Jesus . . . said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." —Luke 19:5

Rabbits are timid creatures that pop out of their holes every morning, try to avoid everything (except other rabbits), eat their food, and jump back into their holes in the evening. "Whew! We made it through another day," they'd say if they could talk.Rabbit-hole Christians are a lot like that. They eat lunch with other Christians at work and relate almost exclusively with fellow-believers in their church. They avoid socializing with unbelievers and wouldn't think of accepting an invitation to one of their parties. No wonder unbelievers equate being a Christian with a kind of aloof self-righteousness.No one could say that about Jesus. He actually invited Himself to the home of Zacchaeus, a notorious tax collector. His congeniality among disreputable people earned Him the title of "a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Matthew 11:19). He reached out to such people because He knew He couldn't help them without becoming their friend. Jesus never said anything He shouldn't have said, nor did He laugh at off-color stories. He won people's respect by caring for them.Jesus has equipped us with the Holy Spirit and assured us that He'll be with us so we can follow His example. Let's guard against being rabbit-hole Christians. Jesus leaves us in the world to be a witness to the world.

Help us, O Lord, to live our lives
So people clearly see
Reflections of Your caring heart,
Your love and purity.

Into this turbulent situation Jesus came with His revolutionary message of God's kingdom. It was entered by the simple exercise of repentant faith, and it called for loving obedience to the King and Father and loving service to brothers and sisters in the new divine kingdom and family. Indeed, such service was to be rendered to every member of the human family as well. Its one all-inclusive law was love--a love that Jesus spelled out in His Sermon on the Mount, a love that fulfilled the Ten Commandments (Rom. 13:10). Thus the controlling motive of attitude and behavior in this born-again society was to be compassion, love in action, the caring concern modeled by Jesus Himself.

As God incarnate (the Son of God and God the Son), Christ was a mirror of flesh flawlessly reflecting His Father's nature, not only the divine holiness but the divine heart. Himself sinless and most acutely sensitive to sin, Jesus sympathized with sinful people who were suffering the consequences of inherited depravity and personal transgression. He was aware that the multitudes He ministered to were made up of sinners, most of whom were spiritually like bruised reeds, splintered and emotionally ready to break.

He realized too that in the crowds pressing around Him were souls whose faith was not burning brightly but was at best like smoldering flax (Mt. 12:20). Gently, not with harsh judgment, He sought to strengthen the bruised reeds and bring the smoldering flax to a flame. One of His favorite Old Testament texts was Hosea 6:6, where Jehovah said, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7, appropriated those significant words spoken by God Himself to defend His tradition-violating compassion.

kev` 4:26 PM