... amount he was free to keep. The system was ripe for abuse, and this passage tersely states: ‘he was wealthy’ in v. 2, as if that were some kind of indictment . . . and it was. He had accumulated his wealth in service to the ... what grace looks like. There is no clearer picture of grace at work than the story of Zacchaeus. I like the way The Rev. Angela Askew puts it: “What Jesus showed to a chief tax collector in Jericho is that God accepts and transforms the unacceptable, loves the un-loveable, ...
Would you agree that we are an image-conscious society? Appearances are important to us. And not just our personal appearances. We want the things in our environment—our homes and cars and sneakers and even our lunches—to look Instagram-ready. The problem with living in an image-conscious society is that we are easy to deceive. Too often, appearance wins out over substance. If something looks good on the outside, we don’t question its authenticity or integrity. Author Mark D. Roberts tells of meeting a man ...
