“Zacchaeus . . . a tax-collector. . . was seeking to see who Jesus was, but he could not see him because of the crowd.” (Luke 19.2-3)
One day a mom heard her eight-year-old daughter Grace whispering, although no one was nearby. Her mom asked Grace just what she was doing. The little girl answered, “I’m playing hide-and-go-seek with God, Mom.” Her mother smiled and told the girl, “Grace, don’t you think that God can find you anywhere you hide?” Grace looked at her mom, rolled her eyes, and answered, “Mom, I’m looking for God.”
The evangelist called Luke tells us a similar story of looking for God. In this story it is not a little girl, but a little man. He is named Zacchaeus and he is described as “short in stature.” That is a significant point because his short stature makes it more difficult for Zacchaeus to see the holy Rabbi from Nazareth who is passing through town. So Zacchaeus decides his best chance at getting a glimpse of the Rabbi as he walks down the street is to shimmy up a sycamore tree.
It is from that treetop that Zacchaeus sets his eyes on the Nazarene Teacher who also spies the short man swinging from a sycamore branch. Smiling, the kindly Rabbi tells the short man to hop down from the tree and to show him where he lives. So, Zacchaeus, surprised by the smile on the face of the Rabbi–he was more accustomed to the frowns from unfriendly faces–jumps from the bent branch and leads the Teacher to his house, where he feeds him a mid-day sandwich and some soup.
When the hoi polloi and especially the holier-than-thou people in town start to throw snarky side-comments at the short man and his guest–“He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner!”–Rabbi Yeshua bar Yosef answers them with a simple statement, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
So, it seems the hide-and-go-seek game ends well for both men. The short man seeks the Holy One hidden from clear view and at the same time the Holy One finds the short man stuck in a tree. And in this hide-and-go-seek story we learn three important lessons for our own hide-and-go-seek experiences with the same Holy One.
First, the Incarnate God still walks among us. He walks the same streets of this world as he did the main street in Jericho in his Incarnate Word. This is a promise he has made to his followers. “I will be with you always, even to the end of the world.” So, for the believer, it is never a question of his presence. He is with us. And if we argue that he is absent, it is perhaps we who have not looked for him with keen enough eyes.
Second, we have to make an effort to find the Holy One. Sometimes, we may have to build a tree house. Always we will have to find ways to get around the crowd or whatever it is that blocks our vision. Taking our cue from the short-in-stature Zacchaeus, we can’t allow ourselves to be hindered by inconveniences or personal shortcomings. If we want to find the Holy One, we cannot sit at home doing nothing. We must set about on the search.
Third, in all likelihood, we will find the Divine Presence in the least likely places, maybe even a roadside diner where the rowdy and the rambunctious have a beer on Friday nights. He tells us as much when he says that he “has come to seek and to save what was lost.” So, if we’re serious about seeking God, then the place to start is with the lost and the losers and the little ones in this world. Face it. It’s a great hiding place and the last place in the world we’d look for the Almighty.
These three lessons provide us with a good road map for meeting up with the Holy One who took on flesh and blood and who continues to live among us–as he once did–in paltry and poor and put down places. If we take to heart these lessons and if we are earnest in our search, then our paths surely will cross, just as Zacchaeus’ path crossed with that of the Holy One who walked before him hidden in a crowd. We find the One we seek when we look in the right places, which–often enough–are among the wrong people.
There is an ancient story about a monk who one day rode into town on the back of an ox. The people saw that the man was looking left and right and all around, as if he were seeking something or somebody. So they asked the man just what he was looking for. The monk answered, “I am looking for an ox.” Of course, hearing this answer, the people laughed at him as they shook their heads at his stupidity.
The monk continued on his way on his ox, going into other places, looking around him for something. And again, the people asked him what it was that he was looking for. And when he answered, as he had before, that he was looking for an ox, they laughed, as others had done before.
Finally, one person in the crowd said to the man, “You know, this is ridiculous. You are riding on an ox and yet you are looking for an ox!” The monk smiled and answered the man, “So it is with you looking for God.”
— Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 