Saturday,
July 5, 2003
|
||||||
 |
|
|
'Zacchaeus of our time'
By JODI H. BEYELER
Goshen College Saturday, July 5, 2003
Irene Mendoza knows what Zacchaeus felt like as an unwanted person sitting up in a tree, trying to stay out of sight. She also knows how he felt when Jesus called him down and invited him to sit at his table. As a 5-year-old child, Mendoza migrated from Mexicali, Mexico, to the United States, which led to many years of feeling different, isolated and unwelcome in Southern California. During Friday night’s youth worship, Mendoza compared her situation, and that of many other undocumented persons who enter the United States, with Zacchaeus’ in Luke 19:1-10. In the passage, Jesus knew Zacchaeus was up the tree and what was in his heart, so he invited himself over for dinner, confirming that Zacchaeus was all right and loved, especially because Jesus was willing to go into Zacchaeus’ comfort zone. “I am a Zacchaeus,” said Mendoza, a pastor and Mennonite Central Committee service worker in Los Angeles County. Like Zacchaeus, Mendoza shared that it was through receiving Jesus’ invitation to the table that she has found the acceptance and love she needs. “There is a place for you at the table,” Mendoza told the youth. “Our role is to respond to Jesus’ invitation to sit down. He is waiting for an RSVP.” The second response though, she said, is to “make Jesus’ invitation available to others.” During her message, Mendoza tried to raise youth consciousness on the issues surrounding the plight of undocumented persons by asking, “Is there room at the table for people who have left their country to make a living here?” She challenged youth to respond to the call to serve and to “learn what mercy means for a broken world, for a healing touch, for the Zacchaeus of our time.”  |
|
|
|
