At Home with Zaccheus
Growing in Friendship and Hospitality • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Isn’t interesting that once again Jesus is having a meal with someone who is wealthy and prominent. Last week it was a “prominent Pharisee”, I called him a kind of C-suite Pharisee.... now it’s the chief tax collector who Luke adds is wealthy. He too has prominence… likely he had a whole group of underling tax collectors who worked for themselves and for him, keeping some of their collections for themselves, some went up the chain to Zacchaeus, and the rest of it went to the Romans.
And of course this is why generally speaking, tax collectors were despised by their fellow Jews. Many of them were Jews themselves. Zacchaeus’ name gives away that he is a Jew, but it’s a name that most of his countrymen would say he certainly didn’t live up to. Zacchaeus, comes from the Hebrew word zakkay, which means “pure” or “innocent”. None of Zacchaeus’ fellow Jews would have thought of him as pure or innocent. In fact they would have perceived him as impure, and treasonous. A traitor in fact! Doing the Romans bidding. Taking money from your own, more than is required, and putting it in the coffers of the Romans.
And besides being a tax collector, he is also wealthy. And many of us are probably aware that Luke often shines an uncomfortable spotlight on those who are wealthy. Listen to a few of those verses:
53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
And remember the story of the rich young ruler…all the commandments he had kept and Jesus asked him to do one more thing, sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. Then we read:
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
Many of us are aware that Luke often shines an uncomfortable spotlight on the wealthy. Even his own disciples are troubled by what Jesus just said. Look how they respond—after Jesus says how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God they reply:
26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
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I feel like in the verses that follow Luke is intending to show us that it is precisely Jesus himself who is God.... not just a miracle working God, but the One who will fulfilled everything that was written about him in the whole OT prophetic tradition....
[Luke 18:31-34
31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” 34 The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
Then, as if to underscore or at the very least demonstrate that Jesus truly is God....he does what? He heals a blind man.
If there is one miracle…sign....of something that only the LORD can do it is healing blindness. The Day of the Lord…the day of the Lord’s coming....
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
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As we come to this story of salvation in the life of Zacchaeus there is a strong sense in Luke that receiving the salvation and the new life that only Jesus can bring is like being cured of a spiritual blindness.... only God can cure blindness, only God can work salvation into a person’s life.
So there seems to be this build up to our story for this morning where Luke wants us to be sure of how significant it is when this man sees Zacchaeus and says, “Zacchaeus, I must stay at your house today!”
I see you. I know you. I love you. I want to share my life with you.
GOD HIMSELF WANTS TO HAVE A MEAL WITH ZACCHAEUS!
Unbelievable right? Zacchaeus? Him? Luke has already established that he doesn’t deserve salvation. And that’s precisely the point....none of us do....but here we have Jesus saying....”I want to stay at your house.”
Think about those we know, who are distant from God, don’t know his new life....perhaps someone close to you..... and maybe when you think of them you hear people saying, “oh they’ll never become a Christian.”......
Or maybe you’re here this morning, or your watching this livestream and you’re the skeptic....”I don’t know if I can believe.”..... or you’re saying if Jesus actually showed up at my house that would be different!”.
Well let me invite you to imagine that as you are listening now in this moment, what if right now Jesus is actually saying to you “I must stay at your house!” What if right now, in this moment, Jesus is calling you and saying.... “Here I stand at the door and knock....will you let me come in and dine with you?”
I really think Luke is wanting us to notice the activity of God in this story.....
In our Reformed tradition we pay attention to this important activity of God choosing us.... electing us.... could have a whole sermon about that....
Also, need to look at Zacchaeus. It’s not as if he had no part in this story of salvation....
