Sunday, October 31, 2010

the story of Zaccheus

At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zaccheus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, "Zaccheus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house."


                                                                          

And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." But Zaccheus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."



                                                   



("The Conversion of Zaccheus" by Bernardo Strozzi)

3 comments:

  1. My first reaction was awe, "Wow, Jesus passed under this tree and looked into the branches", followed by "Do trees; any trees; live 2,000 years?" LOL!! Thanks for sharing the picture of where Zachaeus' change of heart took place in his desire to really see Jesus. (But I still need to do research on trees.....)

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  2. You have a point there! But don't redwoods live a very long time? Anyway, come back and let me know what you find out. :)

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  3. I loved these readings this week at Mass, and our priest put together such a wonderful homily! Thanks for posting the picture of the tree!

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