If there is a common thing that no one is a fan of, it is traffic. The WORST though is when you are sitting in a line of cars and someone has the audacity to speed past you on the shoulder and try to cut in the line. This is when you honk your horn and hope that no one else lets them in the line. Then when they are sitting on the shoulder with their blinker on having not succeeded and you drive past them, you are thinking to yourself, “JUSTICE!”

This is because we are all wired with this belief and desire that people should get what they deserve. And while we excuse this notion and call it karma, there is one thing that combats karma. And that thing is Grace. You see, grace is anything but FAIR. Grace is the unmerited favor of God — the minute you deserve it, it is no longer grace. We have a tendency as Christians to apply this to the gospel. The gospel, however, is not a proclamation that the GOOD will be blessed, but that even the BAD will be blessed if they put their faith in Jesus and trust his word.

Here is an example of this happening in the times of Jesus Christ as told in Luke 19:1-10…

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “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.”
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus was a tax collector in the city of Jericho. Tax collectors in these days were not like the IRS… their means of collecting citizen’s money usually lined their own pockets and extorted their neighbors. As bad as this is, it gets worse because of their employer. They are employed by the Roman Empire, who in these days is the governmental superpower. The Roman army conquers lands in a barbaric way and in the process rapes the women, kills the men, and enslaves the children. They lined the streets with crosses that had been used for executions to let the people know that ROME had been there. So imagine the attitude of the people towards this man Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, who had once been their neighbor, but then decides to work for the very people that conquered their city and then extorts his own neighbors. I know I would not be a fan of Zacchaeus, would you?

So the day that Zacchaeus comes running past the crowd, on the shoulder if you will, the others are not letting him cut in. Zacchaeus climbs a tree, and when Jesus passes under, he calls to Zacchaeus and tells him he is going to be a guest in his house. Jesus LET Zacchaeus cut straight to the front of the line, and the other believers are honking their horns, and they are more than frustrated with Jesus’ decision. The people are appalled by this… Is he going to the house of that SINNER?

Zacchaeus climbed a tree for Jesus. Jesus was crucified on a tree for Zacchaeus.

Christians sometimes make Jesus about themselves instead of him. Everyone wants a glimpse of Jesus, just like Zacchaeus, but people are unwilling to get out of the way. Jesus is provocative and radical and profound. We all want to know him and know more about him, but we are hesitant to let others see him. We deem people unworthy of his love when actually those are the people who need his love the most. It is our job to be disciples of Christ and SEEK out those sinners and SAVE what is lost… If you are not a part of the world, you cannot change the world.

No matter who you are and where you come from, God knows your name. He knows everything about you: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Yet, he chooses you, because his love for us outweighs our faith in him. Jesus is not concerned with the crime, he is concerned with the criminal. Jesus wants to get to know the least deserving guy there. This guy definitely is not the first in line, and you might want to shout at him to get in the back. He did not wait his turn!!! Yeah, that is how we think. But remember, Jesus is the friend of sinners — and he chooses you.