Luke 19:1-10--Jesus and Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10
English Standard Version

Jesus and Zacchaeus
19 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 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.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 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.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

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Some of us probably know the song about Zacchaeus being a "wee little man" that needed to climb up in the sycamore tree to be able to see Jesus, but if all we focus on in this story was that Zacchaeus might have been short in stature, we miss what is actually important here, because we're back to the same thing that has been irritating the Pharisees.  Jesus is once again going to associate with a tax collector, whom the Pharisees thought were the worst of sinners.

Remember that healing of the blind beggar happened as Jesus was entering Jericho, and the large crowd that had already formed around Jesus began to grow as this blind man loudly proclaimed what God had done for Him.  Zacchaeus wants to see what's going on--maybe he was short, maybe he wasn't--so he climbs up in the tree to get a better look as Jesus passed by (don't miss that Zacchaeus expects Jesus to pass him by because he's a sinner, and worse, a tax collector).  In fact, this might even be part of the reason he was up in the tree, because he probably didn't want people to see him.  Well, Jesus fixed that by stopping and looking directly at Zacchaeus who was up in the tree and told him to come down because they were going to Zacchaeus's house today.

That's pretty bold of Jesus to invite Himself (and probably everyone that was following Him, but at least His disciples) over to someone else's house for dinner with no advanced notice.  However, it shows us that Jesus wasn't just willing to pass anyone by and He stopped to make sure that Zacchaeus knew that he had been seen and he was invited to fellowship with Jesus.

We see evidence of Zacchaeus's repentance here as he joyfully receives Jesus, falls on his knees to plead for forgiveness and unlike the rich, young ruler who was unable to part with his money, Zacchaeus willfully parts with half of all he owns to give it to the poor and then promises to pay back the amount required by the Law for intentional theft if he had even accidently overcharged someone in their taxes.  The tax collector had no obligation to refund this money that may have been collected in error--that would be the job of the government to issue a tax refund (we're all familiar with that), but the perception of tax collectors is that they were out to steal from the people and make themselves rich by doing so.  Zacchaeus wanted to put this perception to rest as far as it had to go with him and wanted everyone to know that he was honest in his business dealings, even if he was a tax collector, and that he would personally make things right, though not his responsibility to do so, if anyone could lodge a claim with evidence that he had defrauded them.

​That should have shut the Pharisees up, but it didn't.  They are upset once again that Jesus saying, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”  Jesus spells it out clearly for them that, “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.”  Even after all the parables about the lost things and lost people being found the last time we had this conversation about Jesus hanging out with "sinners," and Jesus saying that His purpose was to seek and to save the lost and that it was not those who were healthy who needed a doctor, but those who were sick, the Pharisees still don't get it.  They also never imagine themselves as being the ones in need of repentance or that they might miss out on the kingdom of God completely because they will not come to Jesus in faith--that is what made this tax collector a "son of Abraham."  It was not that he was a physical descendent of Abraham, but Abraham was his "father" because he modeled the kind of faith that Abraham had when, "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness."  We too can be children of Abraham for this very same reason, and we too can have salvation declared by Jesus over us because we have believed in Him by faith.