Kingdom Building
November 2, 2019
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:1-10
He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. –Luke 19:1-4
What is in it for me? Zacchaeus worked at being a shrewd businessman. He had risen to the level of chief tax collector and was rich. My guess is that he always had his eyes opened for the next best way to make money. I cannot help but think the popularity of this man called Jesus was just another potential scheme to work. Of course, I may be misjudging Zacchaeus. I think we all were created with the potential to be drawn to God and even behind the lust for riches, Zacchaeus was wondering is this all there is?
Our world seems to be tilting toward being drawn in search of what is in it for me. As followers of Christ we are called to draw forth the search for as M. Scott Peck* would say, echoing Robert Frost**, The Road Less Traveled finding a richer and fuller life through the practice of discipline and acts of love.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference**.
Prayer: Lord, grant us the courage to seek and find the road less traveled. Amen.
*See The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, Arrow Books (1978;1992)
**See The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost at https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section7/
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.