The Splash and Ripple of Grace
If you didn’t grow up somewhere where there’s an ocean or lots of lakes and rivers and streams, maybe you’ve tossed a rock or two into the few lakes around here Silverbell Lake, Sahuarita Lake, Arivaca, Parker Canyon, Rose Canyon Lake up on Mount Lemmon. Or maybe it took a vacation to get you from the desert to water to do that!
But you know what happens when you toss a stone in the water. There’s a plunk, a splash, and ripples that flow out from it. It’s simple Cause and Effect. A similar thing happens when God drops his grace, his love, into the heart of a person. There is a Splash and a Ripple!
Today, we get to hear about someone who experienced this. Short guy, important guy, unpopular guy—but we’ll get to him in a minute.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, along with a lot of other people from up north, to celebrate the festival where everyone made a special lamb dinner and remembered how God had led his people out of slavery in Egypt under Moses. Jericho was a stop on the way to that Passover celebration, just about 14 miles from Jerusalem. Jesus was going there for the last time—to offer himself as the sacrificial Lamb whose life would be the price paid for the world’s sin.
Now, when I say Jericho was “a stop on the way to Jerusalem,” don’t think of it like a roadside stand or like a QT, where you could get some food for you and fuel for the donkey and then be on your way. Not at all. Jericho was the Old Testament gateway to the Promised Land—maybe you remember. The City of Palms, they called it.
In a desert land, it sat in the Jordan River valley and was lush with vegetation and fruit trees, rare plants and spices. The plants that produced an oil that was one of the costliest substances in the ancient world was grown there. And it wasn’t just the soil that was rich. Picture luxury villas and a palace built by Herod the Great his winter home. Its location on a trade route brought great wealth to the city. Oh they had their homeless and beggars (and you can read about one Jesus met on this trip), but the rich and powerful lived there, and lots of people passed through all the time
Can you imagine being the top of the IRS food chain in a city like that? Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector there. But it wasn’t just that he collected taxes and made sure the taxes were collected by the other agents, there was cheating going on. He and the other tax collectors were collecting for the Romans who governed the land of Israel and they didn’t care if the collectors collected more than they needed to. They could pocket the extra. So, they did. Can you even imagine the money Zacchaeus made as the chief tax collector in a city like that…and how many people must have absolutely hated him and the rest who worked for him?
This is the end of Jesus’ three-year public ministry where he is preaching and teaching and showing himself to be the Savior of the world. He was very popular—famous even. Large crowds gathered to see him when he and his disciples show up in a town. Jericho was no exception. The people were out in force and if you are shorter person, you know this to be true it is awfully tough to see through a crowd.
The short, frustrated tax collector ran out ahead of the crowd, climbed up into a tall tree, and waited for Jesus to come by. He desperately wanted to see him. He may have known he was coming into town, because he was definitely aware of the merchants and traders and other notable people coming and going in and out of Jericho. Had he maybe even heard that there was a former tax collector from Capernaum among Jesus’ closest disciples?
It wasn’t just Zacchaeus who wanted to see Jesus; Jesus wanted to see Zacchaeus! He had to! “I must stay at your house today,” he said. Out of the crowd of people swarming around him, why would the perfect Son of God want to go hang out at the house of a notoriously dishonest man who cheated the very people of God? It’s easy because he didn’t want Zacchaeus to be a man lost in the sin of greed and abuse of others and far-removed from God. In other words, the man needed his grace, his undeserved love. Jesus had to go.
That’s what grace is undeserved love. And Zacchaeus certainly did not deserve to have Jesus come to him and show that forgiving love to him.
Press pause on the story for a moment.
I don’t think we have any cheating IRS agents here today, but are any of us really any better than Zacchaeus? Don’t you have some problems of your own things that God says are problems? The kind of things that people ought to be condemned eternally for? What’s your problem? Maybe you have money-realm sins.
