He Went First
"Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly."
— Luke 19:1-6
Jericho sat on a busy trade road, and Rome auctioned off its customs post to private contractors. A chief collector ran a whole district and took a cut from every agent under him. To his neighbors that made him a traitor who got rich off his own people. His name meant clean or innocent, which in that town sounded like a joke. A wealthy man in long robes did not run down a public street. The sycamore-fig grew by the road, with low branches and cheap fruit for the poorest. He threw away his dignity for a glimpse of a traveler who was not even stopping. Eating in a man's home was a public verdict that he was decent company. The crowd complained out loud that He had gone in as the guest of a sinner. Before the evening ended he gave half his property away and repaid four times what he had taken. God goes first to the people everyone else has already crossed off.