Moments of mercy in the Bible generally astound me. But I’m especially moved by the ones that took place the last week of Jesus’ life. He was on His way to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration… and His death. We don’t know how long he’d had that part figured out, but he told His disciples straight up that is where He was headed.

I’m pretty sure I’d have been looking for some comfort on that trip. I’d have wanted to stay with people I knew and eat with people who loved me and wanted to anoint me with perfume and tears. Things like that.

Jesus, on the other hand, kept stopping along the road to heal the occasional blind man and such. He was near Jericho when He noticed the little man in the tree. (You’ve probably heard the children’s song). And, suddenly, Jesus had an urge to hang out with a tax collector. It is hard to appreciate the level of despicable applied to a tax collector in those days. Some people have compared them to IRS agents. But that isn’t fair. IRS agents have a legitimate job, no matter how stinky it may be.

Tax Collectors, though, were basically thieves. They were more like the collection agents who pick up protection money from neighborhood merchants on behalf of gangs or organized crime in our day. They are the guys who break your legs if you don’t pay.

So, Jesus paused on the way to the cross and helped this particular tax collector get his life right with God. The song stops there. “Cause I’m going to your house today!” But, I always wonder what happened next. Did Zacheus leave tax-collecting behind and join the caravan on the way to Jerusalem? Was he part of the triumphal entry? Did he sit in Martha’s house at night to hear the story of Lazrus being raised from the dead? Did he listen to the teaching in the Temple? Did he tremble in the darkness of the crucifixtion? Did he wait in the upper room with the faithful?

I always wonder about these things. I wonder exactly what happens in the days after we receive His mercy?