Are the tables turned and you cheat the government out of taxes you rightly owe?! Do you not care to manage well what God has entrusted you? Have you not figured out how to give the way God is expecting you to? Are you cheating God, which is exactly what God once called poor offerings through one of his prophets?
God sees our faith problem if we’re content to ignore him and live for ourselves. And that goes for all the problems sexual sins, alcohol and substance abuse, looking down on others, not being gentle and respectful of people, not witnessing him to those around us, worrying when God says he’s got it handled for your good—all the problems! God sees our sins. He sees how those may lead a Christian right away from him. And if you are not a Christian, he sees that your sin has separated you from him. If you want good news, though, I’d like you to think some more about Zacchaeus. He had wealth. He had position. He had power. But he was missing something much bigger than all of that. And that’s what Jesus brought to him. It was something all his money could not buy.
Jesus brought grace.
Zacchaeus came to see in the man he was so interested in seeing, not just a teacherpreacher, but true God and his Savior. Jesus came to him and like plopping a stone into water, he dropped that grace right into his heart. And it changed him truly changed him. There was a joy that splashed up in his heart. And it caused a ripple.
This is what God’s grace does.
Joy is that emotional eruption of the heart when it realizes that Jesus forgives ALL sins. Your past doesn’t matter. Who you were is not important. Your damnable sins are not that anymore. Why? Because the One who was passing through Jericho didn’t stay long at the house of the tax collector. He had to get to Jerusalem. He went to the cross there to die and pay for your sins. And he has given you faith to trust that he didn’t stay long in the tomb they put him in. He rose from death, and he promises that you will too and that you’ll go to his house after you’re done passing through this world.
He’s given you faith and forgiveness and forever with him. This is grace…and it brings the splash in your heart that is joy.
This joy doesn’t just sit there in a heart though. You can’t throw a rock into the water and not have the water move. There’s a ripple effect. There are actions that flow from the joy grace causes. Just ask Zacchaeus!
He was descended from Abraham, but he was not a “son of Abraham.” In other words, he did not have the faith of Abraham before knowing Jesus. But now he did—and joy filled his heart. Time for the ripples!
“Lord, I am going to give half of my possessions to the poor.” Ripple. “If I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Ripple.
That little tax guy wasn’t using money to get himself out of a problem caused by his love for money. He wasn’t trying to buy the love and forgiveness of Jesus. He just realized that what he had been doing was wrong in God’s eyes. He was affected by the love of Jesus. Grace had re-written his priorities. So, he couldn’t help but respond by showing that faith. The way he chose to do that was now helping people with his money and returning money he had essentially stolen from others. He wasn’t buying forgiveness by doing those things; he was doing those things because forgiveness was given to him by Jesus.
So, look, if, like Zacchaeus, you’ve got money sins, recognize that Jesus’ grace covers those sins. If his grace causes joy in your heart, then let it ripple. Take care of what you need to and want to take care of.
Express the joy that comes from God’s love by doing things that God expects to see: Don’t cheat on the taxes. Use money to help other people. Take another look at the offerings you give. Or start giving back to God if you haven’t been.
Hearing about Zacchaeus necessarily causes us to think about our abuse of money and sinful love of money, but this goes for all the sins we have been forgiven for not just the money stuff like Zacchaeus had problems with. In the joy that comes from the grace and forgiveness of Jesus, we may even decide that we need to go back to those we’ve hurt with our sins, like Zacchaeus did.
If grace causes that splash of joy in your heart, you’re actually not going to be able to stop the ripple effect. You’re going to want to put those sins behind you and make the effort to live a joyful life that thanks God for his grace.
If that hasn’t been happening for you, push through the crowd, climb the tree do what you have to do to go see Jesus. He’ll stay at your house, and he’ll talk to you when you open your Bible and your heart. Then you can talk to him in prayer. That is precious time. Welcome him, and he’ll drop his grace into your heart again…and joy will splash up…and cause God-pleasing ripples to flow out into your life. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.