Wisdom 11:22-12:2/ 2 Thess 1:11-2:2/ Luke 19:1-10
The Bible has many interesting and amazing stories that fascinate our imagination and capture our attention.
One of those stories is about the city of Jericho in the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament.
After crossing the River Jordan into the Promised Land, the Israelites faced the fortified city of Jericho.
The walls of Jericho were fortified, not just to keep out the enemies but also to hold out the water when the River Jordan gets flooded.
So it seemed unlikely for the Israelites to easily break through the walls of Jericho and conquer it.
And this was where God instructed Joshua of an amazing battle plan.
Joshua was to lead the priests carrying the ark of covenant, together with the soldiers and they were to march round the city once, with the priests blaring the horns.
They were to do that for six days.
Then on the seventh day, they were to march round the city seven times and sounding their horns.
Then at the seventh round, as the priests were blowing the horns, Joshua was to instruct the Israelites to give a loud shout, and the walls of Jericho would collapse and the Lord will deliver the city to Joshua and the Israelites.
Joshua must have wondered at first about that weird battle plan.
Instead of using battering rams to break the walls and special troops to scale the walls, the Israelite warriors would seem like some kind of joke to the defenders of Jericho.
But on the seventh day and on the seventh round, with horns blowing and with a loud shout, the walls of Jericho collapsed and the Israelites conquered the city, and they had the last laugh.
That was certainly an unusual military strategy. But when the Lord fights for His people, it would always be in an unusual way, and amazing as well.
In the gospel, we heard that Jesus entered the city of Jericho, the same city that Joshua conquered many centuries ago.
There was nothing unusual about Jesus going to the city.
He was not going there to conquer the city and neither was He going to shout and make the walls collapse.
He was just an ordinary visitor, but He had an unusual observer.
A senior tax collector and a wealthy man by the name of Zacchaeus was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was.
Maybe Zacchaeus had heard that one of the tax collectors had become His disciple, and that this Jesus mixes around with the outcasts and the despised.
So maybe Zacchaeus was just curious to see what kind of man Jesus was, but he had no intention of getting to know him.
So anxious and curious was he that he climbed a sycamore tree just to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
He thought that no one would notice him. He had thought that after getting a glimpse of Jesus, he would climb down the tree and go home and life would go on as usual.
Did Zacchaeus ever expected Jesus to look up and noticed him?
Did he ever expected Jesus to call out to him and even want to go to his home?
By the way, the name “Zacchaeus” means pure, and it also means clean.
When Jesus called him by name, Zacchaeus might have suddenly realized what his name meant.
Zacchaeus was a wealthy senior tax collector which means that his reputation and his wealth were quite questionable.
But just like the walls of Jericho which had crumbled and collapsed many centuries before, the walls of the heart of Zacchaeus also crumbled and collapsed at the call of Jesus.
Zacchaeus let Jesus into his heart to clean it and make it pure again.
Today, as we come for Mass, Jesus is also telling us that He want to go and stay in our homes.
But we have to let Him into our hearts to clean it and make it pure again.
And like Zacchaeus, we have to do some letting go.
A man was sharing with his wife about his idea of living and dying.
He said to her: Never let me live in a vegetative state, totally dependent on medicines and liquid from a bottle.
If you see me in that state, I want you to disconnect all the contraptions that are keeping me alive. I would rather die.
The wife looked admiringly at him and said: Ok, I’ll do it.
And then she got up and went to disconnect the TV, the cable, the computer, the laptop, the handphone, the X-box, the playstation.
And then she went to the fridge and threw away all the beer.
As for the man… well, he nearly died. (Ask for it and you will get it)
Jesus came to seek out and to save what was lost, but we also must give up what is making us unclean and impure.
How the walls of Jericho crumbled and collapsed was amazing.
How Zacchaeus let Jesus change his life was also amazing.
Let us not go off from here without inviting Jesus to go back with us.
With Jesus, many amazing things are waiting to happen. Only if we invite Him into our hearts.