In my Bible reading today from Luke 19 the story of Zacchaeus reminds me of my childhood. I remember flannel graph stories about a really short man named and how Jesus saw him in a tree. I remember the emphasis of the story being on the fact that Zacchaeus was a short man. We even sang a song; "Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see."
But today reading the story, I didn't even notice the detail about this wee little man (perhaps because I know the story so well). What caught my attention today was this line from the crowd in Luke 19:7, "All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”"
I love verses like this one. As Andy Stanley says, "People who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. And Jesus liked people who were nothing like him."
Funny how that was never pointed out in Sunday School growing up. So what about you and I? Do we like people that are nothing like Jesus? Are people who are nothing like Jesus attracted to us? And how about our churches? Do our churches attract people that are nothing like Jesus? Do they feel welcome, comfortable, safe?
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