Steve Dennison. This name means nothing to you but is loaded with feeling for me. Allow me to paint (no pun intended) a scene for you:
It was 8th grade art class and I was (still am) horrible at art (I draw bad stick figures). I was having a not–so-good day. One of the smaller students in my class, I was a little behind as far as puberty goes. Putting my arms up for our basketball team’s zone defense was embarrassing–because let’s face it–my armpits were as bare as a bachelor’s cupboard. I practically sang soprano in choir. People confused me for a 4th grader. Girls thought I was just ‘cute’, not ‘hot’.
You get the picture.
Anyway, back to Steve. He was a man-child. 6 feet tall, had hair growing all over his body, and his voice was a deep baritone. And deodorant unfortunately hadn’t made its way into his routine. Steve was a nice guy but everyone kept their distance for fear of smelling the ‘smell’. I think you know what I’m talking about. Needless to say, Steve dwarfed me. I felt inferior. But sitting next to him, I saw an opportunity…
He got up to get some scissors. He came back to his chair and sat down. Except he didn’t sit in his chair. All 6 feet of him crashed to the ground in a stinky heap. I had pulled the chair from under him. My classmates sang my praises, with high fives and chest bumps all around.
However, the mood changed as quickly as Steve had fallen to the floor. “Heath, was that you?” the teacher asked. The lump in my throat felt like the size of a volleyball. What had I done? Why? Trouble awaited me.
Whether I realized it or not, I was hoping the fall of someone else would cause the rise of me. I was hoping to go from zero to hero, boy to man, small to tall, dud to stud, and chump to champ. And I did. But for only a second. My rise to extreme coolness disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
We all place our hope in something don’t we?
What gets us up in the morning and what gives us peace to sleep at the end of a day? What do we save money for? What does our mind default to when there is down time? What can’t we do without?
There was once a “Steve Dennison” named Zacchaeus. He was Jewish. A tax collector, he was employed by the Romans who ruled the day. Thus, he was deeply hated by his own people. He didn’t fit in anywhere. He was a loner. An outcast. An outsider. And he was a cheater. Always lying and conniving and cutting corners so he could get richer and richer and richer, all at the expense of others. He pulled the chair out from under people everyday.
Money was his security and identity and purpose and hope…
Little did he know, a different kind of hope was right around the corner and coming his way. He had heard about Jesus and was curious. After all, he knew that Matthew, a former tax collector, was now one of his disciples. We pick it up in Luke 19, “He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by. When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.’
You know the rest of the story. Zacchaeus hurried down that tree as fast as his little legs would take him. He ended up giving back to the people he had cheated, and then some.
Simply by being with Jesus, Zacchaeus became more like Jesus. Yes, he made the effort to climb the tree and Jesus wants us to make ourselves available to Him. Yes, Jesus wants to see us seek Him because when we do He promises we’ll find Him. But Zacchaeus’ life wasn’t changed and he didn’t become more like Jesus because he climbed a tree. He became more like Jesus because he was with Jesus. He experienced an eternal, everlasting, unconditional, non-judgmental, crazy kind of love that made his love for money pale in comparison.
Friends, we are all climbing a tree. Everyday we hoist ourselves out of bed and onto a tree called life. We hope to see, taste, feel, hear, and experience something.
Meaning. Purpose. Fulfillment. Stability. Identity. Self-worth. Happiness. But, many of us look for it in all the wrong places. True hope isn’t found in big houses, job promotions, academic success, impressive knowledge, athletic prowess, or even in family and friends.
Don’t get me wrong, those are good things. But when a good thing becomes a ‘God’ thing, an ultimate thing, it replaces the true God and becomes an idol.
Friends, we need a real, authentic, lasting, permanent kind of hope. The kind that doesn’t rust, rot, or burn up. The kind that doesn’t stand you up but it stands up for you. The kind that never breaks promises. The kind that doesn’t fire you. The kind that doesn’t blow smoke. The kind that is ‘in’ today and still ‘in’ tomorrow. The kind that forever satisfies and always fulfills.
He is right around the corner. He knows your name, what you have done, but loves you the same. The creator of the universe wants to ‘get cozy with you’. He is inviting himself over. He not only wants to be a guest in your home but take over your life.
Will you let Him?
His name is Jesus.