From the Zaccheaus Option by Scott Jones:
“I feel that my chief purpose is to be an understanding neighbor for those who find it impossible to join the exultant crowds beneath the unfurled flags of whatever color, for those who keep their distance…I like Zacchaeuses. I think I have been given the gift of understanding them. People often construe the distance that Zacchaeuses maintain as an expression of their “superiority,” but I don’t think they are right — things aren’t that simple. In my experience, it is more the result of shyness. In some cases, the reason for their aversion to crowds, particularly ones with slogans and banners, is that they suspect that the truth is too fragile to be chanted on the street…
Most of those people did not choose their place “on the margins” voluntarily. It could well be that some of them are also reticent because—like Zacchaeus—they are all too aware that their own house is not in order, and they realize, or at least suspect, that changes need to be made in their own lives. Maybe, unlike the unfortunate person in one of Jesus’s parables, they realize they are not properly attired for the wedding and therefore cannot take a seat among the guests of honor at the wedding feast. They are still on the journey, dusty and far from the goal. They are not yet “ready” to display themselves to others in the full light of day, maybe because they find themselves in a blind alley on their life’s journey…And yet they sense the urgent moment when something of importance passes by them. It has a force of attraction, as it had for Zacchaeus, who longed to set eyes on Jesus. But sometimes, as in Zacchaeus’s case, they hide their spiritual yearning with fig leaves — from others and sometimes from themselves too.
The same thing remains true about today’s Zacchaeuses as was true with the original. Zacchaeus could only be addressed by one who knew his name, and also knew his secret. The Zacchaeuses of the world need to be addressed by someone who doesn’t see them as fundamentally alien. They need to be addressed by someone who can empathize with the complex emotional and intellectual realities that cause their reticence and leave them at a distance.”
As a “Zacchaeus” myself. ……..one on the margin….yearning to see Christ but knowing my own inadequacies and failings …..none could have been more surprised than I have been to have Christ come into my house and dine with me, give me his time and attention and love and accept me and inspire me to be more than I could have imagined. Zacchaeuses recognize other Zacchaeuses and reach out to them with the same grace and enthusiasm which Christ extended to us.