Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
LUKE 19:1-2 | 1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.
Zacchaeus was a terrible man. Many of our sins and deficiencies are largely hidden from public view, and we work hard to ensure this, presenting our best “face” and zealously protecting our reputation. Not Zacchaeus. His spiritual and social offenses were known by everyone and he evidently decided wealth trumped friendship and community. As a Jew who owned a tax license from the Romans, he was not only cooperating with the people oppressing his own people, he was profiting from their misery. He had embraced the role of quisling and traitor, and accepted social ostracism out of sheer greed. Zacchaeus generated outrage wherever he went.
Do you know any “terrible people”?
Can you think of someone who has deliberately embraced an evil exploitive course?
