Jesus had approached the tree in which Zaccheus was sitting and told him: "Come down, for today I want to stay at your house." The onlookers grumbled that Jesus was choosing to enter the house of a sinner, a political collaborator with the Romans. It would be like Jesus passing up the chance to visit the Vatican and going to dine with Osama Bin Laden. This unexpected favor, however, changed Zaccheus' life.
The priest who was giving a talk on the story of Jesus and Zaccheus got it wrong when he called the tax collector's promise to give away half of his possessions to the poor a "penance." Jesus never laid an order on Zaccheus to do anything. It was his own joy at the love and acceptance that Jesus showed him that caused Zaccheus to want to share his wealth and return any money - with interest! - that he might have extorted.
Zaccheus overflowed with love for others because Jesus showed love for him. He wanted to change his ways - to repent - for the ways in which he had been unloving. This was not a self imposed chastisement for what he had done. He had seen Love in action and this gave rise to love within his own heart. He wanted to be as compassionate to others as Jesus was to him.
It is significant that changing his life was not a condition that Jesus set up before He would dine at the house of Zaccheus. Zaccheus had done nothing except clamber into a tree in order that he might see better. That was all it took for Jesus to defy convention and bring salvation to this man's house.
This is a good reminder that we are all accepted by a God who searches us out to give us unconditional love. God will go against the prevailing grain of religious expectations, if need be, to bring all the created into relationship with Him. Our job is to love others with such compassion that, in response, they go looking for a tree.
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