And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19:5 ESV)
Jesus looked up into the sycamore tree and invited himself into the home of the most notorious sinner in all of Jericho. Jesus’s invitation reminds me of Joseph Hart’s 1759 hymn:
Come ye sinners, poor and needy
Weak and wounded, sick and sore
Jesus ready stands to save you
Full of pity, love, and powerCome ye thirsty, come and welcome
God’s free bounty glorify
True belief and true repentance
Every grace that brings you nighI will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in His arms
In the arms of my dear Saviour
Oh, there are ten thousand charmsCome ye weary, heavy-laden
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry until you’re better
You will never come at allI will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in His arms
In the arms of my dear Saviour
Oh, there are ten thousand charms
Why are you trading the world’s empty pursuits for Jesus’s 10,000 charms. C. S. Lewis said it like this:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Enough for Today 