Encountering the Presence: Hunger, Grace, and Transformation
This Sunday kicked off a new series built around our church's own vision statement — encountering, embodying, experiencing, and being empowered by the presence of God. We started at the beginning: encountering. And the story that carried us there was one many of us know well — a short, wealthy, despised tax collector named Zacchaeus who climbed a tree just to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
Nothing in his way
Luke 19 tells us Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus so badly that he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree — undignified for a grown man in his culture, and especially for a man of his wealth and status. As it was said Sunday, "no obstacle was too great" — not the opinions of others, not his own guilt over how he'd made his money, not even his own short stature. That word for "wanted to see" in the original Greek, *zeteo*, means more than a passing wish. It means to search until you find — the same word used for the woman who tore her house apart looking for one lost coin. That's the kind of hunger God responds to: "If you seek me, you will find me when you seek me with your whole heart."
A grace that covers, receives, and doesn't wait
When Jesus stopped under that tree and said, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today," He did something nobody else in the crowd would do — He called a cheat and a traitor by name and asked to eat with him. No public scolding, no probation period. "There is no probationary period for prodigals," we were reminded. That's how grace has always worked — it covers what we've done, it receives us exactly as we are, and it's available now, not after we've cleaned ourselves up.
That kind of grace also tends to confound people — especially religious people. We were pointed to a scene from the film *Jesus Revolution*, where Chuck Smith knelt to wash the feet of barefoot hippies before church because the elders complained about dirty carpet — and watched a congregation split before it was reborn. Grace has a way of offending our sense of order right before it starts a revival.
Real encounters change us
The story doesn't end with Zacchaeus climbing down from the tree. He stood up in front of the same crowd that despised him and declared Jesus as Lord, then backed it up: half his possessions to the poor, and fourfold restitution to anyone he'd cheated. "An encounter with Jesus that does not change us isn't really an encounter with Jesus." Generosity, restitution, a willingness to be seen taking a stand — these weren't requirements Zacchaeus met to earn Jesus' attention. They were what came pouring out after he'd already received it.
Why this matters for us as a church
This message wasn't just about one story from Luke 19 — it was a reset around why Catch The Fire Boulder exists at all. Our vision reads, in part: "Our heartbeat is for the presence of God above any human agenda. We live to encounter Him." Without His presence, we were reminded, worship becomes performance and faith becomes religion — and "I don't have time for religion. I've spent enough of my life in religion. I want God's presence." Over the next few weeks we'll keep building on this foundation: encountering His presence, embodying it, experiencing it together, and being empowered by it to go and do something with it.
Something to sit with this week
What's kept you from running toward Jesus the way Zacchaeus did — the opinions of others, an old mistake, a sense that you're too far gone or too self-sufficient to need Him? He's already standing at the base of the tree, ready to call you by name. What would it look like this week to climb down and let Him?
Catch The Fire Boulder meets Sundays at 10:00 AM at 700 W South Boulder Rd, Lafayette, CO. We'd love to have you join us. Watch the full message or plan your visit.
