The Tax Collector who wished to see Christ

by Archpriest Dr Georgios Lekkas

If we share Zacchaeus’s longing to see Christ and, like him, we do everything in our power to achieve it, we can be certain that, sooner or later, we will see Christ looking back at us. He will call us by name, just as He called Zacchaeus, and He will remain with us, just as He did with His disciples at Emmaus immediately after His Resurrection.

We were created to behold the face of God, and it is this purpose that ignited Zacchaeus’s deep desire to see Him. When people truly love one another, they do not need words; it is enough simply to gaze at one another in order to become united. We were made to behold God so that He might live through us, and that we might live solely through Him.

The Ancient Greeks understood that love is born in the gaze shared between two individuals. As Orthodox Christians, we understand that, by seeing Christ through the Holy Spirit, love for Christ is kindled within us, along with love for all of His creation.

A person who keeps the eyes of their soul closed to Christ is capable of even the gravest of sins. However, from the moment one opens one’s soul to Christ, one is no longer capable of doing evil. Even the mere thought of wrongdoing becomes abhorrent.

When the eyes of our soul are opened to Christ, we see others and ourselves as Christ sees us. At that moment, we are moved to love everyone solely through His love, and we cannot bear anything in ourselves that displeases Him. This is exactly what happened to Zacchaeus: it was enough for him to see how deeply Christ loved him, and his life was utterly transformed.

In Orthodox tradition, repentance is not the result of moral effort but the fruit of receiving great Grace. At the moment of this Grace, we see ourselves as God sees us and receive ‘power from on high’ to overcome our passions. Yet it always rests upon our freedom whether we will embrace this Grace of repentance like Zacchaeus or reject it, as Judas did.

The Church is not merely our home; she is our very Body. As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we see Christ in one another and, through the Holy Mysteries, receive ‘power from on high’ to become, individually and collectively, all that the Most Holy God has eternally intended us to be.

15th Sunday of Luke, January 26, 2025

Archpriest Dr Georgios Lekkas is a priest of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Belgium