Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" (19:39). The crowd wanted Jesus to order his disciples to stop praising God. He answered, "I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out" (19:40). By saying this Jesus meant that the power and love of God is so great that if his disciples were asked to stop praising God, the silent stones would. Look for those things that make you happy. Be grateful and thank God for them everyday.

The crowd grumbled that Jesus would want to go to the home of Zacchaeus who was a rich tax collector. Tax collectors, in those days, were not well liked. Jesus said, "…the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost" (19:10). Jesus reaches out to everyone, regardless of their appearance or what they have done. We are all different; that is a good thing. Differences don’t matter to God.

Zacchaeus hurried down and was very happy to welcome Jesus. No matter what our size, no matter that we are children or adults, we all have an opportunity to welcome Jesus into our lives. We all have the same opportunity to receive God's love and use God's love to accomplish great things that will help others.

Jesus told the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector to teach us about humility, a word that means to be modest and not brag about what we have done. Jesus teaches that the tax collector, who was humble, had chosen the correct place. We need to be modest about our accomplishments and remember that we all make mistakes and we all have faults. Only God is perfect.