There are some people, and the fact that they actually come out to worship, and ever come out to listen to the gospel is almost a miracle. For all your life, the general clutter and bustle of life have kept you away. The television, the media, petty entertainments, little things have all kept you away. But with Zacchaeus, you see, it was different. There was something getting into him, a sense of need, a sense of disgust at himself and his life. He had to see this man. Note really, how easy the obstacles are to overcome. What did he do? Did he have to hire a scaffold? Did he have to get a team of heavy men to clear a way for him? What did he have to do? He probably hadn't done this for years, but it wasn't difficult. All he had to do was sprint along the road a little way, just ahead of the seething mass and climb a tree, and that guaranteed that he saw Christ.
It shows us something about ourselves and our pettiness and our fickleness. It really is the easiest thing in the world to just brush aside the clutter of entertainment and come and seek the Lord. It's the easiest thing in the world. Yes, here is clutter in the way. There are things that prevent us. But if we have any sense of the value on the soul, and if we have any desire to seek God and honour him, and if we have any desire to sort out our lives in the presence of God, it is the easiest thing in the world just to brush the clutter aside. You look back on your past lives, you see how much you have preferred all that clutter of earth to the living God. It is easy to overcome it, and Zacchaeus did. He sprinted on ahead and he climbs this tree. But then things begin to happen.