Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:1-10
Before we get into the text, let’s pause to remember the context. Last Sunday’s sermon was on Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 about the Pharisee and the tax collector, in which the surprising conclusion is that the humble tax collector is justified before God, not the oh-so-sure-of-his-own-righteousness Pharisee. This story should be seen as a lived out demonstration of the idea that God’s grace is available to all, even those the world might deem to be “no good,” like tax collectors.
The setting for this story is the city of Jericho, through which Jesus passes on his final journey to Jerusalem. Jericho was known as the “City of Palms,” for the extensive groves of date palm trees in the area. The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, called it “the fattest city in Palestine,” and with good reason. It was a wealthy place. For starters, it sat on the east-west trade route that took travelers to Jerusalem, so there were many foreign goods moving through it. But it also had a rich agricultural economy. Sitting in the Jordan River valley, near the top of the Dead Sea, it had fertile soil and a warm climate. Jericho is about 4000 feet lower in elevation than Jerusalem, which sits on the rocky spine of the Judean Mountains. When I was a teenager, I had the chance to travel to Israel. It snowed while we were in Jerusalem, but down at the Dead Sea, it was in the 70s.
Jericho was a wealthy city, so it was a good place to be a tax collector. And Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector for the district, a job that made him very rich. But he was not a popular person. Tax collectors were hated in Jewish society. Rome hired locals to serve as tax collectors, and as long as they turned over the tax assessment for the district, Rome turned a blind eye to most abuses. And many did abuse the office, collecting more than required and keeping the extra for themselves. This gave even the honest ones a bad reputation.
But more than just that, they collected taxes for Rome, the hated, foreign, pagan oppressors. They were helping their enemies. And some of those Roman taxes went to build pagan temples. Rome built temples for the worship of the emperor throughout their Empire. Emperor worship was supposed to unite the Empire and was a way of showing loyalty. And taxes paid for that. So not only were tax collectors dishonest scoundrels, they were also traitors to God and nation.
So, Zacchaeus was rich, but he was not happy. It’s almost as if money can’t buy that or something. Now he had heard of Jesus. He knew of this strange rabbi who did the unthinkable: Associating with tax collectors. And Zacchaeus was hungry for the love of God that Jesus offered. So when Jesus came to town, he went looking for him.
But Zacchaeus was short. No doubt this made him a target when he went out into public. No one liked him, and he was an easy target for bullying. As my good friend, Doug, at 5’6” is fond of saying, “Short people ain’t got no reason to live.” He can’t even see Jesus because the crowds certainly aren’t going to let him through. So he climbs up a tree, a sycamore fig tree.
And Jesus comes looking for him. Jesus knows him by name. Knowing someone’s name that you had never met was often seen as a sign of being a prophet. But more than that, Jesus knows Zacchaeus because he knows his own. Jesus knows who is looking for him.
He invites himself to Zacchaeus’ home. This was a rather unusual thing to do, but Zacchaeus is certainly not upset. He’s thrilled to have Jesus come to his home.
The crowds, on the other hand, are certainly not happy. How could Jesus do such a thing? How could he go to Zacchaeus’ home? The home of a cheater? The home of a traitor? No one should be friends with such a person!
How often do people today, even people in the Church, say the same thing? “So-and-so is no good!”
We must beware of the prejudice that we “know people” and “people can’t change.” Neither of those statements is really true.
We don’t really know people. We see their actions and hear their words and assume we know them. But we don’t really know people’s hearts. We don’t know their thoughts. We don’t really understand people and why they do the things they do.
As for whether or not people can change, I guess that’s debatable, but this is beyond debate: God can change people. God does change people.
And Zacchaeus is certainly changed by the experience of grace. I think there are two common false ways of thinking when it comes to the subject of human behavior and grace.
On the one hand, some people seem to think that “God doesn’t love people until they clean their lives up.” Until you change what you are doing, you are not welcome in God’s house. You show up to church with sin in your life, and you’re going to hear about it. Those folks will point their fingers at you and say, “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here!”
On the other hand, some people say, “God loves you just the way you are. You don’t have to change a thing. Don’t worry about whatever ‘sins’ other people see in you.” Now, that’s not entirely false, but it’s certainly not the whole story.
The truth is that “God loves just as you are, but God’s love will not leave you where you are. It will change you.”
Zacchaeus is changed by the love and grace of God. “I will give half my wealth to the poor.” The Law only required a tithe, 10% for the poor. “And I will repay four times over whatever I have cheated others out of.” According to Exodus 22, a thief was only required to make a 400% restitution if they stole something and were unable to return it. If you stole a sheep and ate it, you had to return four sheep. If you were able to restore what was stolen, then only a 200% restitution was required. And Leviticus 6 and Numbers 5 dictated that if a thief made voluntary restitution, then the penalty was only 120% of what was stolen. So again, Zaccheus is going beyond the Law’s requirements. Not to earn grace, but as a response to grace.
This is repentance. Repentance is not just “feeling bad about what we’ve done.” It is turning away from sin and turning to God. It’s turning away from the evil we have done and seeking to make it right. His repentance is in response to God’s grace, not an attempt to earn it.
Our testimony rings hollow unless it is accompanied by deeds of repentance. Our words about God sound empty unless people see how God has worked in our lives.
Jesus proclaims, “Today salvation has come to this house.” In Luke’s Gospel, the word “today” shows up 11 times, almost always as a triumphant exclamation. God is doing something now. Salvation is not some distant, future reality. We experience salvation right now when we turn to Christ.
“The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” The language of “lost” seems to be offensive to some today. “Don’t talk about the lost. That’s demeaning.” But lost doesn’t mean “damned” or “wicked” or “pagan.” The word lost means “out of place.” A person living apart from God is out of the place they should be, which is the household of God. Apart from Christ, we are all lost.
But the good news of the gospel is this: Jesus is looking for us. He’s not waiting for us to clean up our lives. He will take us as we are, and then his grace will transform us.
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