There are bloodstains leading to the Zacchaeus tree

Jesus and Zacchaeus. St Mark's Basilica. The vault to the east of St Leonard’s dome (mosaic, 11th century). Photo: wikipedia.org

The Gospel reading about Zacchaeus, in fact, precedes the preparation for the period of Lent. Zacchaeus, small in life and in the qualities of his soul, was able to make himself tall enough to see Christ. A well-placed tree helped him in this. It changed his life. We, too, must somehow find the right tree to climb to see God.

We live an earthbound life, from the depths of which Christ is not visible. It is a very simple and confined to two coordinates: one measuring time and the other – accumulation. In this two-dimensional world, time monotonously and soullessly chews through months and years of our lives, much like a cow chewing cud, while we accumulate money, illnesses, possessions, problems, fatigue, joys, and sorrows—all that is known as individual life experience. We trudge across this plane, wearily stepping over the days we have lived, which in the end will be reduced to two modest dates on a gravestone. The dash between them, resembling a mathematical minus sign, will symbolise our life.

Most people live in such a way as if they had never lived at all. Life was "about nothing". And there are millions of such "dash-minuses". Yet life could have been lived differently…

Thoughts about lifting our heads and seeking out that special tree, climbing which we might glimpse the essence of life, its true scale and significance, occasionally cross our minds. A spiritual longing calls us to something mysteriously high that can add salt to our life, giving is substantial flavour and lighting it with meaning.

But instead of salt, most people, for some reason, prefer to use spices in the form of various political and national ideas, aesthetic and artistic values, poetic and lyrical raptures, literary fictions, or simply banal sensual and sentimental emotions. However, even this mimicry of spirituality is increasingly rare. Most people simply "live like everyone else". This was how Zacchaeus lived, as did millions like him. "Only the fast survive", "The only way to live a little is to cheat a little," and in the end, the result is just a little "minus sign" on a tombstone between two dates.

To climb that very tree from which God is visible, we need to introduce another, third coordinate into our two-dimensional life plane – one that is directed upwards. Trees grow towards Heaven; only grass creeps along the ground. Without faith, there is no point in seeking the tree – it will not be visible. But even that is not enough. Having found the tree, one must still summon the courage to lift one’s feet off the ground.

For someone who has spent their whole life crawling like a serpent along the two-dimensional surface, feeding on the carrion of sin, this requires great courage. But if one dares, then, as they ascend from a branch to a branch, the scale of life’s picture changes. What once seemed large will appear small from above.

Due to the change in perspective, the meaning of various life problems and events will be reviewed.

While we were down below, on the ground, much of what happened to us was exaggerated and dramatised. We wasted our strength, health, and resources on things that were not worth taking the trouble. How much time has been squandered on nonsense, on empty and meaningless deeds and words, on useless papers, etc. Only by looking at it from above does one begin to understand the meaning of the words of Chekhov’s character: "Life has passed, and there was no life." But you should not look down for too long because you might get dizzy and fall.

Instead, we should look the other way – where God is walking. Zacchaeus, having climbed the tree, met God face to Face. This is the very encounter we have longed for all our lives. The beauty and depth of God’s grace-filled eyes are such that, having seen them once, we can live nothing else but the desire to drown in them and immerse ourselves in the eternity of God.

As long as our mind wanders among the dead shadows of the world, it finds no peace. Like Cain, who wandered with the mark of a curse on his forehead, it fears one thing and then another, worrying about dozens of matters at once. We seek love but do not find it; we step onto solid ground, only to sink into the swamp. Only upon finding the One who is Uncreated, Eternal, Transcendent, Imperishable, and Unchanging, only by uniting with Him, receiving from Him unity and sonship by grace, we understand: now we are home. We have found what the soul has longed and searched for all its life.

Then, from the abundance of love and mercy, we want to call others to join us, so that they, too, may receive this gift, so that they may also rejoice and be glad with true, unfading joy. The soul longs to share this, to bring along its brothers and sisters, wandering in the graveyard of the earth. But trying to lead people to eternal life, one often receives mockery, ridicule, curses, hatred, or even death in return. So it has always been, and so it will always be.

Yet this sacrifice is not in vain. Other pathfinders will follow the bloodstains leading to the tree of life. They will find this tree, take the same path, and in turn, others will follow in their footsteps.

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