Some people wish their hair was a different colour - or that it was straight or curly! People can tell you how bad it has been for them being the eldest in the family - or the youngest - or right in the middle!
Now I was a youngest child and I can well identify with the problems of being the youngest. It hasn't really been so easy, has it? The bigger ones get to do all the exciting things and sometimes have to put up with you tagging along. Of course there are bonuses, but we don't tend to look at them! Older children often complain that the youngest gets it easy. And the youngest child often gets to exciting places at an earlier age.
And what about your height? Are you happy with how tall you are? A lot of tall people wish they were shorter and short people wish they were taller! It's not just all that stooping down - or stretching up - in the supermarket, either. We can feel so conspicuous about our height. We think people are looking at us because we aren't just average. And maybe they are!
The sow has a big litter of piglets. Often there is a small one - a runt - that can have a real fight for survival. Is it harder to be the big one, or the runt?
Zacchaeus was the runt. Probably since a child he had to fight for survival. Certainly he had grown to adulthood with a lot of fight in him - and possibly resentment at how others had regarded him. And he was past trying to please them, trying to win their favour.
He was a small man, so the record tells us. Even on tip-toe he could not see over the heads of the thronging crowd. He was a small man - mean and miserly. He collected taxes from his own people for the Roman overlords and made himself rich into the bargain. All the tax collectors did it - their position made it easy to squeeze out more than was their due.
He was a small man, his life all wrapped up in himself, his occupation and manner of life declaring that he, Zacchaeus, and his prosperity and comfort were all-important, rated far above the welfare of his country and countrymen. He cared nothing for others - they cared nothing for him. A small man and a small life - cutting himself off and also cut off from others.
A small man wanting to see. Never before had he felt so keenly the disadvantage of his smallness. Hadn't brought a box with him - first time he had wanted to see over their heads! But now he wanted to see and he couldn't, and in the isolation of his smallness no friend to let him through to see! They'll never let me in to see Jesus!
A small man wanting to see and a sycamore tree. The small man could climb up there and, still in the protective isolation of his small life, could peep out at Someone soon to pass that way. Nobody would see him and he would satisfy his curiosity. Or was it more than curiosity? Did the small man have some deeper unnamed desire to see? Did he climb up there to hide and look or…?"
The Someone stops. Up in the tree, the small man is peeping out of his small life, and Someone is peering in! "Zacchaeus," Jesus says. The small man starts - he hears his name, but not in contempt and scorn! A long long time since he has heard his name spoken like that - or ever? "Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay in your house today."
Outside his small world, Someone cares! His curiosity (or was it more?) is now far more! It is a desire to give a place in his life to this One who has a place for him. He gladly comes down to receive him.
Zacchaeus? The onlookers feel there is something quite wrong! "Jesus has gone as a guest to the home of a sinner!" Of all the people in Jericho, why the small man?
The small man is no taller in physical height from that encounter, yet in other more important ways he is no longer the small man. Confronted by the redeeming and forgiving love of God in Christ, his life grows with a concern to make amends with all whom he has wronged and to give practical help to all in need. "Lord," he says, "I will give half my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much."
Some of the onlookers don't think Jesus has done the right thing by going to the house of Zacchaeus. But Jesus makes it quite clear that this is at the heart of his mission in the world - "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
It has been said that a person wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.
Zacchaeus exploited his position as a tax collector. He had dishonestly gained a great deal of money. He had despised the Jewish nation. He had lived entirely for himself.
What did Jesus say to Zacchaeus? We aren't told. The particular word that is used makes it clear he was intending to be there for quite a while.
What we see are the results of that conversation, and especially a real repentance - turning from sin to God - leading to a real change of behaviour. Zacchaeus voluntarily took on himself the penalty for a common thief. And he began to relate differently to others. He cared for the needy - undoubtedly worst affected by his actions.
We may well wonder the impact of Zacchaeus' changed life on Jericho. What did those critical onlookers think when they saw the difference in Zacchaeus - when there was a knock on the door and money was returned to them fourfold?
And what is the impact of meeting Jesus on your life and mine? In what ways are we still living a small life - wrapped up in ourselves?
No longer does Jesus have to restrict himself to one home at a time, as in the days of his flesh - where coming here meant he couldn't go there. "Listen!" he says, "I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and eat with him, and he will eat with me" (Rev.3.20).
Have you heard him knocking? Have you opened the door? Have you welcomed him? Your life will never be the same again!
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