Patience with God by Tomáš Halík

Author:Tomáš Halík [Halík, Tomáš]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2009-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

Unknown Yet Too Close

The Bible story about Zacchaeus has a happy end: Zacchaeus had a change of heart, he decided to give half of his property to the poor and to make generous reparations to anyone he had cheated, and salvation came to his house. But Zacchaeus's life did not end there. What happened next? The Gospel doesn't tell us. So we are free to think up our own apocrypha about it.

Let us assume that Zacchaeus really did everything he promised. The “little man” grew in his own eyes and in the eyes of his neighbors. His new life brought him a lot of joy and satisfaction: such encounters with Jesus are certainly not forgotten overnight. Jesus did not invite him to become one of His followers as He had his colleague, Matthew, the tax collector. Zacchaeus did not become a traveling apostle, and he didn't write a gospel. He remained true to his profession and tried to do his job well. Can the converted sinner be called Jesus's disciple, or did he instead remain a sympathizer, who just frequently recalled with gratitude his benefactor and stood up for Him whenever Jesus cropped up in conversations with his neighbors?

It is not easy to base one's daily life solely on something that once happened. And so in time even Zacchaeus's enthusiasm became covered in the dust of everyday cares. It's not that he abandoned Jesus, but he didn't think about Him quite as often as before. After all, didn't the Master Himself say that each day has enough trouble of its own? One day, the news of Jesus's trial and execution reached Jericho. Zacchaeus was filled with fear and sorrow. He was heart-stricken and confused, and when he got to hear the stories going around about Jesus's empty tomb and how He had apparently shown Himself to his disciples, his confusion was only compounded. One evening he climbed his fig tree once again to settle his thoughts and emotions amid its foliage.

And during the summer evenings he returned there again and again, until his family and friends started to find it eccentric. “He's waiting for Jesus,” they would say, and not without irony. Was he really waiting? We don't know what was taking place in his head and heart. One thing is certain, Jesus never again appeared on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. Is it possible for Zacchaeus to be called a second time?

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