Gospel in Art: Salvation comes to the house of Zacchaeus

Roundel with Christ and Zacchaeus, North Netherlandish, 1500-1510 © The Cloisters Collection, New York

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 1 July 2023
Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was going through the town when a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance: he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man. He was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.

When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him: 'Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today.' And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully. They all complained when they saw what was happening. 'He has gone to stay at a sinner's house' they said. But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, 'Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.' And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.'

Reflection on the stained glass panel

Today's Gospel reading tells us how Zacchaeus is a man who shows an extraordinary determination to see Jesus. When he couldn't see him up close because of the crowd, he did something that would have been considered very odd for a man of his position as a chief tax collector: he climbed up into a sycamore tree to make sure he had a good view of Jesus. Zaccheus is someone we all like, I think. He is a humble man who didn't want to draw any attention to himself... yet he is not shy.

We read in the New Testament how Jesus says, 'Seek and you will find'. Zacchaeus is a perfect example of this. He was one of those people who kept on seeking the Lord, and, in the end, he did find him. In fact, it may be more correct to say that Jesus found him, because it was Jesus who saw Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree and said to him, 'I must stay at your house today'. Not only was Zacchaeus seeking Jesus but Jesus was seeking Zacchaeus too… because Christ came to seek out and save the lost… all of us.

The stained glass panel is North Netherlandish and dates from around 1500-1510. We see a boyish-looking Zacchaeus sitting in the tree. His youthful looks accentuate the innocent purity of his intentions for climbing up a tree, just as a child would. As you can see, the stained glass panel is not made up of a juxtaposition of coloured sections. The design is achieve by having colourless glass painted with vitreous enamels. This paint consisted of tiny glass particles suspended in a liquid binder (vitreous means "consisting of glass"). The paint was then applied to the glass, which would then be fired. During the firing process, the glass particles in the paint melted and merged with the glass surface to create a range of different colour tonalities.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-19-1-10-2023/