Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and saif to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, "he has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner'".

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look Lord! Here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay bach four times the amount."

Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

The experts tell us that goal setting is very important if you want to get anywhere. It's been said that there is no difference between failing to plan and planning to fail. The only real way to succeed is to set your face towards the target and just go for it.

There's a lot of truth in that isn't there. How often don't we get sidetracked from what we should be doing. We begin to doubt our ability, or the wisdom of our objective, change our mind and decide to do something different, or just plain give up. In the chapter before our text this morning we find Jesus aiming for an important objective. Listen: "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be turned over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." This is an important aim. THE most important aim of all. This is why he came; the climax of his life. He's on his way to Jerusalem to give his life so that all people of all ages might be put right with their God and Creator. He won't be side tracked will he? Nothing will be able to stop him achieving his goal.

I guess that's why the very next story comes as a bit of a surprise. He's walking through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem when a blind beggar cries out "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Correctly the people and perhaps one or two of the disciples reply, "Look keep quiet, this fellow is on an important mission and can't be distracted." Stubbornly the man continues to cry out, and then the biggest miracle of all happens, Jesus stops. Once he stops the healing that follows is to be expected. That's the sort of person he is. But how about allowing this beggar to distract him from his important God-given objective! You'd think that this beggar would have to be pretty special.

But then again, it's only for a moment. Within a few minutes he's back on the way to achieve the most important job in the world. It won't happen again! But, believe it or not, a few steps further on Jesus again stops; this time under a sycamore tree; this time it's a tax collector; a chief tax collector; this time it's not a few minutes but hours as he announces that he wants to "stay at your house today."

We call these two happenings, distractions. For us they are interruptions to Jesus' objective. We might even interpret such things as temptations from Satan to stop or distract Jesus from accomplishing his mission. But, amazingly, in both cases it's rather the reverse that's true. The world tries to keep these men away from Jesus, because he has other important matters to attend to. It's almost as if Satan is saying, look Jesus your task is too important for you to get tangled up in the needs of ordinary people. You're job is too important to allow such misfits to distract you. But Jesus hears and sees them despite his all important objective.

The fact is, you see, Jesus' important objective is to meet the needs of the ordinary people and those who are classed as misfits. The last verse of our text finds Jesus summing up his important aim, his purpose and mission: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

It's very sad when parents set as their important objective providing everything necessary so that the family can have an up to date house with all the necessary up-to-date equipment and a secure future, but then find that because they have to work so hard there's no time left to meet the real needs of their children. It's sad when a couple set a happy life caring for each other as their goal for marriage but then find that the fastest way to that goal is not to be distracted by the problems and the hurts, and so real caring communication is forgotten. It's sad when a congregation sets it's goal to become a friendly and caring congregation, but then finds it hasn't got time or the talents to give to someone in real need. We'd rather join in the shouting out for help, and climb the trees so that we can be seen, rather than being the ones to stop, listen and care.

In our aim to live as God's people, let's not forget that what seems to be the distractions are often the very things which belong at the very centre of the mission we have been given. Here Jesus shows us that the real aim of the Christian is in fact to be distracted by the needs of those around us.

Indeed we need to thank and praise God for allowing our need to distract him. But again and again he reveals to us through his word that there is nothing more important to him than being distracted by our need.

We all need to pray for the wisdom to decide what is a distraction and what is our real aim. When Jesus stopped and cared for Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus discovered a new aim in life and suddenly found that his money was his distraction. May all of us today be given the strength and courage to examine our lives continually so that our aim can be constantly renewed and the real distractions removed.