Despised but Loved

Introduction

I was reminded of a show titled “Dirty Jobs”. In this show, Mike Rowe the host would investigate all these dirty and gross jobs that people had to do but no one wants to do them.

animal and reptile handler

man hole and sewage line cleaner

bridge and billboard cleaner

Not that these people are looked down upon, these people just have terrible difficult and dirty jobs that no one wants to do.

Zacchaeus, on the other hand was a person, because of his choice of work, was despised by the community.

There are some modern jobs that can connect with Zacchaeus, but very few.

WHY?

Text

English Standard Version Chapter 19

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.”

The First Story

Here we call this as context and content of the Scriptures.

What specific words should we look at?

What was the first story here? what was going on back then?

Despised

Zacc was despised by his whole community. why?

“Jesus is traveling through Jericho on the way to Jerusalem and has a divine encounter with Zacchaeus, a head tax collector, likely one the Romans had assigned to be a tax farmer, collecting fees from others. “The Romans auctioned off the collection of individual taxes (tolls, tariffs, and customs) to the highest bidders.” Zacchaeus is “either the head of a group of partners who joined together to obtain the contract, the sole owner of the contract, or someone hired by the partners to supervise the operation.” He would be hated because of his collaboration with the Romans. It is not surprising that he has become wealthy, as it is well known that tax collectors skimmed money off the top to their own advantage.”

Schreiner, T. R. (2021). Luke. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Matthew–Luke: Vol. VIII (p. 1012). Crossway.

Zacc chose this job. It wasn’t forced unto him by the Romans.

The community he was charged by Rome to seek and obtain taxes hated him as he was one of their own and it so rude and gross for this Jew to be taking money from his own people.

To deal with the peoples hatred, he would have taken money from the taxes and also been paid by the Roman government for his services. Money made him rich but only for a short while.

Need some Lovin’

Zacc was “rich” but he was desperate for love and community!

Zacc was despised and everyone wanted nothing to do with him.

We are all like Zacc is some ways where we can have all the money, toys, devices and still not included or liked.

We ask ourselves: “what did I do wrong?”

Or maybe we are the ones that despise others… maybe because they are different?

that girl has red hair

that guy wears glasses

that girl speaks with a different accent

that boy doesn't play rugby

My Son Cypress was not liked or talked to when he first arrived to Hillview because he was from Canada and spoke “weird” People didn't take the time to get to know him so they avoided him at school.

Granted Zacc was choosing something that wasn't like by the people, but he was doing a job that had to be done and what if he didn't? would it have been better to have Roman guards with swords collecting taxes? No one thought that thru, they just shunned Zacc!

Jesus does

Everything changes with Jesus!

Jesus sees Zacc in the tree and says to everyone that salvation comes to his house!

Jesus doesn't judge him, Jesus loves him. Jesus doesn’t condemn him but comes into his house. He eats his food and sits in a place of honour at his place.

Zacc responds to love by giving all the money away as he realises that its not about the money, its about the richness of relationship and community that is more important!

Challenge

If we are a Zacc, we need to climb our tree and seek out relationship with Jesus. He is with you. He loves you.

If we are like the crowd and have made others feel alone and sad, we need to ask God for forgiveness and seek out those that need to feel connected again.

Encounters with Jesus leave no one “untouchable” We need God’s strength and wisdom to love and be at peace with those that are difficult to love. If you have a person in your life or family and they have done things to hurt others or themselves, ask your family and pastor on how to love them like Jesus loved Zacc.