Sermon Tone Analysis
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Tone of specific sentences
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Luke 19:1-10
Hearing the Call - ZACCHAEUS
November 13, 2022
Rev’d Chris Johnson
Can you tell me what these people have in common?
[Aust Treasurers]
They are all tax collectors.
They’ve all been Treasurers of Australia.
Politicians are not usually the most popular people in the world and Treasurers in particular are not especially
liked.
They have to keep the budget in balance for the overall good of the economy when there are endless
demands being made up on it, and it is their job to keep saying no.
It's not an easy job.
Not a particularly
popular job.
Zacchaeus was a Tax Collector.
Tax collecting in 1st century Palestine was of course very different to 21st
century Australia, however, nobody likes tax collectors in any society.
In first century Palestine Jewish tax
collectors were especially despised,
for two reasons.
1.
2.
They collected taxes for the Roman occupying power.
So this was the enemy who had invaded their
country and taken over.
Jews who collected tax for them were seen as terrible collaborators.
They were able to set their own fee however they wished, with the backing of the brute force of
Rome.
They tended to be wealthy.
So in other words they were traitors and they were greedy.
There are two other pieces of information in these opening verses which also point to how greedy and
wealthy Zacchaeus must have been.
Zacchaeus is described in Verse 2 as a Chief Tax Collector.
Which probably means he wasn't just sitting at a
tollbooth collecting copper coins from travellers.
He was probably dealing with the top end of town where the
percentages given in tax would have been much more lucrative.
Next we note this incident took place in Jericho.
Jericho was a town near Jerusalem on the trading route to the
east.
It was a very wealthy town.
Being a chief tax collector in a place like Jericho would make any greedy
person's eyes light up.
You could say Zacchaeus had made it.
He had obviously worked his way up the system
and was now very powerful and very wealthy.
So who needs to be popular!
From a rational human point of view the chances of Zacchaeus being converted would seem very remote.
Powerful wealthy people don't easily admit that they need God to save them.
Those early disciples must have
thought the last person who would join them would be Zacchaeus.
It may have been in the same way that we
think of the possibility of Phillip Adams or Richard Dawkins being converted today.
Yet despite his power and wealth Zacchaeus sought after Jesus!
Zacchaeus was inquisitive.
He was open to explore something new, and sometimes that is all it takes.
1
Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree.
What a very undignified thing to do for a chief tax collector!
But he was
short, he couldn't see over the crowd.
You might say, ‘So why doesn’t he just get in the front row?’
People
would have coped with that if they could still see over his head.
But remember the crowd hated him; he was a
traitor and a thief.
He didn’t want to mix with the crowd.
In a tree he was above the crowd.
Zacchaeus was used to people
looking down on him, in the tree he was looking down on them.
And you can hide in a tree.
But Jesus doesn't allow him to hide.
Jesus spots him in the tree, goes over to him and addresses him.
Not only
does Jesus talk to him but he also invites himself around to dinner.
“I must stay at your house today.” he says.
He doesn't say ‘May I stay at your place’ it is “I must stay”; this is in the imperative.
This is Jesus going about
his divine mission as he says in v10, “to seek and to save the lost”.
Jesus has a commanding presence.
His
words are arresting, maybe just a little overwhelming.
Zacchaeus accepts Jesus’ request gladly.
V6 says he hurried down from the tree at once and welcomed him
‘gladly’.
The Greek word here is translated elsewhere as rejoice.
It is with joy that Zacchaeus welcomes Jesus
to his home.
Sadly the crowd don't share Zacchaeus’ joy and enthusiasm.
We're told they grumbled and said, “He has gone
to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”v7
In our language, “Jesus how can you mix with this mongrel.”
These are people who would have been scraping
around to feed their families and put clothes on their back, while Zacchaeus’ clothes were becoming finer and
his food richer.
To boot, he was probably importing lavish decorations for his house from around the Roman
Empire.
Everyone knew it was their money that was funding his extravagance.
No wonder they grumbled.
Unfortunately we don't get any details on what happened inside the house.
Where we do get some detail, is the change in Zacchaeus having met Jesus.
v8
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