The reading from Revelation contains a message to two churches. The message to the church in Sardis related to their appearance of being alive because of their good works when, in fact, they were dead spiritually. The church in Laodicea was lukewarm spiritually, complacent, and self-satisfied.

Both churches needed to remember the message of faith they had received and repent. God was waiting for an invitation to come in and be with them. God also waits for us to invite Him into our lives.

As a wealthy tax collector, Zacchaeus was very unpopular with the Jewish community; he was regarded as a traitor for collecting taxes for the Roman government. And it was common for tax collectors to take more than the person owed.

Yet Zacchaeus was very interested in what Jesus had to say. His encounter with Jesus illustrates that Zacchaeus' occupation was not a deterrent from entering God's kingdom. Salvation came to Zacchaeus' house that day due to his response to Jesus in vowing to give half of his possessions to the poor and to reimburse four times the amount to anyone he had defrauded. He had a conversion of heart, and his actions illustrated this.