Chain Reaction

Creep and crawl accurately described the traffic on the interstate. I had no idea what was causing the slowdown up ahead. I thought that perhaps an accident occurred and only one lane of traffic was available so naturally everyone had to slow down. Finally after a significant delay I came upon the scene. All the lanes were clear but there was a wrecked vehicle in the ditch. The slowdown was caused by a chain reaction of people who slowed down a bit to take a look.

Jesus was on the road to Jericho. The traffic of onlookers was so thick that a slowdown occurred on the road. One guy by the name of Zacchaeus had climbed a sycamore tree in order to get a look at the Savior. Jesus stopped on the road and noticed the despised tax collector in the tree and made arrangements for a personal visit to his home. On that day Zacchaeus met Jesus and salvation came to his house. Zacchaeus’ whole life was changed that day as he was heard to proclaim in Luke 19:8: “Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” The traffic slowdown caused by Zacchaeus up the tree caused a chain reaction to all of those who knew him. The poor were blessed by his newfound change of heart. Those who he had taken advantage of received an unexpected payback of 4 times of what he had taken from them. And those who knew him as nothing more than a sinner were affected by the change in his life.

We can cause a chain reaction also. When salvation comes to our house as it did to Zacchaeus we can be used to affect so many people. Our new found joy, our generous heart, our new walk and talk can cause people to slow down a bit and consider that the Savior can do the same thing for them. Let’s cause a chain reaction today.