From a Life of Insecurities to a Life of True Security, the Jesus Way

It’s really surprised me.   At times, it’s certainly disappointed me.   How can such remarkably accomplished people seem so insecure?   It doesn’t matter their party or their position, their insecurities rise up again and again.    One of them becomes more popular and what happens?    They either parrot or get petty.  So a few of them start parroting the popular position of the moment.   They may even double down.   “You want to build a wall with Mexico. I want to build a wall with Canada too!”    And if they’re not parroting, then they just get petty.  They make snarky remarks about the hot candidate of the moment. 

And forget about them ever admitting they made a mistake.   No matter what these folks think about the priorities of the country, one priority they all seem to agree on is never doing that.    Even when it’s painfully clear they messed up, they seem determined to deny it to their dying day.  This insecurity is a bit disturbing in folks who are seeking to be the leader of the free world.  

But come on now, who am I kidding?   From where I sit, it’s easy to criticize folks running for President.   But how would I be in the midst of a situation where thousands, even millions are constantly evaluating and criticizing, many attacking me on a daily basis.   I get a little insecure if I notice a stain on my shirt.  Sheesh, how long has that been there?  What did people think of me when they saw it?   

In life, who doesn’t struggle with insecurities of one sort or another?  Don’t we all?   But our insecurities do limit us, don’t they.  They limit our confidence.  They hamper our relationships.   They make our lives far less than what God created our lives to be.   And painfully we can blind ourselves to seeing the worst of our insecurities, to seeing how deeply insecure we actually are.   But how do you free yourself from something that powerful, so much a part of you you may not even see it, though guaranteed others do?   How do you become truly secure in every sense of that word?  How do you discover a life where you live truly at peace with yourself, even your frailties and our flaws?   In this story of a very flawed man who finds such freedom, Jesus shows us the way.  Let’s listen and hear what Jesus has to say.

Luke 19:1-10

How do you experience a true sense of security, one that frees you from the insecurities that limit your life?   How do you walk away from these fear based ways of being that make your life less than it could be, that prevent you from experiencing the abundantly beautiful, joyful life that Jesus yearns to give?  In this story, Jesus first shows us two things that you must let go, two things that block the freedom that Jesus wants to give.  And then Jesus shows you what happens when he gives that freedom, how powerfully freeing his liberation is.  But before we get there, what are the two things you need to let go? 

First, you need to let go of your reluctance to climb a tree.  Think about it.  If you were the chief tax collector of a region, you had power, a lot of power.    Everyone knew you.   They might have hated you, more about that later, but they definitely knew who you were.   So can you imagine how difficult it must have been for Zaccheus, this rich and powerful politician of sorts, to, of all things, climb a tree?

What would you think if you saw one of our city officials climbing a tree, it would be a little strange right?  And why?  Because adults don’t climb trees, kids do.   If you are an adult climbing a tree, it just doesn’t seem dignified.  And if that’s true in our more relaxed, equality oriented society, imagine how undignified it was in the rigid and hierarchal culture of Jesus’ day.   When Zaccheus climbs that tree, he risks looking very publicly foolish   But, in climbing that tree, Zaccheus shows us a crucial step that everyone of us needs to take to find the freedom and security Jesus offers.       

We have to be willing to become child-like, not childish, but child-like.  What do I mean?   To become a follower of Jesus means believing things that others might feel only children can believe.   God came to earth as a human-being to rescue us from evil and give us life forever.    That’s a wonderful story, people might say, but you don’t really believe it happened?   That’s like believing a fairy tale.    And folks who say that would be right.   After all, what is the basic plot of a fairy tale?    Some person or persons find themselves under the power of an evil force, a dragon or evil ruler or whatever, but then s hero comes from far away and at great peril and cost, rescues them and makes everything right again.   Isn’t that the story of Jesus, the gospel?  But here’s the amazing truth.  The gospel isn’t just another story like the rest.   The gospel story is the underlying reality to which all those stories point.  To believe the gospel is to believe that all those fairy tales at their heart tell a beautiful truth.  We have been rescued.  We have been set free.   And as we believe that, really believe that, we do become more child-like, but at the same time far less childish, far less insecure. 

In reality, it’s childish to be afraid of being child-like.   Isn’t that what often kids do, they try to act grown up when they’re not?    Only when you become more child-like are you reaching true maturity, coming to a true sense of security.

Do you see how children don’t manage their faces?    When dessert comes, their faces say it all.  And when they get hurt, their faces say it all too.   But as we get older, we learn to manage our faces.  We look confident, when we’re scared.  We look happy, when we’re sad.  We look holy when we are not feeling holy at all.  And when we lose that childlikeness, we fall away from who God created us to be.  Hiding behind our managed faces, we become isolated from others, from ourselves, from God.  But this life of managed faces is not true maturity at all.   It’s why as one writer put it: 

Those who have attained considerable spiritual stature are frequently noted for ‘childlikeness’  What this really means is that they do not use their face and body to hide their spiritual reality.

In other words, they have stopped managing their faces.  Real maturity comes when we walk away from such adultish ways, when dare to become like a child.   As Jesus put it, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.   In other words, you’ve gotta be willing to climb a tree. 
  

But as you climb the tree, you’ve gotta be willing to get over the crowd.   One thing that we find out immediately is that Zaccheus is short.   Now normally, if you’re short, then folks let you get closer to the front so you can see.  It’s the courteous thing to do.  But no one wants to do that with Zaccheus.   Why?  Well, he’s a tax collector and he’s rich.  

