Looking Back At Another Year

Another fleeting year has quietly passed. What were your thoughts when you looked back? As Christians, we would realize that we once again lived every day this year in God’s protection and grace, and every step we took leads us closer to our beautiful destiny in Him. Those who do not believe in the Lord or who disobey His will would instead be filled with regret as they dwell upon the past in pain and anguish. Such regret would accumulate and become a heavy burden upon one’s spirit and is heavier than even the weight of time and age. It is enough to crush a person and leave the indelible mark of sin on our foreheads. Thus, at the end of every year, let us reflect on our spiritual condition. This does not just apply to the old, but also to the young, for the earlier we know the state of our spiritual heath, the better. 

In Luke 19:1-10, the Bible tells us: “Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus (which meant “clean”, even though he was definitely not); he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.” It was the custom in those days that taxes for the Roman empire would be collected on their behalf by contracted tax collectors. They would collect a premium above the taxes required and were allowed to keep the balance. It was through this intermediary profit that tax collectors enriched themselves, but of course their profiteering drew the hate and discontent of the people at the same time. Zacchaeus did not care for righteousness and used his position to rip off his fellow Jews and gather wealth for himself. As the years passed, his guilty conscience started to weigh upon his spirit even as his money pouch grew fuller and heavier, and he felt as if he was swimming with a stone mortar around his neck – he could hardly keep his head above the surface and was drowning in guilt.

Everyone in Jericho mocked and hated him, and nobody would want to help him, so he needed to find a way out of this dilemma on his own. He heard about how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him (Acts 10:38). The sick were healed, the dejected found joy, and the sinful were forgiven wherever He went. He thought to himself: “I must see for myself who this Jesus is! He is such a great rabbi that He must surely be able to solve my problems.”

When Jesus passed through Jericho, Zacchaeus knew it was his only chance to see Him. Unfortunately for Zaccheaus, everyone wanted to see Jesus for their own reasons and because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. All he could see were people’s backs. But he had a plan - he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see Him, since Jesus was coming that way. It is said that we can see farther by standing on the shoulders of giants. In this sense, spiritually strong Christians ought to be like fig trees that the unsaved and spiritually weak can climb on to find and see Jesus.

When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly (Luke 19:5-6). Jesus knew his name and knew his heart. A simple glance from Jesus brought illuminating light into his soul. Zacchaeus was well-known in Jericho, but for all the wrong things. He was infamous and despised. When Jesus sent His disciples out to preach the Gospel, He told them: “Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave.” (Matthew 10:11). Why then did He choose to stay in Zaccheaus’s home now? Didn’t He know that while Zacchaeus’s name meant “clean”, he was in fact a morally filthy man?

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:8-10).

Zachaeus’s transformation was near instantaneous. He did not wait for Jesus to enter his home and preach to him at night like a typical rabbi. He was not ashamed to admit his cheating and corrupted ways in public and likened himself to a sheep thief in Exodus 22:1 who had to repay fourfold of what was stolen according to the law.

Some people choose to launder ill-gotten money at churches or charities, pretending to support the holy ministry and good works, and are made board directors or given some other honourary title in exchange. They think that they would be cleared of all sins and guilt by doing so, but while the Lord had no place to rest His head, His church has no need for such dirty money. Zacchaeus was enlightened the moment he saw Jesus and his dark thoughts were expelled from his mind. He apologized openly to all who were cheated by him and repaid to the people the unclean profits that he made off of them and used his money to help the poor. He was now truly clean and did not want to keep the stains of sin on his hands.

The Lord knew Zacchaeus was sincere in his repentance. Salvation did not arrive at Zacchaeus’s home after he finished doing everything he promised, but “Today salvation has come to this house”. Salvation does not come in “instalments” and Zacchaeus received it there and then when he repented, because “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).). Today we all know that all who received Jesus are the children of God.

Zacchaeus was born a “son of Abraham” but he chose to become rich and powerful through corruption. Despite living a luxurious life, his heart had never enjoyed a single day of peace until he met Jesus and repented. From then on, he became a joyful new creation. After all the years he lived, this was the very first new year in his new life.

Today, you and I can enjoy the same transformation of Zacchaeus. How desperately we need spiritual renewal in the new year! We cannot change our own hearts nor replace our old lives with the new by our own ability, but we can emulate how Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus into his life. He is the Lord of life, the Son of God who came to our world to die for us on the cross, so that our sins could be washed away. Let us also account for our spiritual debts and sin and repay those we have shortchanged so that our hearts can become lighter. Let us walk in God’s will and go from strength to strength as we traverse this heavenly path to shine and witness for the Lord Jesus Christ!