the sycamore tree - 33rd week tuesday 2013

What is the symbolism behind Zacheus climbing a Sycamore tree?  Zacheus could have climbed other trees but why a sycamore?  Or Matthew could have just mentioned Zacheus climbing a tree but why did he have to identify it as a Sycamore?  What is so important about a Sycamore tree that it is mentioned by name?

There is something behind a Sycamore tree which adds meaning and depth to the incident of the gospel.  It is said that a sycamore tree is like the local tree we have called the madre de cacao.  Each time you cut a sycamore tree regardless of how old it is or how low the cut may be, even if the cut is almost touching the ground, the Sycamore will always grow again.  Regardless I say of how old or how short it was cut, it will always grow again.  Matthew by mentioning the tree as sycamore and not just any other tree may have wanted to convey two things in mind. 

First, the sycamore is the symbol of God’s love.  God is persistent lover – his love is incessant.  He will not stop loving us no matter how we try cutting ourselves away from him.  Nothing can smother and nothing can suffocate the love of God, not even sin, for God is a forgiving God.  Cut it down and it will grow again. This was the experience of Zaccheus. Jesus did not just pass by.  As he passed, Jesus deliberately looked up, as if he already had Zaccheus in mind.  It was not just a passing thought, or a passing feeling.  God was intently seeking Zaccheus that very day.  That is how God is to us – the persistence of God.

Second, the sycamore is also the symbol of human persistence or more precisely what human persistence should be – cut it out it will grow again.  Many columnists in newspapers and commentators in television are asking, can the Filipino rise up again after Yolanda?  Remember when Frank hit us five years ago.  We thought we can never rise again.  We were overwhelmed by mud, destruction and the enormity of our work in order to rebuild our lives.  But we did manage, one pala at a time, one baldi at a time, one pillar, one wall, one roof at a time.  We believe in the certainty of grace and the indomitability of the human spirit, that life will always find a way?

In the end there is a reason why Zaccheus climbed not just any tree but a sycamore tree.  We believe in the incessant love of God that pursues us like a love struck lover, and we believe in the persistence of the human spirit when somebody posted this in facebook, Yolanda, bagyo ka lang, pinoy kami.