Hi, there, Zacchaeus, come down!
Who are you, Zacchaeus, you active tree-climber?
As a child you scamper up into the branches.
All eager you rattle the leaves with your grasping.
Will you be the last and the least to see Jesus? Oh, no!
Hi, there, Zacchaeus, come down!
Who are you, Zacchaeus, you chief tax collector?
We see through the leaves your elegant clothing.
The gleam of the gold even now catches sunlight.
What need has a wealthy man of this poor prophet?
Hi, there, Zacchaeus, come down!
Who are you, Zacchaeus, returned to ground panting?
A sinner reformed, or the one we misjudged?
Shall we read your salvation as urgent repentance
or sudden reunion with those who rejected you?
Hi, there, Zacchaeus, come down!
Who are you, Zacchaeus, mystery of ages?
Can I turn your lostness to my restoration?
Can I swing from branches and catch Jesus’ eye?
Will he call to me as to you on a limb?
Hi, there, Zacchaeus, come down!
A poem/prayer based on Luke 19:1-10, the Revised Common Lectionary Second reading for Year C, Proper 26.
The image is Zachée sur le sycomore attendant le passage de Jésus by James Tissot – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008, 00.159.189_PS2.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10904526.
ordainedgeek 
Made me think of Robert Frost and that Zaccheus had been a swinger of birches!
Thank you for that! I hadn’t made that connection – Zacchaeus, swinger of sycamores – but wouldn’t I like to get away from Earth awhile and then come back to it and begin over.