Trees, Grace, and Short Men

Before he met Jesus, Zacchaeus was defined by three things: (a) his height (or more accurately his lack of height) (b) his job as a tax collector for the Romans, which meant his fellow Israelites saw him as a traitor, and (c) his ill-gotten wealth.  Meeting Jesus turned his life upside down.  Zacchaeus was still "a wee little man", to quote the Sunday school song, but he was no longer a collaborator or a crook; instead, he was a child of God, who had been lost but was found by Jesus and brought into the covenant.

All of us are defined by our sins and our failings, but Jesus Christ came to re-define us, "to seek and save what was lost".  When he comes into our lives, he turns things upside down, and he transforms us into children of God.

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