I know I am despised. No-one who does what I do can avoid that. You are seen, by your own people as a collaborator, because you collect the taxes from the Romans.
It is also 'expected' by both the Romans & acknowledged by the people that you syphon off some of what you receive to line your own pockets. This I have done over many years - everyone I know does it, it's how we make our fortune.
I have a fortune now, I am a chief tax-collector, I have reached the pinnacle of my chosen career & far from it being the delight it promised to be, it is hollow. I have everything money can buy, yet in reality I have nothing of any worth at all.
Obviously I had heard of Jesus, who hadn't? I had heard of the miracles, of the teaching laced with authority & I admit, I was intrigued. Authority is a strange thing you see, I have authority over servants & minions who work for me, but within my heart I know I am a pretender at authority. I was intrigued to see true authority. So, when I knew He was coming to Jericho, the opportunity was too good to miss really.
I decided to take some time out & simply observe Him, watch Him, see what real authority looked like. I hadn't really bargained for the crowds. I obviously should have done, but I didn't. But, I hadn't got where I was without ingenuity & the ability to think round a problem, so I ran on ahead of the crowd & enjoyed again my boyhood delight at climbing up a sycamore tree. It is amazing how freeing that simple act was. It is as though when I climbed, the years fell away & my life was before me again, as in my youth & joy at both my ingenuity in outwitting the crowd & my hiddenness from them were intoxicating!
Nearer & nearer they came, He was in the midst of them with people all around Him, clamouring for His attention, for healing, for a touch to bring a blessing in their lives. Nearer & nearer they came & all the time I watched, I observed this man of authority & He truly is a man of authority. When you have spent your life emulating something, you know when you've seen & are confronted with the genuine article & in every sense that was what Jesus was!
The crowd stopped. He stopped. Right under the place where I was. I stopped breathing, although I didn't realise I was holding my breath. He looked straight up at me. Others followed His gaze & were surprised at seeing me, but He wasn't. He knew I was there, He'd always known I'd be there you see. True authority.
He looked straight at me & said 'Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house, come down from your hiding place, come down & change those things which you know you need to & want to change in your life.'
If you ever come upon someone with true authority you do not hesitate. I scrambled down that tree with all the absence of dignity of an adolescent, because that was how I felt in His presence. He knew my name..... He knew my emptiness..... He knew my hearts desire.
He came into my house & ate with us, drank with us. That was the moment my life changed. It couldn't but change. You can't come into contact with genuine authority & it leave you unchanged.
All the townsfolk were incensed at His coming to eat with me at my house & it was at that point I realised that they had no idea how changed I was by my encounter with Him.
I stood, as one does on these occasions, but as I began to speak about giving back to the poor half of what I owned & of making good on any & every crooked dealing that had robbed anyone, the murmuring stopped. They looked at me strangely & I felt.....actually, I felt a minuscule sense of hearing authority in my own voice! Not the sham authority I had spouted most of my adult life which had, for all those years covered over my insecurity, but a standing tall authority which emulated His!
I looked at Him when I realised this & saw in His eyes & in His smile that He knew this too. In response, He declared to my neighbours & townsfolk, 'Today salvation has come to this household, for a true son of Abraham has been reborn to be his true self. For I have come that what has been lost might be found.'
I knew better than anyone the truth of those words, for He had restored to me the ability to be who I really am & stop being the actor I had pretended all my adult life to be.
That's the difference authentic authority makes.
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