Way back in 1969 a group known as "Three Dog
Night," recorded a song called "One is the loneliest number."
The basic concept is that being alone is no fun and not something most of us
want. I was reminded of that song this week in an unexpected way.
This week I got to re-experience a young children's bible
class. My wife's helper was out of town and I wasn't teaching, so I
"assisted" with the 2nd grade bible class. You might think
that you couldn't learn much from a class presented for children that young,
but then, you would be wrong.
The class was about a man in the bible with no friends. No
one wanted to be around him; he wasn't nice and didn't treat others very nice
either. In fact that was the main thing he was known for, cheating and
mistreating people. Besides that he looked weird, he was really short and
people probably found it easy to make fun of him because of that, but maybe
that is why he turned out to be such a mean person.
Jesus saw in this man the potential for greater things. He
turned his life around and took the pain of loneliness out of his life. And
just in case you haven't figured it out, the man's name was Zacchaeus and you
can find his story in Luke 19. He was a Tax Collector working for the Romans
collecting taxes and cheating people to line his own pockets. He was so alone
that he was looking for someone to make a difference in his life and so anxious
to find one, he even climbed a tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus.
The bible class centered on how difficult it is to feel all
alone and how you would feel in different situations. There are times we all
feel alone, we feel unloved, and unliked. On the outside we may look to others
like we have it all together. We may dress nice, we may have a good job, and we
may have things that the world says means success, but we can still be alone. You
may have none of those things and be alone and miserable because of that. Maybe
that causes you, just like Zacchaeus, to treat others in unkind ways, but Jesus
still is the answer to the loneliness and pain we sometimes feel.
Once
Zacchaeus understood how much Jesus cared, that he could really understand his
pain and loneliness. When Zacchaeus understood that Jesus really wanted to be
his friend, his life was changed as no one else could change it. He literally
became a "new man." In Luke
19:8-10 we read: "Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord
and said, "I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have
cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!"
Jesus responded, "Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has
shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and
save those who are lost." "
Some of the most powerful and wonderful words in the bible
are found here, "For the Son of Man came to seek and save
those who are lost." How about you? Are you all alone… are you
lost? Perhaps it's time to start looking for Jesus, even if you have to put
some effort into finding him, like Zacchaeus?
