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| Zacchaeus
Holy Apostle Zaccheus (1st century)
The Orthodox year is composed of wheels of time interacting with other wheels. One great wheel is the wheel which is based on the movement of the earth around the sun – the solar calendar. This wheel contains the immovable commemorations – chief among them the great Feasts of our Lord, such as Nativity and Theophany, of our Lady and of the more renowned Saints. Another wheel is based on the movement of the moon around the earth – the lunar calendar. This wheel is founded upon the Feast of Feasts – the Resurrection of our Lord. It is linked to the lunar wheel of the Jewish community for the Feast of the Resurrection is always celebrated by all the Orthodox on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox after the Jewish Feast of Passover.
We prepare for this Feast by fasting – the Great Fast which goes on for 40 days in commemoration of the Lord’s Fast in the wilderness prior to His messianic ministry, followed by the fast of the Passion Week. We also prepare for the Great Fast in the Sundays which precede it – to remind us of the purpose of our fasting and self-sacrifice. That preparation begins today on the Sunday when we read the Gospel about the short tax-collector Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10).
His was a virtue that is not often thought of as such – in fact it is often considered to be somewhat a nuisance, annoying and not infrequently dangerous. It is curiosity! The Evangelist Luke says of Zaccheus “he sought to see who Jesus was”. It was not simply idle curiosity. So profound was the tax-collector’s curiosity about the Man of Whom everyone was talking that he risked life and limb by climbing up a tree where Jesus would be passing by. This was so He could at least catch a glimpse of him, realizing that this would normally not be possible since he was short (like the Apostle Paul, whose name after his conversion to Christ, “Paulus”, meant “short”) and it was highly unlikely that the crowd which usually followed and surrounded Jesus would let him through to see the Master.
This longing was inspired by the Holy Spirit, for our Lord saw Zaccheus in the tree, called him by name and visited his home. Zaccheus paid dearly for his curiosity. His encounter with Jesus led him to renounce his way of life and restore and give away huge amounts of money that he had gained by corruption. But he won much more than he gave away. Jesus said of him: “Today salvation is come to this house”. And Zaccheus’ subsequent life caused him to be eventually venerated as an Apostle (April 20 on the Julian Calendar which is May 3 on the Gregorian Calendar). Tradition says that he became Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine where he reposed in peace.
The Orthodox year is composed of wheels of time interacting with other wheels. One great wheel is the wheel which is based on the movement of the earth around the sun – the solar calendar. This wheel contains the immovable commemorations – chief among them the great Feasts of our Lord, such as Nativity and Theophany, of our Lady and of the more renowned Saints. Another wheel is based on the movement of the moon around the earth – the lunar calendar. This wheel is founded upon the Feast of Feasts – the Resurrection of our Lord. It is linked to the lunar wheel of the Jewish community for the Feast of the Resurrection is always celebrated by all the Orthodox on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox after the Jewish Feast of Passover.
We prepare for this Feast by fasting – the Great Fast which goes on for 40 days in commemoration of the Lord’s Fast in the wilderness prior to His messianic ministry, followed by the fast of the Passion Week. We also prepare for the Great Fast in the Sundays which precede it – to remind us of the purpose of our fasting and self-sacrifice. That preparation begins today on the Sunday when we read the Gospel about the short tax-collector Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10).
His was a virtue that is not often thought of as such – in fact it is often considered to be somewhat a nuisance, annoying and not infrequently dangerous. It is curiosity! The Evangelist Luke says of Zaccheus “he sought to see who Jesus was”. It was not simply idle curiosity. So profound was the tax-collector’s curiosity about the Man of Whom everyone was talking that he risked life and limb by climbing up a tree where Jesus would be passing by. This was so He could at least catch a glimpse of him, realizing that this would normally not be possible since he was short (like the Apostle Paul, whose name after his conversion to Christ, “Paulus”, meant “short”) and it was highly unlikely that the crowd which usually followed and surrounded Jesus would let him through to see the Master.
This longing was inspired by the Holy Spirit, for our Lord saw Zaccheus in the tree, called him by name and visited his home. Zaccheus paid dearly for his curiosity. His encounter with Jesus led him to renounce his way of life and restore and give away huge amounts of money that he had gained by corruption. But he won much more than he gave away. Jesus said of him: “Today salvation is come to this house”. And Zaccheus’ subsequent life caused him to be eventually venerated as an Apostle (April 20 on the Julian Calendar which is May 3 on the Gregorian Calendar). Tradition says that he became Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine where he reposed in peace.
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