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Might As Well Be Famous For Something


I've said that I'm ok with being unknown, or insignificant, in the eyes of the world around me. The truth is probably closer to me dealing with the fact that I am relatively unknown and then using that reality to spiritualize it. Ah, what a twisted web we weave, rarely comprehending that the one we deceive is ourselves. 

Nevertheless, reading the stories of the Bible and attempting to learn from the mistakes of others is helpful. Recently I was reading from Luke 19. Luke says the people referred to Zack as a notorious sinner.1 Notorious.

Zack wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill sinner. He was famous for sinning. Yeah, you and I might sin, but Zack sinned with flair. It was almost like an anti-spiritual gift, he was so famous for it.

The people grumbled that Jesus would choose to go and dine with Zack. After all, who we choose to spend our time with says something about us, right?

My mom used to tell me that I was most like the people I like the most. I’m not trying to throw my mom under the bus or anything. After all, she was trying to raise me so that I wouldn’t be a notorious sinner. Yeah, she knew I’d sin, but she was also trying to knock that out of me. Just so long as I wasn’t famous for sinning.2

But if my mom’s saying was the rule, I’m not sure Jesus would fare too well.3

It’d be nice if we could give Jesus a pass and say maybe He didn’t know that Zack was so famous for sinning. We could say that He didn’t tap into His God-ness at the moment when He was walking through town, so He wasn’t currently using His super-vision to vet who He would eat dinner with.

But are we comfortable saying that Jesus the man was clueless about what everyone else knew? After all, Zack was notorious for being that kind of guy. And Jesus had hung around enough other sinners that Zack’s name probably came up a time or two at the club meetings.

But all this notorious talk got me wondering. There’s another level of reality that’s happening while we are distracted by the things happening on Earth. And those are the things happening in Heaven. If nothing else, I believe God is watching everything that is going on down here. He sees us. He’s making a list and checking it....nope, wait. Wrong guy.

If you believe God is watching, then the next question you need to ask is, ‘What is God seeing?’

What are my habits? What am I doing consistently that God is seeing become a habit? Am I a notorious sinner? Because if things like fame and identity matter anywhere, they matter in Heaven. So how does God see me?

These might be the parts of the Gospel story we gloss too quickly over, but the Bible is quite clear we are sinners. Understanding our sinfulness is the first step in grasping just how amazing is the grace of Jesus to save us. If the Bible is clear about how we've fallen, it's doubly clear about the spiritual blessings we have in Christ upon accepting His grace. 

If you're going to be notorious, it might as well be for something like knowing who you were and knowing who God made you to be. 



1 Luke 19:7, NLT. In case it's not obvious, Zack is Zacchaeus, the wee little man.
2 I believe she succeeded. After all, I haven't made any headlines.
3 I know my mom would read this and say, "Yes, son, but you're not Jesus!" She's not wrong.
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