Tuesday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Luke 19:1–10
“Zacchaeus and the Ones Who Keep Us from Seeing Jesus”
Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but the crowd kept him from
it. That single line summarizes the heart of today’s Gospel. Zacchaeus had many
flaws and everyone knew them. He was short, probably not very impressive, and
although he was wealthy, he was wealthy in the worst possible way. He had
earned a reputation as a thief, a traitor, a collaborator of the Roman Empire.
For his people, Zacchaeus was impure, an outcast, someone who no longer
belonged in the synagogue or in the community. Yet inside that despised man
there was something small and good, almost hidden: he had a desire to see
Jesus. That desire might have been all he had left, but it was enough for God
to begin a new story.
The crowd, with its prejudices, murmuring and unwritten
rules, becomes an obstacle. They act like gatekeepers who decide who may
approach the Lord and who may not, as if faith were a club reserved for people
with good reputations. This reality still exists today. Many people are like
Zacchaeus—criticized, labeled, wounded—who long to see Jesus but feel that “the
crowd” does not let them, because they feel judged, watched or marked. Yet what
people try to close, God chooses to open.
Zacchaeus also carries inner obstacles: his guilt, his past,
his shame. And still, he dares to run, something undignified for a grown man
and even more for a wealthy one, and he climbs a sycamore tree, a tree used by
the poor. In doing so, he stops protecting the little reputation he has left in
order to see Jesus. Sometimes conversion begins exactly there, when we stop
defending appearances and begin sincerely seeking the Lord.
When Jesus reaches that spot, He looks up and speaks a
decisive sentence: “Today I must stay at your house.” That “must” is not
accidental. In Greek it is dei, the same word Jesus uses when speaking
of His Passion: “It is necessary that the Son of Man suffer…” Entering the
house of Zacchaeus is part of that same plan of salvation.
Jesus is about to go up to Jerusalem to give His life, yet
He stops to save the man everyone had written off: Zacchaeus. And He does not
stop there. Even as He hangs on the cross, He chooses again to save the one
condemned beside Him: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Jesus never
feared drawing near to those who were “crucified” by their past or by their
community—thieves, traitors, sinners. He had no hesitation entering the house
of Zacchaeus, and no hesitation allowing a repentant thief to die at His side.
Then comes the reaction of the crowd: “He has gone to stay
at the house of a sinner.” Murmuring always tries to place itself between the
sinner and God’s mercy. But Jesus is not influenced by the noise of those who
look down on others. He sees possibilities where others see only failures. And
when Zacchaeus feels seen and loved, his life changes. He does not change
because he was criticized, but because grace visited him.
“Today salvation has come.” Not tomorrow. Not when Zacchaeus
becomes perfect. Not when he has fixed everything. Today. Because salvation is
not a reward for the good, but a gift for those who allow themselves to be
found.
This Gospel invites us to ask whether we are more like
Zacchaeus or more like the crowd that keeps others from seeing the Lord. Christ
continues to seek us, call us by name and desire to enter our lives today. Let
us ask for a heart like His, a heart able to notice the hidden, to give new
opportunities and to draw near to the “crucified” ones of life. For this is who
Christ is: He seeks, He calls, He enters, He restores and He saves. No matter
how far we feel, He always finds a way to reach us.
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