This past week a priest told me about a man he met some months ago.
The man was an alcoholic who was fully aware of his illness. Fifty times he was admitted into an institution to help him stop drinking. The man was experiencing the devastating effects of alcohol: a broken family, difficulty keeping a job, health problems, but was simply unable to stop drinking.
After the fiftieth time that he was admitted into an institution, the man stopped drinking and has now been sober for twenty years. He now shares his story at conferences and events, encouraging others to trust in God’s mercy and grace.
What would have happened if he had given up after the 49th time? What if his friends had given up on him after the 11th attempt to stop drinking? What if he gave up on himself? Tired of fighting against his addiction, and just kept drinking, thinking “that’s just the way I am.”
How many times must we give others another chance? When is it time to give encouragement rather than to chastise? How many times must we give ourselves another chance without becoming discouraged?
“You have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made.”
What a beautiful verse from Scripture!
God overlooks our sins so we may repent.
Because he has made us, he loves us!
When God created you, when he created me, he saw all of our strengths and weaknesses, he saw the many times we would be ungrateful and indifferent to his love, the times we would rebel against him through sin; yet he still created us.
He could have chosen not to create you and me, yet he did. And he did it lovingly and proclaimed you and me “good” just like the rest of creation.
God patiently and mercifully waits for us.
The stories of the man who went to rehab fifty times and Zacchaeus bear a striking resemblance:
Both men moved from a life of sin to a life dedicated to God.
Both men opened up their hearts to God despite their repeated failures and had their hearts filled with a joy that they never thought possible.
I’m sure Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus many times, but had kept away since he was a wealthy tax-collector. He was a sinner, taking advantage of others for personal profit.
Zacchaeus felt unworthy, but curiosity got the best of him. After several times of trying to approach Jesus, he finally made a decisive approach: he climbed the sycamore tree and Jesus saw him. After many attempts, the day came, he encountered Jesus and his life changed forever. In the words of Jesus, “salvation came to his house.”
Jesus called out to Zacchaeus recognizing him not as a tax collector, but as one of his own, as one created by Him. Jesus looked into the eyes of Zacchaeus with as much love as an artist looks at his most precious work of art. Jesus looked into the eyes of Zacchaeus with great patience and love. His words were encouraging, not condemning, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
Both the alcoholic man and Zacchaeus, though struggling with sin, had it in their hearts to seek God, to seek the medicine they needed to heal their souls.
God was patient with them, he did not give up on them, but rather acted in a powerful way through their struggles until salvation came.
If it happened to these two men, it can certainly happen to that one person you know that is very distant from God at this moment, or even to one of us here today. We must take courage because “God has mercy on all, because he can do all things; and he overlooks people’s sins that they may repent.”
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