Climbing the tree
Tim Keller shared in one of his sermons on this story, that : The first and biggest barrier between our hearts and receiving and experiencing Christ’s salvation is our pride and our dignity. When Zacchaeus got up in a tree, he left his dignity behind.
need to humble ourselves
picture of Zacchaeus in the tree (notice robes and well trimmed beard)
what might climbing the tree look like in our own life, or in the lives of those we know....
our hard-hearts can be obstacles for God
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Crowd
Zacchaeus had to contend with the crowd.....
think of our doubts as voices from the crowd
crowd can accuse us
crowd can discredit Jesus
Zacchaeus as it were had to move beyond the voices of the crowd and listen to the voice of Jesus
And it’s in Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus that his life takes a dramatic turn. His testimony gives evidence that he has repented of any ways that he has cheated on manipulated others. He demonstrates a heart of compassion and generosity.
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Let me say boldly that it is not the difficulty of discovering truth, but the unwillingness to obey it, that makes it so rare among men.
Our Lord said, “I am the Truth.” And again He said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Truth, therefore, is not hard to find for the very reason that it is seeking us!
A. W. Tozer and Gerald B. Smith, Renewed Day by Day : A Daily Devotional (Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread, 1991).
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Mary, was a local drama student at a large university. The professor of her introductory acting class had asked all the students to present “something extreme” to the class. Mary decided that, as a Christian, she would write a hymn of love to Jesus and sing it.
Alice was the student presenting before her. Alice took a Bible, led the class out by a trash can on campus, and proceeded to slowly read portions of the Old Testament about commands to make war, God punishing the nations, and sending Israel into exile. She read imprecatory psalms. With each violent passage, Alice would say something like, “Who would ever believe in a God like that?” Then she would tear out the page from the Bible, burn it, and drop the page in the trashcan. It was extreme drama.
This was the warm-up for Mary. She pulled out her guitar, said a brief prayer under her breath, and sang a love song to Jesus. The class was silent and then went home. All, that is, except for Alice, who came forward with tears in her eyes. “That was beautiful. That is the God I want to know. Can you help me get to know Jesus?” And so, after a few days of Bible study and prayer, Alice gave her life to Christ.
Source: Scott Sunquist, “Why Church? A Basic Introduction,” (IVP, 2019), p. 69-70
Today Holy Week begins..... next Sunday on Easter we look forward to celebrating a number of baptisms.... 3 adults who have come to faith in Jesus will be baptized along with 5 children..... Each life is a testimony to what Jesus says in our story.... “the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.”
As we journey towards Easter this coming week we are encountered with the full extent of God’s love for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us..... He entered into the brokeness of our world, he came into homes like yours and mine, to have a meal with us.
....let’s think about people we know and pray that they will hear the voice of Jesus saying to them. Today salvation has come to this house!
Our Lord said, “I am the Truth.” And again He said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Truth, therefore, is not hard to find for the very reason that it is seeking us!
Jesus’ meeting with Zacchaeus artfully picks up threads of the narrative in the previous chapter. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (18:9–14) turns on the question of righteousness. Jesus declared that “all who humble themselves will be exalted” (18:14), and Zacchaeus cast aside all regard for his own dignity by climbing a tree in order to see Jesus. Jesus challenged the rich ruler to sell all he had and give it to the poor (18:22), but he went away sad. Joyfully, Zacchaeus responds to Jesus’ declaration that he would stay at Zacchaeus’s house by promising to sell half of his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. The difference between half and all is not the issue. Rather, it is Zacchaeus’s eagerness to do what is right for the poor. Thus the salvation of Zacchaeus is told in the form of a miracle story. Jesus demonstrated the power of God at work in the announcement of the kingdom: “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (18:24). Finally, the story of Zacchaeus is coupled with the healing of the blind beggar—both occur as Jesus is passing through Jericho; the blind man wanted to see, and Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus; in both stories the crowd serves as an impediment to the one who desires to see; in both the verb for “stood” (ἴστημι istēmi) marks a dramatic turn in the story (18:40; 19:8); joy or the praise of God accompanies the “healing” (18:43; 19:6); and in both the effect is immediate (“immediately,” 18:43; “today,” 19:9). In the first story, Jesus is called “Son of David” (18:39); in the latter he refers to himself as “the Son of Man” (19:10).