Let’s say that someone not that well off gets elected to city council.  Then a few years later, he buys a multi-million dollar house, and on top of that starts driving a Bentley.  You’re likely thinking that guy needs to be investigated.   And you’re probably right.   But, the Romans encouraged this type of corruption.  They told their tax collectors.  Here’s what we need, and anything else you get above that is yours to keep.  So tax collectors became like legalized robbers.  And on that of that, they worked for the Romans, enemy occupiers whom everyone hated.   So when these folks saw Zaccheus coming, they despised him.   He was a terrible sinner, and they wanted nothing to do with him.   

So what does Zaccheus do?  He finds a way to get over them.  Why?  So he can see Jesus.   And today, if you want to see Jesus, you’ll need to do the same thing.    There’s a saying I’ve heard that goes like this.   “I really like Jesus.   I just don’t like his friends.”  Now as unfair as that might seem, it speaks some truth.   Christians haven’t always been the best representatives of the Jesus we follow.    How many of you have heard some prominent or even not so prominent “Christian” do or say something that made you cringe?   Here’s the truth.   In the crowd of people around Jesus, you’re going to find some pretty unpleasant people.   But if you become a Christian, you’re not following the crowd, you’re following Jesus.  And if it helps, the only people that Jesus really, really got angry at were the religious ones.   If you see offensively religious people around Jesus, just know that Jesus is probably more upset by them than you are.    And take a moment to be honest with yourself too.  If you really get super angry or offended by self-righteous people, isn’t that itself a tad self-righteous?   The writer Kathleen Norris put it this way.  She writes.  “Not long ago, I was asked by a college student how I could stand to go to church, how I could stand the hypocrisy of Christians.  I had one of my rare inspirations, when I know the right thing to say, and I replied, “The only hypocrite I have to worry about on Sunday morning is myself.”   If we’re honest, aren’t we’re all hypocrites to some extent or another?  If you really want the freedom that Jesus offers, you need to get over the crowd.   Don’t let the crowd define Jesus for you.   Let Jesus do that.

So what happens, when Zaccheus does those two things, climbs a tree and gets over the crowd?  Does he see Jesus?   Yes.  But more importantly, Jesus sees him.   And what does Jesus do?   He invites himself to stay at Zaccheus’ house.   He doesn’t just invite himself over for dinner, but he actually tells Zaccheus.   I want to come and live with you for a while.   

But do you see how that happens?   Does Zaccheus go.   Jesus, I will give half of my money away, and return four times anything I have stolen, and then Jesus goes.  Well, then I can stay at your house.    No.   Jesus first invites himself over to stay, and then Zaccheus responds.   Heck, that’s not even the correct Christian answer.   Don’t you first have to invite Jesus in, accept him so to speak, and then he comes?   Zaccheus doesn’t even do that.  He does nothing really. Jesus just invites himself in.  Jesus reaches out to accept Zaccheus in the most public and significant way he can by eating at his table and sleeping under his roof before Zaccheus has done much of anything.  Jesus doesn’t say.  “Hey, if you clean yourself up, get right with God, Zaccheus, then I’ll come stay at your house.   No.   Jesus says.  “I’ll come live with you, and Zaccheus says, “Good, then I’ll stop robbing.”    That’s what Jesus does.   Jesus goes to each of us, “In spite of all the junk in your life, I want to become your friend, and I trust that in that friendship, you’ll find the freedom and security in me to let the junk go.”   That’s the order of the gospel.  That’s how Jesus works.  That’s how God works

It’s why Jesus had problems with religious people in his day.  They kept saying to people.  “First, you have to get it right, obey the rules, and then God will accept you.”   Now beyond that being not at all how God works, do you see how profoundly insecure that makes you?   I mean.  How good is good enough?   Every religion has different rules after all.  Which are the right ones?    That sort of relationship with God doesn’t give you any security.  It leads you to more insecurity than ever. 

But do you see how Jesus’ way leads to the ultimate sense of security?  Look at what it does to Zaccheus.   First, he gets excited like a kid.  “Look, Jesus, Look!”  How many times have you heard a child say something like that?    And what does Zaccheus want Jesus to see?   Well, what was Zaccheus’ source of security?   It had to be his money.   To get his money, he betrayed and robbed his own people.  You’ve gotta hunger for money pretty badly to do that.   But now his greed becomes outrageous generosity.   Why?  Zaccheus has found a new source of security, one that actually makes him secure.   In that security, he can walk away from relying on his wealth for that security.   Zaccheus is saying, “Because you love me, now I can change.  The wealth of your love makes all this other wealth mean so little.”

Religion doesn’t give you that security.  But Jesus does.  In Jesus, you know that God loves you no matter what.  God, the only One who ultimately matters loves and accepts you without condition.  But how can Jesus do that?  Because, in his love he paid the cost so you don’t have to.   On the cross, he became the hero who came and entered into the greatest danger to rescue you.  He became the true hero, the one to which every fairy tale points.    He became the giver of the ultimate happy ending, ultimate because it is actually true.  And the more you let the reality of that ending, of his extravagant, infinitely costly love for you sink in, the more you let it capture your heart, your imagination; the more it will free from everything that you looked to for security in the past.    His love will slay them, will cast them far away.  Instead, you will have the security that you see in a little child, deeply and unconditionally loved.   Why?   Because you will now know that child is you.