It was a day of joy to Zacchæus when Jesus entered his house. But how
were the following days?
Undoubtedly there were days when the old greediness tempted him again.
When the people of Israel in a miraculous way had been helped across
the Red Sea, they were saved from the armed hosts of the Egyptians,
but not from their plagues. The Egyptian soldiers had been drowned in
the waves of the Red Sea, but the Egyptian temptations accompanied
Israel across the sea and made the wanderings in the desert beset
with hardships and difficulties. Indeed, they often, in their worldly
hearts, reverted to the thought: _Would it not, after all, have been
better to return and to partake of the plentiful provisions of Egypt
than to fight their way laboriously onward to the promised land?_
Likewise the tempter undoubtedly has often whispered to Zacchæus:
After all, wouldn't it have been wiser to _gather money than to give
it away_ as an offering in return for salvation? But then Zacchæus in
his mind reverted to that great day when Jesus for the first time was a
guest in his house, and his thoughts have lived that day over and over
again--No, never was I as happy as on the day when I gave half of my
goods to the poor, and never have I been able to make as many people
happy as on that day. The offering had not been given in vain. So the
old greediness had to yield to the benevolent impulse.
But that very same thought may come to you and me: Wouldn't it, after
all, be wiser to get a lot of money together than to give it away in
the name of the Lord to mission work, to churches and schools, to the
poor, the sick and the suffering?
No! And once again: No! For that person in whose heart greediness has
triumphed, has lived in vain even though he may have gathered thousands
of dollars. He has contributed to the increase of the _lifeless capital
of mankind, but not to its joy of living, to its happiness_. But he
or she who brings offerings in the name of Jesus, increases the joy
of living and happiness of mankind by just that much. Perhaps he has
struggled along laboriously to reach the promised land of joy and
happiness. His life has attained a meaning both to himself and to
others--and he has not lived in vain.