One in the Crowd

Devotion for the Week...

This past weekend some friends were taking their children to university for the first time. It made me think about when my parents first drove away after moving me into my residence at Acadia University and that feeling of being so alone even though I was surrounded by crowds of people. Have you ever had that feeling of being alone despite the many people around you?

I have a feeling one man in the Bible was used to feeling that way a lot of the time. Zacchaeus was a Jewish man, but he was a tax collector for Rome, collecting money from his own people for the despised Romans. Tax collectors were hated and viewed as traitors to their people for working for the Romans as they did. Not only that, but most tax collectors collected more money than they had to and kept the extra for themselves. As you can imagine, that didn't make them very popular.

When Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming to Jericho, he "tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd" (Luke 19:3). I can relate to that feeling, too! I have often been too short to see over people and have had to work my way closer to the front before I could get a look at what was going on. Considering Zacchaeus' profession, I doubt people were inclined to let him work his way past them. Unless I miss my guess, there were probably some who took great delight in making it harder for the hated tax collector.

Zaccheaus, knowing he wouldn't otherwise see Jesus, "ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road" (v. 4). Today, if a grown man climbed a tree by the side of the road for a better view, he might get a few odd looks. In those days, though, it was thoroughly undignified for a grown man to climb a tree. For Zacchaeus to do so was a sign of how desperate he was to get a look at Jesus. He probably hoped no one would notice him perched among the leaves of the tree.

Imagine his surprise, then, when Jesus stopped at the base of the tree, looked up at him and said, "Zacchaeus!...Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today" (v. 5). Swallowing his surprise, "Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy" (v. 6).

It begs the question, why Zacchaeus? He was only one man in the crowd. There were so many people, remember, that Zachaeaus couldn't see Jesus just by standing on the side of the road. There were probably dozens of sinners in need of Jesus in that crowd, so why did He choose Zacchaeus that day?

I see two possible reasons. First, maybe it was because Zacchaeus was actively looking for Jesus. Luke doesn't tell us why Zacchaeus was so determined to lay eyes on Jesus, but there's no doubt it was important to him.

We don't know why the others in the crowd were there, either. Were some of them just tagging along with their friends? Were some of them Pharisees, keeping an eye on Jesus to see what He would do next? Were others only interested in this new celebrity that everyone was talking about?

We'll never know, but maybe Zacchaeus was the one person most ready to accept Jesus, even if he didn't realize it as he was climbing up into that tree.

The second possibility is that Jesus was making a point by choosing Zacchaeus. Though we don't know why the people in the crowd were there, we do know they weren't pleased by Jesus' decision to invite Himself to Zacchaeus' house: "He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled" (v. 7). Remember, they hated Zacchaeus. They likely didn't think he was worthy of anyone's attention, let alone a popular teacher like Jesus.

But, as Jesus pointed out, "the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost" (v. 10). Since the crowd labeled him a notorious sinner, Zacchaeus was probably one of the most obviously lost people in all of Jericho. By singling him out, Jesus was sending the message "no one is too lost for me." It wasn't the only time God sent that message.

Though Zacchaeus was only one man in that crowd, Jesus saw him and made time to be with him. Something to think about next time you feel alone despite the people around you.

Blueberry Picking Styles

Devotion for the Week...

If you want to make my day in August, call me early in the morning and invite me to go blueberry picking. That's exactly what happened one day last week and I spent a fabulous few hours out picking (and taste testing!) berries. While we were picking, we talked about how different people approach picking berries differently.

Bonnie says she roams around a lot because she always wants to find the biggest berries and she doesn't have much patience for picking the small ones. She said that when she was little and would go picking with her aunt, her aunt would sit in one spot and pick every berry on whatever bush was in front of her, regardless of size, before moving on to another bush.

I tend to pick in one spot for a while, then roam around until I find another good spot, then sit there and pick for a while. I don't pick every berry on the bush before moving on, but I don't only pick the biggest ones, either.

Gord picks slowly, but cleanly. No unripe berries or leaves mixed in with the good ones, whereas Bonnie picks faster, but dirtier. She has to sort through her berries when they get home.

Nathan picked some, ate some, picked some more, ate some more. He kept looking into my bucket and saying, "I don't have as many as you." Hardly surprising since I think he ate more than made their way into his bucket, lol.

My father-in-law goes out for hours and hours and hours at a time, leaving early in the morning and getting back around suppertime or even later. Other people get tired of it after only a couple of hours.

Blueberry picking style really doesn't matter in the end, though. There's no right or wrong way to pick berries. We're all just out there to get some yummy blueberries to take home.

Strangely enough, this musing about how differently we approach picking berries had me thinking about unity in the church. Before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed, "I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me" (John 17:20,21).

He prayed for our unity, but unfortunately many over the years have confused unity with uniformity.

Unity means "being united or joined as a whole" while uniformity means "the quality or state of being uniform." Can you see the difference?

Unity is being part of something bigger than just you. The church or a group of blueberry pickers, for example.

Uniformity is being the same as everyone else. There's no individuality, no personality, no difference in style. If you don't do things the same way as everyone else, then you're either not doing it right or you're not part of the group at all.

The problem is, God never intended us to be uniform. Just look at us! He designed every one of us, from our appearance to our personality to our talents and even to our blueberry picking style. Psalm 139:14 says, "Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it."

If He designed each one of us to be so very different in so many ways, then why would He then expect His church to be all the same? And if we don't even pick berries the same way, how could we ever dress the same, talk the same and worship the same?

The church exists to help others learn about God and to help believers learn and grow to be more like Jesus. We're all part of the church together for that purpose, just as the group of us were all out in the woods together for the purpose of picking berries. But in the church, under the umbrella of that purpose, there's plenty of room for our different styles.



FYI, this isn't my first devotion inspired by how we pick blueberries . You can also check out Blueberry Picking.

Legacy

Devotion for the Week...

When we heard last week that Aretha Franklin was in the hospital and her family had been called in, my husband said, "Wow. That will be a loss." Then, when she died on Thursday, we heard so many people talking about her music, her involvement with the civil rights movement and how bold it was for a young black woman to have been singing about Respect at that time.

What a legacy! What a wonderful way to use her talents to make an impact on the world. It made me think, "What will people say about me when I'm gone?"

I don't expect that my passing will make the national news or make headlines even in my small town. Yours may not, either. But that doesn't mean our lives won't impact the people around us in some way. How could we not? People's lives are connected to all of those around them and how one person lives will always have an impact on others. The question is, what will our legacy be?

Will it be one of service to a greater good? Or of only serving ourselves?

One of using the gifts God gave us to serve Him? Or burying those gifts out of fear and insecurity?

One of deep relationships or of being too focused on our work/hobbies/social media to connect with the people around us?

And more importantly, one with an emphasis on our faith or one where faith seems irrelevant?

Hebrews 11 is sometimes called the "Hall of Faith" because of the great faith of everyone listed. "It was by faith" is the start of all of the short profiles, including Noah, Abraham, Joseph and Moses. Everything these men and women did was founded in their faith in God.

I love the profile of Enoch, which says, "It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—'he disappeared, because God took him.' For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God" (v. 5).

He was known as a person who pleased God. Now there's a legacy to leave behind, wouldn't you say?