Who is that little man?

In the Bible there is a story about a man who had full pockets. He was a man who most people did not like. Why? Because he would cheat them. He would charge them more than what they would have to pay on taxes. Sometimes it feels like that nowadays, doesn't it? Some things just haven't changed over the years.

Off the subject of where I am going with this..... but did you know that the Income Tax was created to pay for the Civil War in 1862? Congress enacted the nation's first income tax law. The Act of 1862 established the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The Commissioner was given the power to assess, levy, and collect taxes, adn the right to enforce the taxs laws through seizure of property and income and through prosecution. Pretty much the way it is still today. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixure in the US tax system. The withholding tax on wages was introduced in 1943 and was instrumental in increasing the number of taxpayers to 60 million and tax collections to $43 billion by 1945. Lots of tax cuts and reforms after this. President Reagan signed into law the Tax Reform Act of 1986, one of the most far-reaching reforms of the United States tax system since the adoption of the income tax. The Revenue Reconcilliation act of 1990 was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993. He also signed another tax act. President George W. Bush signed a series of tax cuts into law. And we don't want to even go where the current president has dared to go. But enough of that - I was just making a point of taxes being collected.

Back to my story - this little man always tried to outdo his neighbor and take more in taxes than he was supposed to. And, unfortunately, he had his ruling government on his side. He was actually friends with the enemy - the people who created the taxes - and that really made him an outcast with his own people. No one wanted to have anything to do with him.

But then, one day, a new man came into town. This little guy wanted to see this man, yet he knew that no one would let him through the crowd to see. So he did the next best thing, as far as he thought. After all, he just wanted a glimpse of the man he had heard so much about.

So the little man climbed a tree. Not just any tree, but a sycamore tree. Sycamore trees are great shade trees and are very sturdy. This little man climbed that sycamore tree cause he wanted to see the man walking towards him. AND, to his amazing surprise, the Man stopped. The Man looked up in the tree, saw the little man, and told him to come down, that the Man was going to go to the little man's house.

What excitement this little man had! The MAN, Jesus, had said He was coming to his - Zacchaeus - house!

Zacchaeus was so excited that Jesus was coming to see him, that he told Jesus that for those he had cheated, he would pay back FOUR times the amount taken. Now, even in Biblical times, just a small percentage could have covered the sin, but Zacchaeus wanted to give back four times.

Could you imagine OUR government giving US back four times the amount they have wrongfully taken from us?

Zacchaeus had full pockets from all the money he had taken from his own people. Some monies had gone to the Roman government to pay the real taxes, but Zacchaeus had kept much for himself, becoming very rich.

But Jesus made the difference. Meeting Jesus caused Zacchaeus to WANT to give away and make right the things he had done in the past. He was willing to empty his pockets to make right what he had done wrong.

When we do something wrong - what do we do about it? Do we apologize? If it has monetary value, do we reimburse? Do we take advantage of people and use them for our own advantage? How do you repay that?

What do you do when companies do not do what they say they are going to do? Read my son's blog this morning and he shared about a bee hive that should have been totally removed and didn't seem to be as bees were still hanging around. After several calls to the company, they still hadn't followed through with coming back to take care of the remaining bees. And now the company will receive a 'bad reputation' because of no follow through. Reported to the BBB will damage their business. Why do people do that? Why not follow up and stick to your word?

Which is a whole nother topic I could write about - but not at this time.....

Let's go back to our little man, Zacchaeus. When he met Jesus, everything changed. What changed when you met Jesus?

Blessings!