The Lord Jesus Christ and Zacchaeus
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33). If we can live out the days of Great Lent in this way, then experience will convince us that these words of Christ are an unshakeable spiritual law. If we seek first of all the Kingdom of Heaven, the salvation of our immortal souls, then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will help us in all we do, assuage all our cares, and help us do everything that, due to our own limitations and human infirmity, we would never have been able to manage.
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“The Son of Man came to save that which was lost” (cf. Lk. 19:10), said the Lord when He saw the repentance of Zaccheus the Publican, who confessed himself to be a perishing man, but having met God Himself saw his salvation in Him, his main joy and meaning in life. Then everything else became not even secondary—it simply fell away to another level; everything became what it should be—a means to achieve the most important thing: communion with God and the fulfillment of His will. “Lord!” Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold (Lk. 19:8). The main thing in Life—a meeting with God—had come to pass, and what joy enraptured him! This joy and change are the main indication and lesson to us as to what our repentance should be like.
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Who are we before people and who are we before God? Will we stand in our souls before God, or before human opinion and think only about that? Will we fall into the sin of man-pleasing, thinking only about what people say, about how we appear in their eyes? Or will we be transformed like the important shorty Zacchaeus, who without paying attention to anyone else climbs up a tree in order not to miss out on seeing God Himself?
