Need
When Jesus met Zacchaeus, he told him forcefully: today I must stay at your house, or literally: it is strictly necessary that I dwell in your house. These words betray an absolute, mandatory obligation. What obligation does Jesus have towards Zacchaeus? What powerful, indisputable obligation does God have towards mankind?
Zacchaeus was a rich businessman, a customs officer, a tax collector who stole from the poor, but he wanted to see Jesus. He was of small stature so he climbed a sycamore tree right where he thought Jesus was going to pass. But what did Zacchaeus do to make Jesus feel obligated towards him? Zacchaeus did the most powerful thing that a man can do: he put himself in the mental and spiritual state which alone can make the universes bend, the angels rejoice and sing for thousands of years, and which obliges God - so to speak - to dwell in us.
Jesus does not mince words, I must stay at your house. What obliges Jesus? His mandate to save all men? The Father's will that none of his children be lost? God's love and mercy? Yes, of course all these tenderly obliges Jesus to help us and save us, but there is something more, something new, something even more powerful and wonderful in the face of which the Lord is literally forced to go to Zacchaeus and to dwell with him.
What powerful action did Zacchaeus do leaving no other alternatives even to God? Zacchaeus was inspired by a desire, a desire which is the most powerful of all, and which completes and harmonizes all other desires. Zacchaeus wanted for the first time and with all his heart, in the name of Jesus, to improve.
That is what compels Jesus to enter that house: Zacchaeus' desire to improve. In a few moments the desire to improve puts an end to competition, feelings of guilt, fear, doubts. The desire to improve puts an end to unequal wealth and opens the door to true wealth, sharing, truth, peace, salvation. Nobody can save a person who does not want to improve. When a man wants to finally change and become better, the angels in heaven compose new songs, the demons return mute to their homes and the Blessed Trinity is divinely forced, compelled to go to dwell with that person. One may want to change out of moral necessity, fear, the pressure and expectations of others, blackmail, ethical conviction, but it is not the same thing as when a person wants to change and improve because that is how he/she feels, because he/she likes the idea, because it makes him/her happy.
When a man/woman really want to improve, the past disappears, the future fades and the present is illumined. A whole new present, where old things are abolished or are no longer so important, and new things become important, more beautiful, greater, leading to happiness. A new present begins in which we finally want to be happy, but really happy, and this is the present where God really and necessarily wants to live. A heart that wants to improve because that is how it feels and the right time has come and is a heart that becomes necessarily and immediately the home of the Spirit.
This is what Jesus did while he was going to Jericho, he inspired Zacchaeus to take a chance to be better, different, richer, happier, in peace.
This is the great task of evangelization and of the church, to help people to get to know Jesus, the true Jesus, because Jesus and His Word can really inspire men of all time, inspire the desire to become better, happier, true men. The law is a help, morality too, but they are useless if man is not inspired from within to become better.
Can a moral obligation inspire a person to be better? Can punishment? Can screaming, blackmail, fear inspire the desire to improve? Can the idea of hell or the possibility of being happy and full of divine gifts inspire a man to improve?
Can the fear of God or His tenderness inspire humanity to endlessly desire change, to evolve, to improve?
Zacchaeus, do you want to improve? Come down from that tree because from this moment on the Lord will dwell in your home and in your heart.