In William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, the actors roam the stage looking for a scarce potion that can make humans fall in love. What with our church splits, divorce rate, homicides, racism, and terrorist wars, such an elixir, such a love potion, could come in handy in our own day. 

Jesus Christ told us in the Great Commandment to love our neighbor (Mark 12:28 ff). Then he stuck around to show us how it's done. What we have in the Gospels is not just words of love, but the deeds themselves all demonstrated in Christ's treatment of people. We call this "relational theology." And nowhere are the four principles of how Jesus modeled this love better found than in the story of Zacchaeus.

Data Collection

 

Notice how love begins with the gathering of information about an ind…