Repent like a little man

True Repentance Starts with Meeting Jesus.

There is no way to get to heaven, there is no way to experience the forgiveness of sins, there is no other way to truly be forgiven of your sins without you meeting Jesus. To become a born again Christian, what do you do? You confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. How do we do that? We pray. Whether you come to an altar or do it while sitting in a chair or laying in your bed, you pray to God. “Lord I am a sinner. I believe that you Jesus are Lord and died for my sins and I am going to follow you because you are now Lord of my life, and not on my own strength but on the power of your grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Lets look at Zacchaeus. Luke 19:1–3 “He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.”

So what does the text tell us about Zacchaeus. He was rich. He had power. He was hated. He was short. He was seeking to see who Jesus was. He wanted to know who Jesus was. I think that is a very important statement in this passage. Zacchaeus was seeking. He wasn’t necessarily seeking to be disciple. He just wanted to see who Jesus was. So was he just curious? I am sure there were many who were curious about who Jesus was because of the commotion sorrounding him. There is something different about Zaccheus. Look at verse 4.

Luke 19:4 “So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.”

In present day Jericho there is a sycamore-fig tree that is claimed to be the tree Zacheus climbed. Is it? Idk. But tests have been done on it to proves its a 2,000 year old tree. In any case, climbing one is not like walking up steps. There is effort involved. Why do I think any of that has importance? Zacchaeus is not curious to meet Jesus. Zacchaeus is desperate to see who Jesus is. He has to go to a crowd of people that hate him. They are not going to help him in any way get to Jesus. So then he has to climb a tree, and he does all this just to see who Jesus is. This is a man who is desperate. Now I am going to suggest something that you may think is a stretch, and thats ok. But the NT authors were very particular in how they arranged their stories. Luke being most chronological because he wanted to make an “orderly account.” But in the story before this in chapter 18 Jesus heals another man who is an outcast, and instead of short is blind. Somebody who the crowd rebuked. Before that is the story of the rich ruler. Another person who is rich and has influence. And before that in chapter 18 there is a parable that Jesus gives of a tax collector and a Pharisee. I am going to read it.

Luke 18:9–14 “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.””