This Is Us | Story Changing Place | Repentance

Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”  Luke 19:8

Morals and ethics were for chumps. Whoever said money couldn’t buy happiness didn’t have enough. Lying and cheating had built an empire for Zacchaeus and he meant to keep every cent. So what if everyone hated him? He could buy friends. So what if he didn’t sleep so well? He had fun in the daytime. Then that Rabbi came along, talking about something money couldn’t buy. Zach wanted it. He had sold his soul. All that mattered now was getting it back. He’d give anything to hear “You’re forgiven” and start over, even if it cost him everything. It did. That day Zach’s dining room became his story changing place.

Zacchaeus had never taken a single Bible class, never listened to a sermon; yet, he knew that the forgiveness he longed for started with true repentance. Before they’d sat down to lunch, Zach was throwing money at everyone he’d ever wronged. The presence of Jesus changed his perspective. Money was no longer his god, greed no longer his driving force. Nothing mattered but cleansing his conscience and that meant he must rid himself of everything that represented his old life. The presence of Jesus does that. He changes our stories by changing our opinion of sin. Repentance is the doorway to a story changing place.

Final Thought:  If Jesus has come to your house, sin no longer belongs there. Repentance can change your story.

Prayer: Jesus, does my life demonstrate that you’ve come to my house? Am I still clinging to things you died to free me from? Zacchaeus showed his repentance by making things right with those he’d wronged. What would you have me do? Amen.