I just love this quote:

“Jesus . . . wants us to see that the neighbor next door or the people sitting next to us on a plane or in a classroom are not interruptions to our schedule. They are there by divine appointment. Jesus wants us to see their needs, their loneliness, their longings, and he wants to give us the courage to reach out to them.” – Rebecca Manley Pippert

If we look at the words and actions of Jesus, we see love and compassion. Jesus saw every person He encountered as a “divine appointment,” an opportunity to listen, hear, understand the needs of others, and offer healing and hope.

Every person matters to God. Every person.

We each individually and collectively, ARE the church that Jesus created. Our mission as the church is to love our neighbors. Let’s open our hearts to the divine appointments that are presented to us every day. Let’s extend the love of Jesus beyond our church walls into the community around us.

You may have heard the story in the Bible about Zacchaeus.  The context is important.  Zacchaeus was a tax collector in the city of Jericho.  Keep in mind, tax collectors were despised by fellow Jews because they cheated people by overtaxing them.  So in the story of Zacchaeus, remember he would be considered the villain, the sinner, and certainly considered an outcast by the Jews.

But Zacchaeus was curious to see this man, Jesus, as He entered Jericho but there was such a large crowd and Zacchaeus was short, so he climbed up into a tree.

Out of the entire large crowd, Jesus saw Zacchaeus and called out to him, saying “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

The crowd’s reaction was one of disgust, muttering “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”   But for Zacchaeus, this one event changed his life.  He said to Jesus, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  And Jesus replied “Today salvation has come to this house.”

Most summaries of this event seem to focus on how Jesus forgives and changes lives, or about the importance of not being greedy.

But maybe we need to spend more time reflecting on the fact that out of that entire crowd, Jesus saw Zacchaeus.

Any self-respecting Jew would have walked right on past Zacchaeus, in disgust, not giving him a second glance, and yet Jesus saw him.  But he did more than that, he spoke to him, and chose to spend time with Zacchaeus of all people!

Who are we NOT seeing, either intentionally or unintentionally, as we claim to be leading people to experience God’s love and know Jesus Christ?

There are many people we might be tempted to just label as “sinners” and condemn and decide they are not worth our time, and maybe because of our own prejudices, we don’t even see them.  We can even feel really good about how loving we are, as long as we overlook the ones who we would rather not even interact with, the ones we condemn as sinners.

It’s important to remember, Jesus saw Zacchaeus.