If you've grown up in church, you are familiar with the story of Zacchaeus. Of how this despised tax collector came to host Jesus in his house for dinner. We have all sung the song about how he climbed the tree and of Jesus telling him to come down. It is a really cute story, pretty strait-forward too. Or is it? Looking deeper we see that Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus but he couldn't. Why this difficulty seeing Jesus? Because he was so short of course. No. Look again in Luke 19:3, he couldn't see Jesus because of the crowd. Those closest to Jesus were blocking the way to Him. The people most in need of seeing Jesus couldn't because of those crowding around Him.
I am afraid that this is still true today. Those of us closest to Jesus, Christians, need only turn around to find someone in need of meeting the Master. However, instead of turning around and offering a hand and leading them to Jesus, we offer them our backs as we childishly crowd around Jesus. Is someone straining to see over your shoulders?
A similar story is the one of the crippled man being lowered through the roof. Again the crowd was so thick that the one that needed Jesus could not get to Him. The other side of this story is the effort that these two people put in to get to Jesus. If you are standing in the way, are you at least making enough effort to get to Him?
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