He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:1-10).
The account of Christ’s encounter with Zacchaeus, though brief, is one that speaks to us on a variety of levels. Here we see a man who has willfully sinned against his people and his God. We see a man who has profited off the struggles of his own countrymen, who has served the enemies of his people in order to serve himself. When we read the account of this man, we may feel bad for him because of the disadvantage of his stature—but this man was not pitied by those who knew him. Nor did he deserve their pity.
Zacchaeus’ story may serve for us as an example of “natural consequences.” For what drove Jewish men to take a job that collected wealth from their fellow countrymen and give it to their enemies, the Romans? Surely Zacchaeus desired wealth for himself. He must have desired position and power, for he was “a chief tax collector.” Lack of ambition was certainly not the sin of Zacchaeus. The old adage “if you aim at nothing you will hit nothing” does not describe Zacchaeus. His ambition seems to have gained for him what he desired but as with so many of our worldly ambitions, achieving what we hoped for came with a price. Prior to his encounter with Christ, what we briefly see of Zacchaeus is that he is a man alone. He has achieved wealth and position and has lost his community.
Amidst all his gain, Zacchaeus is unsatisfied. We see his dissatisfaction as he runs ahead of the crowd he feels apart from. We see his dissatisfaction in his realization that, if he is to see Jesus, he must set aside pride and climb a tree, for surely no one will take notice of his need, no one will offer him any aid. No one, that is, except one.
The very one Zacchaeus has climbed the tree to see calls him by name. No one else wants anything to do with Zacchaeus. No one wants to be seen associating with him. And yet this man, the Son of Man, announced before all unashamedly that He will enter into Zacchaeus’s home and eat with him! Christ’s notice of him sets Zacchaeus free. In an instant those things that had held the tax collector captive were recognized for what they were. Jesus, in going to his house, had received the despised man publicly. The unashamed reception of Zacchaeus by Christ transformed Zacchaeus. Publicly he was received and publicly Zacchaeus, in his joy, pronounced his faith.
Such is the joy of all those who, realizing the depth of their need, come to Christ. For we all are as Zacchaeus was. We are certainly not all wealthy like Zacchaeus, but the majority of us are rich in self. We have been taught from childhood to pursue the goals of self, to follow our desires, to build ever bigger storehouses of popularity, position and power. But, when we hear the Master call our name, suddenly the words of the Apostle Paul come home to us as real: “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” (Phil 3:7-8 NLT). Surely Zacchaeus did not see his wealth as literal garbage, for he knew it could be a blessing to those in need. Rather, what Paul is saying, and what Zacchaeus experienced in the reception of Jesus, was simply that nothing can compare to HIM.
Beloved, may we know the joy of Zacchaeus today. May we live abandoned to His glory, joyfully giving to His use all that we are and all that we have, mourning not the loss of social and material wealth that will turn to dust but rejoicing rather in that which is eternal—rejoicing in the true wealth, true power and true position that we have found in Christ Jesus.
Pastor Brian