NEUOFFENBARUNGDeutscher Text · Book contents
14 February 1844, evening
[Ste.01_031,01] ‘And he (Zacchaeus) ran ahead and climbed a mulberry tree so that he might see Him, for He was to pass that way.’
[Ste.01_031,02] This verse, too, merely relates an event. In view of an earlier teaching, you might suppose that here, too, a deep meaning lies hidden which can never be fully grasped. But this is not the case here, because the deed is done by a person rather than by the Lord. Nevertheless, this seemingly insignificant scene has an inner, spiritual content. It is told in the Gospel because it contains a very good lesson that anyone can put into practice.
[Ste.01_031,03] Many a worldly sage might well say, ‘What can there be behind so ordinary an everyday occurrence? What did Zacchaeus know of Christ beyond what we today might know of a so-called performer of a thousand feats?
[Ste.01_031,04] ‘If we hear in advance that such a world-famous performer is to pass through a town, everyone will come out into the lanes and streets and eagerly await the wonder-worker's arrival. If there are any trees along the road that happen to be easy to climb, the boys will surely lay claim to them, along with some taller people who are just as curious.
[Ste.01_031,05] ‘What meaning is there behind this? Surely only the plainly evident one, namely that several curious idlers want to catch sight of the wonder-worker.
[Ste.01_031,06] ‘At most, the moral to be drawn from this would be, “Listen, boys and curious people, and you short ones who cannot see over the great louts! On such occasions make sure you get to the trees early so that you too can satisfy your desire to gawp, regardless of whether following this moral might damage a tree or two!”’
[Ste.01_031,07] There we have an interpretation of the kind the world gives. I gave it first here to make things easier for the world, so that when it passes judgement on My interpretations, which it cannot understand, it will have an easier time satirising them.
[Ste.01_031,08] Now let us see what a wholly different meaning and moral lie behind this simple text. Let us begin this explanation in as unusual a way as possible, putting the practical first and then letting the theory, as it were, explain itself.
[Ste.01_031,09] And so I say, the whole world is full of Zacchaeuses, and you yourselves are no less so! Do, then, what he did, and I will say and do to you what I said and then did to Zacchaeus. You know the road I usually take with those who are Mine. Like Zacchaeus, you are sinful tax collectors of the world.
[Ste.01_031,10] But what did Zacchaeus do to see Me on the road? He was small in stature. He ran ahead and climbed a mulberry tree. This means that the sinful man recognised his unworthiness before Me. He was therefore full of humility, like the tax collector in the temple who did not dare lift his head.
[Ste.01_031,11] But humility is the chief nourishment of love. Through it love grows mightier and stronger towards Him before whom it feels its great unworthiness. The more unworthy it feels, the greater its longing for Him, because its esteem for Him grows in proportion as it diminishes in its own esteem. Such love thinks only of Him whom it holds in the highest esteem as its highest good.
[Ste.01_031,12] In this preoccupation with the One so highly esteemed by such love there is an ever-brightening light, in which a person thinks and thinks, and searches and searches, for how they might bring the most exalted object of their contemplation nearer. This thinking and thinking, searching and searching, is like Zacchaeus running ahead.
[Ste.01_031,13] He is on the right road. But he also knows that the Lord is the innermost of all things and therefore is in a great throng, and that even on this right road He will still be impossible to catch sight of. Yet the desire to behold the Lord is stronger than this objection and stronger than the obstacle of the crowd. It summons all the powers in a person to rise and reach a vantage point from which the Lord may nevertheless be seen over the crowd and in its midst.
[Ste.01_031,14] A tree is chosen and climbed. It is a mulberry tree, like the tree of knowledge, in whose leaves lies hidden the fine, lustrous fabric for royal garments. Thus a person wishes to behold the Lord through higher knowledge and through the light of faith. So they hurry ahead and climb the symbolic tree of knowledge. Its fruit is sweet, but it is enough to satisfy no one. It seems to satisfy, but such apparent satisfaction is generally followed by a greater hunger than one had before.
[Ste.01_031,15] So it is also with the higher knowledge gained by the inquiries of the understanding. At first such knowledge appears to satisfy the spirit to a surprising degree. But shortly afterwards its hungry stomach says, ‘Those few sweet little grapes merely made me drowsy. They did not satisfy me. I felt full for a short while, and yet I was empty!’
[Ste.01_031,16] See, this is a clear picture of what the mulberry tree signifies. Zacchaeus certainly climbed it with the very best intention. It would be good if all such worldly-wise tax collectors and sinners were to climb the tree of knowledge by the Lord's road with the intention Zacchaeus had. They would attain just what Zacchaeus attained.
[Ste.01_031,17] Unfortunately, the tree of knowledge is only very rarely climbed in the manner of Zacchaeus. Many a Zacchaeus does climb the tree of knowledge with somewhat better intentions, but usually one that does not stand by the Lord's road.
[Ste.01_031,18] So far all is clear. But now the question arises. Is it already sufficient for eternal life to do as Zacchaeus did, with the very best intention?
[Ste.01_031,19] This question is answered by the passage in the Gospel where the Lord says to Zacchaeus, who is peering out from the tree, ‘Come down, for I must dine in your house today!’
[Ste.01_031,20] This means, ‘Zacchaeus! Leave your lofty speculations about Me and come down into the chamber of your love for Me. There is food for Me in this house of yours. I will enter it and eat in this house of yours!’
[Ste.01_031,21] In plainer words, ‘Zacchaeus! Come down into your first humility and love. Then I will enter your dwelling and take refreshment from this fruit of your heart!’
[Ste.01_031,22] See, this is the practice and the theory of this text. The moral, very briefly, is, ‘Look to your brother Zacchaeus and follow his example. Then what came to Zacchaeus will come to you too!’
[Ste.01_031,23] I think any further theory would be quite superfluous here, for what has been said is already as clear as can be. Whoever reads and heeds it will surely find the share that fell to Zacchaeus, and I will say to that person what I said to Zacchaeus.
[Ste.01_031,24] May all of you take this very much to heart! Amen.