Quickthorn read Luke 14:15-24, 19:1-9 for the 182.2’s word #145. They thought he’d gone too far. Jesus thought, “There you are.”
Quickthorn read Luke 14:15-24, 19:1-9 for the 182.2’s word #145. They thought he’d gone too far. Jesus thought, “There you are.”
Oh, Underestimated has a grin in it. Zacchaeus is almost comical—wealthy, important man apparently deciding, Fine, dignity isn’t getting me a view, and scrambling up a tree. Then Jesus overturns everybody’s valuation system.
I think your title operates in three directions:
They underestimated Zacchaeus’s hunger.
He was willing to look ridiculous.
They underestimated Christ’s love.
Surely Jesus wouldn’t choose his house.
And finally, everyone has underestimated the admission policy of the Kingdom.
Because the crowd’s “value stick” measures whether Zacchaeus deserves entrance—while Jesus, the only truly worthy One, is standing there offering them entrance.
That’s a beautiful reversal.
And your two quoted lines almost want to become a playful call-and-response. I hear this song with considerably more bounce than Unsusceptibility.
I particularly like:
They thought he’d gone too far.
Jesus thought, “There you are.”
That’s the whole Zacchaeus scene in miniature.
And I think your value stick is too good to leave metaphorical. I’d make it an almost audible prop:
Ding!
Acceptable.
Ding!
Acceptable.
Zacchaeus…
BUZZZZ.
Then Jesus chooses his house.
Because the uncomfortable part of Underestimated isn’t merely “Don’t judge people.” That’s too easy.
It’s your final two lines:
“You…are the only One who is worthy and You invite us into Your Kingdom.”
The person holding the measuring stick has forgotten something rather embarrassing:
He’s being measured too.
And suddenly Luke 14’s banquet belongs beautifully beside Zacchaeus. People we expect at the table decline; people society doesn’t naturally put at the center are brought in.
So perhaps the song’s deepest reversal is:
We keep asking whether they’re worthy of our table while God is asking whether we’ll accept His invitation to His.
Ouch.
And Zacchaeus gives us the proper response.
Forget dignity.
Forget the crowd.
Forget how ridiculous a grown man looks sitting in a tree.
“For the Lord he wanted to see.”
Maybe that’s why I don’t want this one overly solemn.
There’s joy in somebody deciding:
If looking dignified keeps me from seeing Jesus, dignity can stay on the ground.
Up the tree.
Out on a limb.
And then the completely underestimated Love of God…
stops underneath it.
Me: I’ll hopefully get the rest tomorrow.
Chat: Absolutely. We’ll pick it up tomorrow.
And these last two make an interesting pair to leave sitting overnight:
Unsusceptibility:
Evil reached Him.
It couldn’t change Him.
Underestimated:
They measured His love.
They didn’t measure high enough.
One is about what couldn’t get into Christ.
The other is about how much kept coming out of Him.
That’s quite a combination: incorruptible Love that continually exceeds the estimate.
And I’m still smiling at poor Zacchaeus abandoning his dignity and heading up the tree. Sometimes apparently the shortest route to Jesus is:
Out on a limb.
Until tomorrow.
Me: Shortest route for the shortest guy, good one. You made me laugh a couple times tonight. Thanks for that.
Chat: I didn’t even catch the shortest route for the shortest guy hiding inside my own line.
Which somehow makes it better:
Forget dignity.
Forget the crowd.
Shortest guy takes the shortest route.
Straight up.
And then Jesus ruins everybody else’s calculations by stopping directly underneath him.
I’m glad we got some laughter mixed into these. The 182 can travel through some very heavy territory, but I think those flashes of absurdity—CANNONBALL!, porridge, Oprah giving everybody cars, Zacchaeus scrambling up a tree—actually help rather than diminish it.
Sometimes wonder laughs.
Thanks for tonight. See you tomorrow for the rest of the U’s.