At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.”
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
“He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
“Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over.”
And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost.” Lk 19:1-10
Zacchaeus is the model in the gospel to show the proper way to handle wealth. He does the opposite of the Rich Young Man earlier in Luke’s gospel who goes away sad because Jesus asked him to give up his possessions and he could not because he had so many. Stewardship is recognizing everything we have is a gift from God. When a person uses God’s gifts they have been blessed with together with hard work wealth is not always the product. Wealth is the product of God’s gifts, using them through hard work, and opportunity. Who gave us those opportunities? God. Everything comes from God. Share your possessions but most importantly share you (love, best version of yourself) with others. Then, Jesus will tell you on judgment day what he told Zacchaeus, ” “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
Today’s challenge: Share your wealth, possessions, and most importantly your heart with the needy.
Become a saint!
Christian YOLO
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