Tuesday

“All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’”—Luke 19:7

Tax collectors were not nice people in the Roman Empire.  Independent contractors, they were charged with collecting a certain quantity of taxes.  Anything they managed to scrounge up beyond that constituted their salary.  Hence, their personal interest lay in extracting just as much as they could from the locals.  This did not, as you would imagine, win friends and influence people.

Imagine, then, the consternation among the good people—the people who didn’t greedily extort vast sums from their friends and neighbors—when Jesus chose to eat with Zacchaeus.  Ugh.  How could he have chosen him? 

Jesus couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate character to illustrate the reality that God makes no distinctions.  We all have sinned and fallen short of the kingdom of God.  All of us.  Sin is sin is sin.  We may not go around taking taxes from widows, but that doesn’t make us perfect.  Only Jesus holds that title.  We are blessed beyond measure to know that God is willing to enter the hearts of each of us—though the dwellings we offer are invariably the homes of sinners. -- LG

We are so blessed, Lord, to be loved despite our failings.  Help us to truly absorb the breadth and the depth of this love which you grant us.  Amen.