Jesus and the Tax Cheat

 

Jesus and the Tax Cheat

Jesus and the Tax Cheat - Audio/Visual @17:42) 

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 grumbled, "What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?" (Luke 19:5-7)

As part of last August’s Inflation Reduction Act, which today seems a bit ironic, the legislation authorized the hiring of an estimated 87,000 additional IRS agents to help collect as much as $1 trillion by forcing rich tax cheats to pay up. It was likely inspired by an actual letter received by the IRS a few years ago which read, “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’ll send you the rest.”

Zacchaeus was a high-ranking IRS agent who didn’t cheat on his taxes, but on everyone else’s. He’d 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. And as a tax collector, he worked for the Roman government and was viewed as a traitor by his fellow Jewish citizens. The fact that he worked for Rome’s IRS spoke volumes about his priorities. But Zacchaeus 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. Perched atop the collection pyramid, then, Zacchaeus would stuff his pockets with money before he sent the required taxes on to the Roman government.

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, especially when they were 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, Zacchaeus 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 as fondly as a drug lord for the Sinaloa drug cartel. In the minds of most, tax collectors were synonymous with murderers, adulterers, robbers and 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)

Despite Zacchaeus’ wealth and success, however, 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 a buck so that we can buy stuff. And Zacchaeus had everything money could buy, but there was still this void, this emptiness in his life. And that’s when he thought about Jesus. Zacchaeus 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, Zacchaeus wanted to figure out what it was that made Jesus different from everyone else. Like a moth to the flame, Zacchaeus was drawn to this man who had just given sight to the blind beggar on the outskirts of town. (Luke 18:42) Now, this same healer was walking through his town. Zacchaeus may not have fully understood what was going on in his heart, but he had a desperate need to get to the healer.

Unfortunately, Zacchaeus had a couple of challenges that day. The first was his height. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being short, but with the crowds pressing in there was just no way for Zacchaeus to get close enough to see Jesus. And maybe it was just as well because in a large crowd like that there may have been a few unhappy taxpayers who would have loved to seize the opportunity to take out their frustrations on the local tax collector. His second problem was spiritual – Zacchaeus’ sins were keeping him from Jesus. Isaiah 59:2 says that “… our iniquities (sin) have separated us from God.” So, not only was Zacchaeus 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’ll have a bird’s eye view of the guy.” So, that’s exactly what he did, much to the crowd’s amusement. 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 for all we know. Regardless, the crowd probably thought the weasel had finally snapped.

So, just as Zacchaeus had planned, Jesus comes walking by and sees him. We don’t know why. Maybe Zacchaeus was hollering at Jesus, or maybe his feet were dangling down making him impossible to miss, or maybe Zacchaeus was whistling at Jesus. Then again, 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. Jesus knew right where Zacchaeus was because he knew all about Zacchaeus – and loved him anyway. So, he tells Zacchaeus, “Get out of the tree, Zack. And I mean right now!” Seems 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 assembled crowd? “Hey, how does Jesus know that guy’s name?” And “Doesn’t Jesus know the guy’s a thief?” 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 scumbag; how disgusting!”

Zacchaeus didn’t waste any time getting out of the tree. Jesus said, “Jump,” and Zacchaeus did, literally, and enthusiastically welcomed Jesus into his house. And wouldn’t you? Let’s face it, Zacchaeus 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 incensed by now when they hear that Jesus is having dinner at Zacchaeus’ place. And it wasn’t just a few loudmouths in the crowd; it was everyone, maybe even Jesus’ disciples. Interestingly, the word used to describe their grumbling, diegogguzon, is the same word used to describe the Israelites in the desert when they were complaining to God – about everything. Must run in the family.

Now, at this point, we might want to criticize the crowd for their response since this is Jesus we’re talking about. But how many times do we react in a similar way? 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 them, i.e., 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 Zacchaeus at “Hello,” and he was probably converted before the appetizer. He knew he was a sinner and that he had come to the Savior for salvation. So, Zacchaeus pushes himself away from the table and says, “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 Zacchaeus is a different person now. The man who’d felt small his whole life, has suddenly become a generous man.

And pay particular attention to Zacchaeus’ expression of his changed heart. His response stands out in view of the cultural and religious expectations of that 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’d 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 Zacchaeus’ repentance was obvious; he responded as if he'd been proven guilty of the crime. Zacchaeus was sold out and wanted to right his wrongs.

We sometimes think we’re being generous if we give God 10% of our income, for instance. But the mark of Zacchaeus’ transformation was his staggering generosity. His money was everything to him before he met Jesus. But now, after his conversion, money took a back seat and became something to be given away. Albert Schweitzer once 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, Zacchaeus was surnamed Matthias. Sound familiar? He 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 Zacchaeus’ conversion was miraculous. But then again, aren’t they all?

Whether or not you’re a tax cheat, Jesus knows everything about you and has been pursuing a relationship with each 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, Zacchaeus jumped out of a tree in response to Jesus’ invitation because he was curious, and his curiosity led him to investigate Jesus’ claims. But the truth is that Jesus had already been searching for Zacchaeus to save him and once forgiven, Zacchaeus’ life was radically changed – from tax cheat to elder/apostle.

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’d 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 – forever. And he can do the same for you, too.

Grace,

Randy