Would that we could know what Zacchaeus was thinking as he ran ahead of the crowd that day in Jericho! What would he have known or believed about the Galilean preacher? What did he think of the crowds that thronged the streets of Jericho, straining to glimpse the teacher as he journeyed toward Jerusalem? Could he have remembered that more than 500 years earlier Isaiah had promised there would be a day like this? Probably not. Zacchaeus had other problems.

To begin with, he was a short man. He had spent much of his life standing on tiptoe looking over the shoulders of others or peering between the people in front of him. Because he was a man of wealth and an official of the town, one might believe that the crowd would have gladly given him a place at the front of the row. But he didn't ask…