“So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree 

in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.

When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,

‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly,

for today I must stay at your house.’

And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 

When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying,

‘He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.’

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,

‘Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,

and if I have extorted anything from anyone

I shall repay it four times over.’”

At the end of my year long tour in Seoul, Korea, I attended the Global Consultation On World Evangelization (GCOWE ‘95) as one of over 4,400 delegates from 184 countries. I met another delegate who was an American living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and working for Saudi Aramco. About nine months later, I was unexpectedly heading to Saudi Arabia myself for a 90 day temporary duty and I contacted the man I had met in Korea. Although he and his family had moved back to the States, he gave me another contact in Saudi Arabia for a man who worked for Saudi Aramco. During the 90 days (actually, 93, but who was counting), on my one day off each week, he would come to the base, pick me up, and take me to his home where I got to know his wife and children. They were Protestant and he was a deacon in the multi denominational congregation (one of the handful allowed by the Saudi king in the whole country) on the Saudi Armco installation. I experienced sand sledding (being pulled on a 3’x5’ wooden sled over sand dunes behind a Suburban), seeing parts of the city and culture that would have been inaccessible otherwise, had the opportunity to go to the civilian Catholic mass, and shared faith and conversations with the family. We became friends. 

On my last visit with them, after dinner in their home, he said, “We want to show you something.” We walked out to their driveway and got into their minivan, sitting cross legged on the floor in the back with the doors closed. “We bought this used van just over a year ago,” he said, “It was used to smuggle bibles behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.” They proceeded to show me the various compartments used to hide bibles throughout the van. In a hushed tone, he said, “We have been smuggling bibles into Saudi Arabia for the past year.” Originally hoping to bring in 300 bibles, they had actually managed to smuggle in more than 3,000 in that time. Punishable by death, they had taken precautions: organizing a double blind drop, prepurchasing plane tickets to get out of the country fast, and enlisting a friend to get the family to the U. S. Embassy should he be arrested. The threat was real. To buy bibles, they had to go by causeway to Bahrain each week on the day when church services were permitted. To keep their cover, they went for family fun: shopping, sight seeing, and going to the beach. One of the most painful parts of the experience for them was the judgement of the other members of their congregation, their friends, who thought they were growing lax in their faith or backsliding. For safety, they couldn’t tell the truth. If only the others knew the rest of the story! I was honored to have received their trust. 

Like Paul Harvey (for those who are old enough), God is the God of the rest of the story. Patient, slow to judge, seeking the lost, God always allows time for change, for surprise, for transformation. Quick judgement or labeling cuts all of that off, but mercy, grace, and love anticipate the next step. All the others grumbled against Jesus, but Jesus waited patiently. Zacchaeus took the next step. If only “they” had known the rest of the story! May we always be people of mercy, grace, and love. And let us respond to God’s mercy, grace, and love by taking our next best step. It is the rest of the story!