Jesus Sees You

This week I had the opportunity to speak for Week of Prayer at Ooltewah Adventist School. The theme for the week was “Jesus Gets Us,” and each day we looked at a different story from the life of Jesus and what it teaches us about Him. On the first day, we talked about Zacchaeus and the simple truth that Jesus sees us. It was a message I was sharing with the students, but while preparing for it, I realized it was also a truth that I needed to hear.

When I was about four years old, I learned a very important lesson: don’t leave your mom in Walmart. Of course, at the time, I thought she was the one who left me. My mom was shopping, and like most four-year-olds, I eventually got bored. Then I looked across the way and saw something much more interesting—the toy aisle. I remember seeing Toy Story toys, and to four-year-old Tyler, leaving the boring grown-up stuff to look at Woody and Buzz seemed like a perfectly reasonable decision. The only problem was that I didn’t tell my mom. I just left.

After looking at the toys for a while, I decided I should probably go back. I turned around, expecting my mom to be where I had left her, but she wasn’t there. I looked down one aisle and then another. No Mom. Before long, I was running around Walmart trying to find her. Walmart is a pretty big place when you’re four years old, and everyone around you basically looks like a pair of legs. Eventually, I came around a corner, and there she was. I remember being so relieved because, in my mind, I had finally found my mom.

What I didn’t understand at four years old was that while I was looking for her, she was looking for me. The moment she realized her four-year-old was missing, she didn’t casually continue shopping. She was searching for her son.

As I was preparing to talk about Zacchaeus, that Walmart story came back to me. Most of us probably know the story. Zacchaeus lived in Jericho and was a chief tax collector, which meant he wasn’t exactly the most popular guy in town. Tax collectors had a reputation for taking more money than they were supposed to, and Zacchaeus had become wealthy doing it. He had money and status, but he didn’t have many friends.

Then Jesus came to town.

Zacchaeus wanted to see Him, but because he was short and couldn’t see over the crowd, he ran ahead and climbed a tree. That might not seem like a big deal to us, but for a wealthy and important grown man, running through town and climbing a tree wasn’t exactly dignified. Apparently, Zacchaeus didn’t care. He wanted to see Jesus.

As Jesus came through the crowd, He stopped underneath the tree, looked up, and said, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5, NKJV).

That part of the story stood out to me. Jesus called him by name. The crowd knew Zacchaeus as the tax collector. They knew his reputation and the things he had done. Some probably just knew him as the guy they didn’t like. But Jesus knew his name. Jesus knew exactly who Zacchaeus was, and He still stopped for him.

That encounter changed Zacchaeus. He offered to give half of what he owned to the poor and to repay four times what he had taken from anyone he had cheated. Jesus seeing Zacchaeus didn’t mean that what Zacchaeus had done no longer mattered. Being seen and loved by Jesus led him to change.

But my favorite part comes at the end of the story. The entire time, it seems like Zacchaeus is looking for Jesus. He hears that Jesus is coming, runs ahead, climbs the tree, and does everything he can to get a glimpse of Him. Then Jesus says, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10, NKJV).

Zacchaeus thought he was looking for Jesus, but the entire time Jesus was looking for Zacchaeus.

That may be why this story connected with me again this week. Sometimes in life, we wonder whether God really sees us. We can come to church, go to work, take care of our families, and be surrounded by people while still carrying things that nobody else knows about. Sometimes we feel overlooked or discouraged. Other times, we know we have messed up and wonder what Jesus sees when He looks at us.

Zacchaeus reminds us that Jesus sees it all. He knew Zacchaeus’ name, his story, his mistakes, and what needed to change in his life. Yet Jesus still stopped underneath that tree and invited Himself into Zacchaeus’ home.

We spend so much time trying to find Jesus that we forget He is already seeking us. Like four-year-old me running around Walmart, convinced that I was the one searching for my mom, we can forget that God has been pursuing us all along.

That was the reminder I shared with the students this week, but I think it’s one we all need from time to time. Jesus sees you. He knows your name, what is going on in your life, and the things that maybe no one else knows. Just like with Zacchaeus, He knows the good and the bad, and He still wants you. That’s a pretty incredible thing to think about.

Whatever this week holds, I hope we can remember the words of Jesus: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10, NKJV). Sometimes we may feel like Zacchaeus, doing everything we can to catch a glimpse of Jesus, only to discover that He already saw us.