George Jones, or as those of us who listen to classic country music know him, the Possum, had a number of hits with his unique and melancholic voice. One of those hits, with a piano jingle you can’t miss, was “The Grand Tour.” In the song, George takes you on a tour of a house where his wife used to live (before she left him), and all the things that are connected to memories of when they were together. He sings about the chair where she used to bring him the paper and tell him she loved him; about the bed where they slept; about the closet where she hung her clothes; about the nursery where their baby slept. In all of these places, the Possum wants you to see it all so that he can share the pain he’s feeling at his wife leaving him.
Today in the Gospel, Jesus invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house, where there is a dinner. The locals in Jericho are not too pleased, because Zaccaheus is a tax collector, and tax collectors often increased the amount of money you owed, so that they could earn a living. But Zacchaeus promises to give half of what he owns to the poor, and if he has extorted anything, he promises to repay it fourfold. Zacchaeus received the Lord into his home, and was transformed by the presence of Jesus.
Are we so welcoming to Jesus? In the Book of Revelation, Jesus says, “‘“‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.’”’” Jesus wants to be present with us, in our home, and place of comfort and security. He wants fellowship with us, so that we can have fellowship with the Father. But do we welcome Him in like Zacchaeus?
If you house is anything like mine was when I was growing up, whenever we had guests over there were certain rooms the guests didn’t get to see, which happened to be the places where we’d put all of the stuff that we didn’t make time to put away before the guests came over. Usually the guests didn’t mind missing out on that one room during the nickel and dime tour of the house. But Jesus is not like other guests. He wants to see us all.
When Adam and Eve sinned, after they clothed themselves to hide themselves from each other, they also tried to hide from God. They went to a part of the Garden of Eden in which they thought they could get away from God. How often are there parts of our lives into which we don’t want God to look. We hide them from God, or close the door of our hearts to God, thinking that if the rest of the house is clean, then we don’t have to worry about those messes that we have put away in a different room.
In fact, God wants to enter every part of our house. There is nothing in our life to which God does not want access. But God is not a robber. He will not break into the parts of our lives that we don’t want to hand over to Him. That may seem like good news, but in reality, the rooms where we hide all our junk are exactly the rooms that keep us separated from God, that don’t allow us to experience the full joy of a relationship with Him, because a true relationship with God means giving Him our all, not just the parts we want Him to have.
This makes perfect sense when we think about it like a marital relationship. Imagine owning a house with your spouse, but there’s one room where he or she won’t let you go. Because we not omniscient, the curiosity would probably eat away at us. It would create a barrier between you and your spouse, which, if not resolved, could easily lead to the break-up of the marriage.
Or imagine after ten years of marriage with your spouse, a young adult comes to your front door and knocks. And when you ask who the person is, he tells you that he’s your spouse’s child from 20 years ago. I would imagine you would be confused, hurt, angry, and a whole range of other emotions. You would feel like you had a right to know, even if your spouse thought it was going to be too embarrassing. And not having that full disclosure would eat away at your relationship, making you wonder what other secrets your spouse might be keeping from you.
In reality, God knows what’s in that one room that we don’t want Him to enter. God knows all the secrets of our life. But, because He loves us, and love never forces itself on the other, He will never force us to reveal what’s behind the door, or what’s in our past. Still, while it’s not an obstacle to God, because His love for us is everlasting, it is an obstacle for us, because in order to have the full joy of a relationship with God, He has to receive everything from us, not just the parts that we want to share.
Today, here at Mass and when you go home, enjoying the rest of the Christian Sabbath, invite God to take the grand tour of the house of your heart and soul. Open up every door for Him. Show him the clean rooms and the rooms where there’s a mess. Invite Jesus: “Step right up, come on in.”
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| The sycamore tree in Jericho that Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus |