When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, "Zacchaeus,
hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home." Zacchaeus
scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take
Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped,
"What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?" (Luke
19:5-7)
The following is
an excerpt from an actual letter received by the IRS a few years ago: “Enclosed
you will find a check for $150. I cheated on my income tax return last year and
have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping I will
send you the rest.”
Zacchaeus, in the
context of the Luke account, was a high-ranking IRS agent who didn’t cheat on
his taxes, but on everyone else’s. He had figured out a way to squeeze the last
drop from other people’s wallets, and then skim money off the top for his
efforts. In fact, he had become a man of some prominence, albeit for the wrong
reasons. In Hebrew, his name meant “pure” or “righteous.” Talk about an oxymoron.
As a tax collector, he worked for the Roman government and was considered a
traitor by his fellow Jewish citizens. The fact that he worked for Rome’s IRS spoke
volumes about his priorities – he was more interested in money than anything,
or anyone else. But Zack was more than just an IRS agent; he was the “chief”
tax collector. In other words, he was in charge of all the other IRS agents and
took a cut, or “commission,” from every agent who collected taxes under his supervision.
On top of the collection pyramid, Zack would stuff his pockets with money before
he sent the required taxes on to the Roman government.
And Jericho was
a great place to live if you were an IRS agent. There were lots of people
coming in and out of the city on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover. In
fact, Jericho was considered the “tax capital” of Palestine, the center of a
vast trade network that extended from Damascus to Egypt. Even better, Zack was
in charge of one of only three tax offices in the whole country. Not
surprisingly, he was filthy rich. But he was a renegade in the eyes of his own
people, and thought of about as fondly as a drug lord for the Sinaloa drug cartel. In the minds of most,
tax collectors were akin to murderers, adulterers, robbers, or other “sinners.”
There was hardly a life form more offensive than these traitors. But tax
collectors were not new to Jesus. In fact, early on in His ministry, Jesus had
attracted and, worse yet, even eaten with these guys. (Luke 5:30)
But despite
Zack’s wealth and success, something was missing. And if we’re completely honest
with ourselves, we all know that there’s more to life than just trying to make
money so we can buy stuff. And Zack had everything money could buy, but there
was still this void, this emptiness, in his life. And that’s when he thought
about Jesus. Zack had this need to see Jesus. But it wasn’t a need to just see
Jesus; it was a need to see who Jesus was. For whatever reason, Zack wanted to
figure out what it was that made Jesus different from everybody else. Kind of
like a moth to a flame, I suppose, Zack was drawn to this man who had just
given sight to the blind beggar on the outskirts of Jericho. Now, this same healer
was walking through his town. Zack may not have fully understood what was going
on in his heart, but he had a desperate need to get to Jesus.
Zack had a
couple of problems that day, however. The first was his height. Now, there’s nothing
wrong about being short, but with the crowds pressing in there was just no way
for him to get close enough to Jesus. And maybe it was just as well – in a large
crowd like that there could have been a few unhappy taxpayers who may have
wanted to take out their frustrations on Zack. His second problem was spiritual
– his sins were keeping him from Jesus. Isaiah 59:2 says that “… our iniquities
(sin) have separated us from God.” So, not only was Zack vertically challenged,
but he couldn’t measure up to God’s standards either. In other words, he was short
on integrity and tall on sin.
But you’ve got
to hand it to him – the guy was resourceful. He may have been short, but he
wasn’t slow. Figuring he couldn’t see Jesus through the crowd, he’d have to
come up with another idea. And that’s when it hit him. “Hey, if I run ahead of Jesus, and perch
myself in that old sycamore-fig tree, I can have a bird’s eye view of the guy.”
So, that’s exactly what he did. But it must have been hilarious to watch him. First,
it was really undignified for a rich man to run anywhere, even from a burning
house. But a rich guy running so that he could shimmy up a tree? Maybe he even
fell a couple of times, or broke a few branches. I don’t know, but the crowd probably
thought the weasel was out of his mind.
So, just as Zack
had planned it, Jesus comes walking by and sees Zack. We don’t know why. Maybe
Zack was hollering at Jesus, or maybe his feet were dangling down making him
impossible to miss, or maybe Zack was whistling at Jesus. Or, maybe, Jesus was
searching for Zacchaeus, instead. All we know is that Jesus stopped, looked up,
called him by name, and told him that he was coming over for dinner. You see,
Jesus knew right where Zack was because he knew all about Zack – and loved him anyway.
So, he tells Zack, “Get out of the tree, Zack. And I mean right now!” (There’s
always been a sense of urgency about following Jesus.) And can you imagine what
must have been going through the minds of the crowd who were walking with Jesus
that day? “Hey, how does Jesus know that guy’s name?” And, “Doesn’t Jesus know the
guy’s a thief and a crook?” But then, making matters worse, Jesus invites
himself over to the dirt bag’s house for dinner. “Did you hear that, Martha?
Jesus is going to eat with that scum; disgusting!”
Zacchaeus didn’t
waste any time getting out of the tree, either. Jesus said, “Jump,” and Zack
jumped. He came down right away and enthusiastically welcomed Jesus into his
house. And wouldn’t you? Let’s face it, Zack got way more than he asked for: he
just wanted to get a closer look at Jesus, and now Jesus is coming over to his
place for dinner. At this, the crowd starts getting hostile. If they weren’t confused
before, they’re going ballistic now when they hear he’s having dinner at Zack’s
place. And it wasn’t just a few of the folks who were mumbling; it was everyone,
maybe even Jesus’ disciples. It’s kind of interesting that the word used to
describe their grumbling in this case is the same word used to describe the Israelites
in the desert when they were complaining to God – about everything.
Now, at this
point, we might want to criticize the crowd for their response; this is Jesus we’re
talking about. But how many times do we react in a similar way? Let’s face it, we’re
all guilty of measuring people on the “not-so-bad” to the “really bad” scale. So,
we might have been just as upset if Jesus, instead of eating with us (because
we’re in the “not-so-bad” category), were to drop in for dinner with one of the
“really bad” people. It’s so easy for us to think that we’re better than others
– that our sin is somehow not as bad as somebody else’s. But sin is sin, and we’ve
all sinned. (Rom 3:23).
In a word, Jesus
had Zack at “Hello.” Zack was probably converted during his salad. He knew he
was a sinner and that he had come to the Savior for salvation. So, Zack pushes
himself away from the table and says to Jesus, “I’m going to give half my
wealth to the poor, and if I’ve cheated anyone out of anything, I’ll pay it
back times four.” Biblical repentance, depending upon the circumstance, can go hand-in-hand
with restitution because conversion is a radical, life-changing event. And
Zack’s a different person now. The man who’d felt small his whole life, has suddenly
become a “big” man.
And pay
particular attention to Zack’s expression of his changed heart. His responses
stand out in view of cultural and religious expectations of the day. For
instance, it was considered extremely generous to give 20% of your money away –
he gave 50%. And when he made restitution at the rate of 400% of the amount he had
originally stolen, he was following the standard required in the Jewish law
when a sheep had been stolen and a man was convicted of its theft at trial.
(Exodus 22:1) Now if he had “confessed” it himself, without being found out, he
was only required to restore what was stolen, and then add 20%. (Numbers 5:6-7)
But Zack’s repentance was obvious in that he responded as if he had been proven
guilty of the crime. In other words, Zack was sold out and wanted to right his
wrongs.
We sometimes
think we’re generous if we give God 10% of our income. But the mark of Zack’s
transformation was his staggering generosity. His money was everything to him
before he met Jesus. But now, after his conversion, money takes a back seat and
becomes something to be given away. It was Albert Schweitzer who said, “If you
own something that you cannot give away, then you don’t own it – it owns you.” And
there’s this interesting postscript to Zaccheus’ story. According to Clement of
Alexandria (150 A.D. to 215 A.D.), in his book Stromata, Zaccheus was surnamed Matthias by the apostles, and took
the place of Judas Iscariot after Jesus’ ascension. And the later Apostolic Constitutions identify
"Zacchaeus the Publican" as the first elder in the church that met in
Caesarea. If true, then Zack’s conversion was miraculous. But then again,
aren’t they all?
You see, Jesus
is still on a search and rescue mission. He knows everything about us and has
been pursuing a relationship with each one of us for a long time. He knows our
pain, our dreams, and all the details of our life. He knows our failures and
our sins, too. And, he’s been trying to get our attention. Remember, Zack
jumped out of a tree in response to Jesus’ invitation because he was curious,
and his curiosity led him to investigate Jesus’ claims. But Jesus had already
been searching for Zack to save him and, once forgiven, Zack’s life was
radically changed.
Lord Kenneth
Clark, known for his television series Civilization,
admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had an
overwhelming religious experience. But, as he described it, the “gloom of
grace” created a problem for him: if he allowed himself to be influenced by his
spiritual yearnings, he knew he would have to change and his family would think
that he had lost his mind. So he concluded, “I was too deeply embedded in the
world to change course.” Are we too deeply embedded (Read: “in a rut”) to
change course? Zacchaeus was locked into a way of life that was pretty
comfortable, but Jesus changed him, and he can do the same for you, too.
Grace,
Randy
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