What Will Your Response Be?

This was one of the passages we covered at the conference I went to a couple of weeks ago. The speaker than focused on Zacchaeus' response to meeting Jesus rather than the faith-action dynamic as was mentioned in the reflections for this passage.

Response. Response to what? To Jesus. To meeting Jesus. What was Zacchaeus' response? He gave half of his possessions to the poor (a lot more than the 1/5 that was required by Jewish law for charity) and paid back four times (that is, 400%) of what he may have cheated from others (way more than what was required by the law: the full restitution plus a fifth of the value = 120%). Plus, he didn't really sit and contemplate about what he's doing. It says,
All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of the 'sinner'."
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord...

One could assume that his response was pretty immediate.

If you take the time to think about how much Zacchaeus would have after giving away all that money, you'll be surprised. No, you'll be astounded. If you take away half of his money, and take the four-times-the-cheated-amount, he basically has nothing left (assuming that he had cheated, like a lot of other tax collectors have in those days). To go from being a chief tax collector, and a wealthy one at that, to being poor and without status, is quite a change. Basically his life, like his pockets, were turned inside out.

Zacchaeus' response to meeting Jesus is something we should all 본받어. Will our lives continue unchanged, unaffected? Or will our lives be transformed by our encounter (and not just a single encounter at that, but daily encounter) with Jesus?

What will your response be?