To See Who Jesus Is

[Christsfreeservant]

“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’” (Luke 19:1-10 NASB1995)​

As I was reading this passage of Scripture this morning, I got stopped at this point: “Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd.” I believe this is a picture of the spiritual situation we are in here in America, where I live. Many people today are not able to see who Jesus really is because the crowd (the majority) is not presenting him as he really is, in truth. But they are presenting a false impression of who he is in order to appease human flesh and to not offend the ungodly of this world.

But Zaccheus was persistent, and he did not let the crowd deter him from seeing who Jesus was. So he climbed to a higher place in order to see the Lord. And that is what we have to do, too. We cannot rely on the image other people give us of Jesus, which may be distorted, but we must climb higher in order to be able to see him. We must get into the Scriptures ourselves (older translations preferred) to see what they say about Jesus and what all he was about, and what he taught, so we get the truth.

And when Zaccheus climbed up into this tree in order to see Jesus, Jesus looked up, saw him, and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”

Now, according to the Scriptures, not one of us can come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God draws us to him, i.e. unless God the Father persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent of our sins and to follow our Lord in obedience to his commands. So, for Zaccheus to seek out Jesus, as he did, God the Father must have been drawing him to the Lord. And Zaccheus then sought out the Lord, even against some obstacles that could have possibly deterred him from that.

And Satan is going to throw all kinds of obstacles in our paths, hoping that we will not respond to the persuasion of our Lord, and that we will not persevere in seeking out the Lord in getting to know who he really is. And these kinds of obstacles are all over the place – on social media, in these institutional market-driven “churches” (businesses), in “Christian” song lyrics, in “Christian” movies, TV shows, cartoons, some “Christian” memes and devotions, and in many modern-day preachers’ sermons and books.

So, if we really want to seek the Lord, to get to know him intimately, to know who he really is and why he died on that cross, we must be students of the Scriptures who study them in their appropriate context. For many lies are being spread about our Lord, and about his purpose in giving his life up for us on that cross, and what it means to be “saved” from our sins. So, this is where we really get to know the Lord intimately, when we let him “stay at our house,” and we persist in getting to know him and in following after him.

Now, when Zaccheus listened to Jesus, and he did what the Lord told him to do, and when he received the Lord gladly, he immediately faced criticism from the crowd. And when we hear the voice of the Lord speaking to us, and we listen to him, and we follow him where he leads us in doing what he calls us to do and to be, “the crowds” will criticize us, too. And we will be mocked, falsely accused, thought crazy, persecuted, rejected, cast aside as unwanted, and completely disregarded by many, even by other professing “Christians.”

But Zaccheus did not let the opinions of others deter him from following Jesus. That day he met Jesus, and he repented of any known sins, and he decided to make restitution for any wrong he committed. That day his heart was changed away from a life of sin to a life of one who desired to obey the Lord with his life and to no longer walk in sin. And Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house.” And we will have salvation when we give it all up to follow Jesus with our lives in surrender to his will for our lives.

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”​

But our salvation is not just forgiveness of all sins so that we can go to heaven when we die. If our salvation is of God, we will die with Christ to sin, and we will now walk with him in obedience to his commands, by his grace, in his power. For if sin is still what we practice, and not obedience to our Lord, then we do not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For Jesus died to put our sins to death with him so we will now die to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, in the power of God, by his grace.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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To See Who Jesus Is
An Original Work / April 27, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love