And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” (Luke 19:5)
In his book “Just Walk Across the Room”, Bill Hybels tells the story of an African-American Muslim man who was at a business cocktail party in a predominantly white community in a Southern state in the U.S. He had become accustomed to being on his own at these parties, while others socialized with one another in small groups.
This night was no exception…until a man who was in one of those circles on the other side of the room noticed him, quickly left his companions, walked all the way across the room, stuck out his hand and introduced himself.
They started carrying on a natural conversation that revolved around their professions, families, business interests, sports, etc. Eventually, the topic of conversation turned to matters of faith. He shared with his new friend that he was a Muslim and promptly discovered that he was talking to a follower of Jesus.
Much to his surprise, the Christian man confessed that he knew very little about Islam and wondered whether his Muslim friend would be open to meeting for coffee and sharing the basics of his faith.
Soon they were meeting almost every week, with the Muslim man doing most of the talking and his Christian friend simply listening and asking questions for clarification purposes only. Eventually one week, the focus of the conversation shifted and the Christian man was able to share why he had decided to commit his life to Jesus.
Here is how the Muslim man describes what happened next: “There finally came a day—I remember being home alone when this happened—that I felt totally compelled to pray to God. I kneeled beside my bed, told God everything I was feeling, and in the end gave my life to Jesus Christ. And in the space of about a week, that single decision changed everything in my world! Every single thing.”
Needless to say the kingdom of heaven would be minus one precious soul had not one man made the conscious choice to leave behind his comfortable conversational clique and reach out to a lonely stranger at the other end of the room.
In a way, we should not be surprised that he did this…after all he was only mirroring what Jesus did in Luke 19 when he stopped by the tree where Zacchaeus was perched far above the crowds that thronged the Messiah on his walk through Jericho.
Once again, we see a man who did not fit into the rest of his society. Tax collectors were universally hated by the Jewish people. They would buy “tax franchises” from the Romans for, let’s say, a million dollars and then collect as much as they wished from everyone and pocket the rest. No wonder Zacchaeus is described as being rich in verse 2. The way he became rich was by gouging his own people.
No one else would go to him. But Jesus does not wait for Zacchaeus to come to him. He stops, extends a hand of friendship, invites himself over to his place…and the rest is history.
Without any prompting from Jesus, Zacchaeus voluntarily offers to pay back all that he has collected illegally and compensate the victims fourfold. Had Jesus waited for Zacchaeus to make the first move, this encounter would not have happened and the tax collector’s life would not have been transformed.
Ditto with the Muslim man in Bill Hybels’ book, amen?
Dear DWOD friend, one of the keys to advancing into your destiny is to develop the “Go-To” habit. Take the initiative, make the effort to go to those who are lonely, isolated, on the fringes. You too will be pleasantly surprised how that little gesture of walking across the room can result in someone crossing over from a life without Christ to spending eternity with Him.
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