“Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham.” Luke 19:9
“Whose turn is it to be on the point?” my cycling friends called out at the end of our rest break. “Who’s the first man for the next few miles?”
You have probably seen packs of serious bicyclists—six to eight riders—gliding down a road near your home. Because I spent thirty-nine consecutive days doing this myself in 1968, I know a little about the dynamics. Believe it or not, my cranking companions and I weren’t serious cyclists; we were only adventurous college men. Traveling from San Francisco to New York, we were, however, doing a serious thing.
In any case, before we were too far from California’s Bay area, we learned an important principle in group bicycle travel. The guy out front, the one leading the group and facing the headwind, provides an envelope of undisturbed air behind him. And after almost seven uninterrupted weeks of pedaling, we became adept at following the lead of the first rider—slipstreaming in his wake.
Today we know a few things about Zacchaeus: he was a tax collector—not exactly an occupation to win friends and influence people. He had a lot of money. He was short in stature. He was resourceful—climbing a tree to see the Master. He was adventurous—willingly allowing a stranger to visit his house. And he was a dad.
What Zacchaeus’s children learned the day Jesus came to town was the power of the slipstream—the tangible benefits of having a dad who was willing to get on the point and create an envelope of grace for them.
The text today tells the story of a man whose simple faith led him to seek out the Savior and whose childlike enthusiasm to see Jesus culminated in an actual encounter. Can you imagine being face-to-face with the Creator of the universe?
It’s safe to say that Zacchaeus was never the same again. This rendezvous with the incarnate God opened his eyes to the needs of the unfortunate and disenfran- chised: he was willing to “give half of [his] possessions to the poor.” The meeting also became a boon to those whom Zacchaeus had swindled: he would “pay [them] back four times as much” (v. 8).
But the change that must have been the most satisfying for this vertically challenged giant was what it did for his family. The notorious tax collector’s courageous faith brought salvation, health, and deliverance to his entire family.
Does this mean his wife and each of his children suddenly were made God’s children because of the profession of their husband and dad? No. That would have been something they would have needed to decide on their own. But what we see in this story is a man who got on the point and provided his loved ones with an unfettered opportunity to know the Savior for themselves.
As dads, you and I have the same privilege of getting on the point for our families. Of course, riding up front is more exhausting than coasting behind. But the next time you get a chance to look into the faces of these precious people you call your own, you’ll realize just how much they’re worth it. Rest break is over. Now it’s your turn to ride up front.