Luke 19:8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
Imagine Zacchaeus. As a Jewish tax collector for the Romans, he lived on the lowest rung of Israel’s social ladder. His disreputable life created a wall of loneliness and isolation. Then Jesus came to town and invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house. So how did this notorious outcast respond? He offered to give half of all he had to the poor and restore to anyone he cheated four times over! Jesus didn’t direct him to do any of this. All Jesus asked was to come to his house. But in the light of such unmerited affirmation, Zacchaeus couldn’t help but respond radically.
And what about the sinful woman’s response to God’s love in Luke 7? She couldn’t stop anointing Jesus’ feet, washing them with her tears and drying them with her hair. When the Pharisee protested at such an outrage, Jesus quietly pointed out that her radical response was the result of being forgiven of her many sins. She knew she was forgiven much, so she loved much (v.7).
Scripture, as well as history, records generations of people who responded radically to the love of God. Many of us follow Jesus today because of someone else’s transformative response to him. Including me. When the Lord touched my Grandpa Creech, his life turned upside down. From then on, he took every opportunity he had not only to preach the good news but demonstrate the love of God in all he did. The Lord first drew me to himself through Grandpa.
I think sometimes our responses to God’s love prove to be more tepid than radical. Many of us weren’t instantaneously transformed from greedy tax collectors to generous benefactors or from a life of prostitution to humble devotion. We weren’t former moonshiners, like Grandpa. So we don’t recognize the steady supernatural revolution taking place in our souls.
But make no mistake. Because of the power of God’s love, we who were nothing, have become something. We who were dead in more sin than we know, now stand forgiven. Once buried in the ash heap of life, we now breathe in freedom.
Don’t you think that deserves a radical response?
Amen!