THE service at Crediton Methodist Church on Sunday, November 16 was led by Pam Murphy and her theme was “Seeking Hearts”.

There was a dramatic reading of the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19 and the youngest member of our congregation, an eleven year old boy, “climbed” a tree.

Pam asked if anyone used to climb trees in their youth.

She had once stepped onto a horizontal branch of a tree but it would have taken a hazardous threat like a raging bull or a flood to make her climb a tree.

We hear about a man, being a chief tax collector, was probably not young but who felt compelled to climb a tree because he wanted to see who Jesus was.

Jesus and Zacchaeus have something in common in this story. With Jesus it was part and parcel of His very nature and for Zacchaeus it was something that was growing gradually over time but it moved him to action that day when Jesus was passing through town.

They were both seeking

Jesus had a seeking heart and His deeply rooted mission to love people who had been distanced from God by their sin.

Verse 10 of the reading sums up the whole reason Jesus came from Heaven to live among us - “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost”.

In readiness for Jesus passing by, Zacchaeus had got himself a vantage point from which to see Jesus.

It was Jesus who called out to him. It wasn’t just a case of seeing a grown man in a tree staring down at Him.

Jesus saw Zacchaeus, called him by name, and saw that he was troubled in heart.

Jesus called him – something that no other respectable Jewish man had done for the whole of Zacchaeus’s working life.

Jesus invited himself into Zacchaeus’ home.

Jesus crossed the invisible religious barrier to bring Zacchaeus, a man, who was branded an outcast in his community, in from the cold.

He did for Zacchaeus what He had come to do for us all - Jesus’s heart had sought and found and saved this man from the power of sin.

So, what was it that actually prompted Zacchaeus to climb that tree?

We can only speculate, but we can reasonably assume that he was not happy with his life.

Work had certainly brought him wealth but it was at the cost of not having the respect and affection of his fellow Jews. They regarded him as a traitor, a man in the pay and protection of the Romans.

So, his seeking heart compelled Zacchaeus to go and do something different and enabled him to seek restorative contrition.

In Jesus’s presence his life was turned around. He was transformed and Jesus declared “today salvation has come to this house”. Zacchaeus’s seeking heart opened him up to receive God’s healing and restoration.

Zacchaeus was labelled as a sinner and treated as an outsider because of his occupation as a tax collector.

That, for Pam, raises two things. Firstly, no-one has ever lived, or will ever live, who is able to live sin free lives. With our human limitations we get drawn away from God’s ways and we fall foul of worldly enticements. We are all reliant on God’s forgiveness and grace.

During the coming week can we give some thought as to where we find some-one or groups of people who seem to be avoided just because of how they are?

How might we be able to say a kind word, give encouragement to, and could we pray that their hearts might seek for hope and find it in the saving power of Jesus?

Zacchaeus ran ahead so that he would be in a good place to see Jesus.

So will we, each of us, really allow our own heart that freedom and openness to seek what it truly longs for?

Let us pray that it will always take us running home to Jesus.

Bronwyn Nott