6 lessons from Zacchaeus to help you on life's journey

All of us are on a journey, whether we think of ourselves that way or not. Each of us is somewhere between where we started and where we're going, navigating our way through one decision at a time. The trick is paying attention to the waypoints along the road, the moments where the route quietly changes, where something shifts, where we either grow or get stuck.

There's a short story in Luke's Gospel that captures this beautifully. It only takes ten verses, and most of us heard a version of it as children, but it's worth coming back to as adults.

A small, wealthy, unpopular tax collector called Zacchaeus hears that Jesus is passing through Jericho. He wants to see him, but the crowd is too thick and Zacchaeus is too short. So he does something undignified for a grown man, especially a wealthy one. He runs ahead and climbs a tree.

What happens next changes his life.

Six waypoints stand out to me in his story.

1. He was challenged

Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but two things were in the way. The crowd, and his own physical limitation. "He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature." (Luke 19:3)

Most of us are familiar with that combination. There's something we want to move towards, and there's both an external obstacle (the crowd, the circumstances, the people in our way) and an internal one (something about us that we can't easily change). The question isn't whether you'll face them. It's what you do when you do.

What's actually standing in your way right now?

2. He was compelled

Something inside Zacchaeus refused to let him quietly miss out. So he ran. He climbed. He did something that, by his social standing, he probably should have been embarrassed to do.

The word compel means a powerful, almost irresistible drive. Most of us, faced with the crowd and the height problem, would have shrugged and gone home. He didn't.

What is it that's actually driving you, and is it strong enough to make you do something undignified to get to it?

3. He was connected

When Jesus reached the tree, he stopped. He looked up. He used Zacchaeus's name. He invited himself to dinner. The whole interaction is intentional, personal, and direct.

That kind of connection is what most of us are starving for, even if we'd never admit it. Real, attentive, named-and-known connection. Jesus didn't preach a sermon at him. He just stopped, looked, and asked to spend time with him.

Who are the people you're genuinely connected to right now, and who do you need to stop and properly see?

4. He was criticised

The moment Jesus walked into a notorious tax collector's house, the crowd grumbled. "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." (Luke 19:7)

Whenever you start to grow, change, or move towards something better, you can almost guarantee a chorus of disapproval. Some of it is jealousy. Some of it is people whose ideology can't make room for what you're doing. Some of it comes from people who liked the old version of you better.

How do you handle criticism when it lands, and which voices do you give too much weight to?

5. He was changed

Zacchaeus didn't just have a pleasant lunch and carry on as normal. Something fundamental shifted. He stood up and said, "I'll give half of what I own to the poor. If I've cheated anyone, I'll pay them back four times over."

That isn't a polite religious conversion. That's a complete restructuring of his finances, his ethics, and his relationships. Real encounters with Jesus tend to do that. Not as a one-off event, but as the start of a slow rewiring.

Where in your life are you ready to be properly changed, and where have you been settling for a polite version of growth?

6. He was celebrated

Jesus didn't just receive Zacchaeus quietly. He celebrated him. "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham." (Luke 19:9)

We don't celebrate the people moving forwards in their lives often enough. We notice the failures and the falls. We're slower to notice the quiet, hopeful turning around. Make a habit of celebrating it.

Who in your life is moving in a hopeful direction right now, and how can you affirm them this week?

Waypoints worth checking

A waypoint, in navigation, is a marker along a route. A point where you check your bearings, change direction if you need to, and confirm you're still heading where you meant to go.

A useful exercise, every so often, is to ask yourself a few waypoint questions about your own life:

• Where am I now? What are my actual circumstances, goals, and challenges right now?
• What are my short-term waypoints? What specific milestones do I want to reach in the next few months?
• What values are guiding my journey? What do I actually stand for, and is my life reflecting it?
• Am I heading in the right direction? Is the trajectory I'm currently on the one I'd choose if I stopped to think about it?
• What have I learned along the way? What insights from past stretches of my journey should be shaping how I walk into the next?

These aren't questions to answer in five minutes. They're questions to sit with, regularly, ideally with someone you trust who'll tell you the truth.

So which of the six waypoints do you most need right now: a challenge, a fresh sense of what compels you, a real connection, the courage to face criticism, a deeper change, or someone to celebrate where you've already come?