it is that you’re hanging out with. Let me, let me just, and he says, no, follow me. And that’s hard because I don’t, Jesus, don’t you understand? I know I’m not perfect, I know I’m a sinner, but follow me.
I was reading this week about invasive species. Interesting topic, all the different species of animals and plants that we’ve introduced to our ecosystem that weren’t originally here. And we have the horror stories, right, the emerald ash borer that destroyed all the beautiful green ash trees in our area, for example, or kudzu vine that’s taking over parts of the south because it wasn’t meant to be there and it just grows like the weed that it is. Then we have the wild animals, right, we hear about these feral cats and they’re causing trouble, for example, or here’s an interesting one.
Did you know that there were feral donkeys, wild donkeys that had been released over time in Death Valley that were causing trouble? Did you know about this? This was apparently a really big problem. All these wild donkeys running around, and what do wild donkeys do? Well, they rummage in the ground.
And people looked at the situation, they said, well, we can’t have this. Here we have this natural habitat, natural plants, and now we have these wild donkeys and they’re rummaging in the ground, and what do they do when they rummage in the ground? They make holes and they cause erosion and they’re eating the vegetation that should be left for native wildlife, and they’re just ruining the place.
And it’s going to cause this place to just become more and more arid because they’re going to kill everything, and the little bit of water that’s here is going to go away. It’s just a disaster. And so what do they do? They decide to go and start shooting all the donkeys. And so they go around, and I imagine the little Christmas donkey being shot, it’s horrifying, right? But no, they go in and they say, well, this is what we need to do to protect the environment. We need to eliminate the wild donkeys. We’re going to kill all the donkeys.
Well, a funny thing happened. They did a study as they were doing this. The land actually became more arid after they killed the donkeys, because what they realized is that the land had been going already through a series of different changes, some human made, some not, that had killed off other species, and the land needed certain large mammals that rummage to keep digging up little holes so that when it rained, the water would collect and actually pool.
And when they eliminated the wild donkeys, there was no one left to dig those little holes and keep the ground aerated and take away some of the vegetation that shouldn’t be there and so on. And so instead of actually helping the wetlands that do exist to remain, they’ve actually been drying up. And now they have to have people out there trying to dig and aerate the ground and pull out plants and stuff, because the donkeys aren’t there any longer.
And the study said, you know, contrary to our assumption that invasive species are always bad, sometimes the reason they’re doing so well in the land is because something’s already happened to the species that used to do the job that they’re now doing. It wasn’t saying we should purposefully introduce invasive species, but it was saying we should be intentional in actually asking what’s going on.
And that’s what we need to do when we’re encountering people, too, because a lot of times we think, ah, here are people who are going to be invasive species in the church, because they don’t get it yet. They’re not all the way there yet. They’re not there at all. They’re a pain. They don’t have the right politics. They don’t read their Bible enough. They read a different Bible. Bible translation, just to be clear. Not a different Bible. If you’re reading a different Bible, that is a problem, but a different Bible translation.
And so we don’t need those people. We need to pull those people out. And I’ve actually seen some language from some influencer Christian types that’s basically talked in rooting out type language. We need to pull these people out before they choke out the church. And I imagine as they’re writing that, and sometimes I can fall into thinking, well, yeah, those are, yeah, you know, might be saying to that. Jesus looks at me and says, what is he, what is she to you? Tell me.
Because, you know, the biggest problem in the environment isn’t the invasive species, but everything else that’s messed things up, right? Invasive species might be more of a symptom than the cause. And a lot of times in the church, when the church isn’t working, a vast majority of the time, it’s not because some invasive species have crept in, it’s because we, the people of God, aren’t actually living as God has called us to. And we say, well, if we got rid of that vine, it would be okay. What about if I start with getting rid of the vines in my own heart?
I think the key verse, and commentators have suggested, maybe this is the key verse for the entire gospel of Luke is verse 10. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. We spend so much time looking at people’s other, their undesirable attributes, a lot of times we forget that the whole purpose of the church is to be a place of healing for those whom are lost.
We want the almost found. You know, the almost found are often the ones that are most dangerous because they think that they’re already found. The ones that repel us the most are often the ones that are most ready and most aware that they need Jesus. And we focus on all the undesirable attributes. We look at the wild donkey and say, he’s not supposed to be here, there was supposed to be something else here, what’s this donkey doing here? I can hear him braying out there, and I know there’s not supposed to be a donkey there, let’s go and shoot the donkeys. And we realize, wait a second, we’re the ones drying out the land the donkey was actually pillaging and helping to bring it back to life.
I think how often do I fall into that trap, how often am I drying things out, causing spiritual dryness? And what I need to understand is invasive species are actually the people God’s calling in to restore and to redeem, and that’s where the life comes in the church, that as God calls in the undesirable, whatever that is for us, isn’t it different for different people? As God does that, what’s he doing? He’s actually bringing life to his church, not death.
It starts with knowing that I need Jesus more than I know. And what do you know, everyone else around me needs Jesus more than they know, but if they need Jesus more than they know, and I need Jesus more than I know, then what does that mean? It’s not that they’re messed up and I’m not, it’s that we all are messed up, and let’s hope that somehow through the Holy Spirit, he allows us to be together as the body of Christ around this world.
Because here’s the wonderful thing that we see in Zacchaeus. In Zacchaeus, we see that he is there for us, even when we’re messed up, even when we’re lost, even when we’re the invasive species, he is there for us. When we have those hoof boots on and our still is running at maximum capacity, he is there for us, calling us, even in that sinful place and saying, come and be with me. It’s dinnertime, let’s go have dinner, just come and be with me, because Jesus is there for us and for everyone around us, and so may we be a people who is there for those around us, as Jesus is, because we’re constantly reflecting on how much Jesus is there for us.
Let’s pray. Lord, there are too many times I don’t really get how much I need you. Yes, I say it. I sing a song like Come Ye Sinners, and I think, yes, of course, that’s all true, and it’s true of me, and yet, the moment that I need you most, I’m busy thinking about what’s wrong with somebody else. I’m fretting, I’m angry, I’m stirred up, and Lord, you’re saying, what is he to you? What is she to you? Follow me.
Lord, just as you called Peter, would you work on my own heart? The only thing that the people around me are, to me, are brothers and sisters, those who either need your grace so they can become siblings, or those who already are, and would you help me to see my own faults magnified a thousand times more than I see those of others, that I might understand just how much I need Jesus, that I need you, so that as I look at others, I would understand just how much they need the joy of being in your presence, too, and that would be the thing I want most, Lord, would you help us to all do to have that heart, your heart, we pray in Jesus’ name.
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