Standing Up to the Crowd

Gospel: Luke 19: 1-10

Yesterday we saw the leaders of the crowd push others to oppose Jesus in healing Bartimaeus.  Today, the Gospel writer notes that everyone - the crowd and the disciples - oppose Jesus' intention to dine at Zacchaeus' house.  Jesus makes this declaration to Zacchaeus with no preconditions at all.  He saw the effort Zacchaeus made in looking for him and that was enough.  

Now, Zacchaeus finds himself opposed by everyone, standing before the Lord who wants to dine with him.  Like the Lord, Zacchaeus ignores the crowd and speaks only to Jesus.  He makes a response to love: he pledges to make restitution for his sins and to care for the poor in his community.  This does not make Zacchaeus worthy for the Lord to enter - the Lord was coming anyway! It was his response to God's love in his life. 

The Lord comes to each one of us in the same way.  He announces to us that he intends to enter our house.  The crowd and disciples will oppose this, but like Zacchaeus I must ignore the crowd and the disciples, and to focus entirely on the Lord Jesus.  My response to love must be like that of Zacchaeus - to show love and mercy to the poor and marginalized, for that is what we are called to do, called to imitate the Lord himself in his work on earth.