At church this morning, the pastor preached about Zaccheus. Zaccheus
was a hated tax collector in Luke 19, but he wanted to see Jesus, and
he climbed up a tree to do so because he was small in size. Jesus
offered to come to Zaccheus' house, and Zaccheus then resolved to change
his life, paying back those he defrauded and giving to the poor.
The
pastor said that, even though Zaccheus had done bad things and was
hated, Jesus loved him and would die for him. That's actually a
profound statement: that Jesus was willing to die for people who did
wrong. Trite? Well, perhaps, yet profound. Suppose that I saw
people----even those I dislike because of how they have treated me----as
people who are loved by Jesus, people for whom Jesus died.
Of
course, this can change my attitude today. But playing mind-tricks (in
this case, telling myself religious concepts) in an attempt to change
my attitude in a lasting way is a lot more difficult.