I want to See Jesus

Intro

At the beginning of this year, Bryant started a preaching series, and in our morning classes we’ve been following a series that we called “Fix your eyes on Jesus”. The idea was that we spend this year looking at the overall story of Jesus’ life through the four Gospels.

We did this because when Paul discussed his ministry in Corinth he said in 1 Corinthians 2 that he did not come with “lofty speech or wisdom”, he did not come to establish the church in Corinth with complex philosophy to rival Aristotle or Plato, though he certainly was capable of engaging their works when necessary.

Paul did not establish the church in Corinth with Jewish rabbinical reasoning, though he was certainly capable of debating with the best of the teachers as a “Pharisee of Pharisees”.

Instead, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that he “decided to know nothing about you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”, that knowledge of Jesus was enough to build the church.

Likewise, as the writer of Hebrews closes out their teaching, which explores the intricate and beautiful ways that Jesus is the greater fulfillment of all that Judaism has to offer, with the simple instruction to “lay aside every weight, and sin… and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

We decided to spend 2022 fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ, because Scripture tells us that to see Him, is to see God. To know Him, is to know God. To follow Him, is to follow God.

So what have we seen of Christ, so far this year?

We saw a a baby born to a virgin in the humblest of circumstances, in a manger with the animals, but proclaimed in the heavens by the angels who sang “Glory to God in the highest! and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

We saw a young man come to the wilderness to take part in a baptism of repentance not because He had any sins to confess but because He had come to identify fully with our sin because His ultimate purpose was to bear it.

We saw people healed, we saw the blind see, the leper cleansed, the lame walk, the dead rise, we saw mourning cease, we saw sorrow turned to joy, we saw the last become first.

We saw Him teach of a kingdom that was unlike any other, a kingdom that offered joy beyond measure, that was unfathomably valuable, but did not come to conquer or to rule but simply to liberate from sin.

We saw Him meet a woman at a well, an outcast from the outcasts and proclaim to her that the Messiah had at last come, and her days without a home, without hope were at an end.

We saw Him meet a woman caught in adultery, who was at the mercy of a murderous mob, and saw her leave unharmed, forgiven by the Messiah.

We saw Him challenge every unmerciful religious authority and every self-righteous teacher who came across His path, we saw Him declare the mercy of God superior to the traditions of men.

We saw Him set His face towards Jerusalem, and begin his final journey there knowing full well what fate awaited Him once He was once again within range of the Pharisees and Priests and Herodians.

Today, we see the very last part of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the last stop on the journey to certain death, in Jericho.

If you haven’t seen Jesus in our series yet, you’re in good company. Our reading today is in Luke 19:1-10, where we hear the story of a man named Zacchaeus, who had heard of Jesus, but hadn’t seen Him yet.

Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1–10 ESV

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 he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 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.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 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.” And Jesus said to him, “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.”

I must stay at your house today.

This is the last recorded stop of Jesus before He reaches Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and He chooses to spend it with Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus is the only person referred to in all of Scripture as a “chief tax collector”. We think of Matthew, the apostle and tax collector, as quite wealthy, and certainly he was. He was a tax collector in Capernaum, a moderate fishing town in Galilee.

Then, there’s Zacchaeus, and he is on another level. He is the CHIEF tax collector in JERICHO, which was one of the wealthiest cities in all of ancient Palestine. It boasted a customs station, a Herodian palace, and a very large population of priests.

But this wealthy and powerful man had apparently heard something about Jesus or at the very least noticed a huge crowd gathering to see Him pass through town and so he was seeking to see who Jesus was.

But, as the VBS song goes, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He knew he wouldn’t be able to see Jesus as He passed by over the crowd, so Zacchaeus makes a decision. He climbs a sycamore fig tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus as He walks by.

However, as we saw in our reading, “the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost”. So when Jesus walks down this Jericho street lined with curious Jews, priests, merchants, Herodians, He sees Zacchaeus who is high in office but short of stature has climbed a tree so that He might see the Lord as He passes by and Jesus calls out to him by name “Zacchaeus! Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

Antitheses

Isn’t that a strange thing for the Son of God to say to a chief tax collector, serving the Roman emperor in a town full of Herodians, all of whom wanted Jesus dead?

First of all, to stop in this town was dangerous enough for Jesus, but to do it to visit with a man like Zacchaeus?

But we saw in our reading that Zacchaeus hurried down out of the tree and recieved Jesus joyfully, and of course the crowd does their usual grumble grumble about Jesus being the guest of a sinner, which, of course, Zacchaeus had been.

However, something happens to that wealthy tax collector when he meets Jesus, when he not only sees Jesus but has Him over for lunch and reclines at the table with Him. Unfortunately we don’t have recorded really any of their conversation at Zacchaeus’ house but apparently it made quite an impact on the rich little chief tax man because at some point in the Lord’s visit Zacchaeus stands up as one does to make important pronouncements and he says to the Lord “I’m taking half of what I have right now, and giving it to the poor, and for everyone I have defrauded I will repay four times as much as I took!”

This repayment is especially generous, because restitution for theft was usually only 1.5 times what was taken. 4 times restitution was only for situations like killing an animal, where direct restitution was impossible.

With this proclamation from Zacchaeus, Jesus makes one of His own, His mission for staying with Zacchaeus that day complete, Jesus says “salvation has come to this house,” to Zacchaeus and those present who also saw Jesus, and He goes on to say “for he also is a son of Abraham” which is a fact that the residents of Jericho seemed to forget when they grumbled about Jesus spending the day with Zacchaeus the sinner and tax collector.

Why, though, did Jesus have to stay with Zacchaeus that day?

Well, part of it was clearly that salvation may come to Zacchaeus and his household, that was certainly no small part of Jesus’ motivation, but I think there’s a reason for us as students of the Gospel as well, that Jesus had to spend time with Zacchaeus.

Last week, Bryant taught about a rich young ruler. In fact, that story nearly directly precedes this one in Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.

From the rich young ruler, we learned to beware of the thing, be cognizant and be wary of whatever one condition you hold in your heart of hearts for following Jesus, because that is the thing He will challenge you on. For the young man in last week’s reading it was his wealth, for me its any number of things from day to day as I struggle to put Jesus first.

The young man in last week’s reading proudly told Jesus that he had kept every precept of the law from his birth. Probably expecting congratulations and a welcome into Jesus’ inner circle. Instead, Jesus challenged him to sell it all, give the money to the poor, then follow him, and the young man left heartbroken.

Let’s contrast that with Zacchaeus, a chief extortionist who likely couldn’t claim to have fully kept a single one of the laws, yet when he climbed the sycamore fig tree to see Jesus for himself, Jesus called him down by name, and said "I need to spend today with you, Zacchaeus”.

How is that fair? How does that make sense? Because when Zacchaeus met Jesus and heard what He taught Zacchaeus said “half my wealth is going to the poor, the rest is going to pay back everyone I’ve ripped off”. Because if you think about it, how do tax collectors make money? They charge extra on top of the taxes demanded by Rome and kept that for themselves, literally every cent Zacchaeus earned was taken from a Jew on top of the taxes required, so if he’s already given half his money to the poor, and promised to pay back FOUR TIMES whatever he had taken, I think it’s very unlikely that Zacchaeus would have more than a denarius to his name by the time this was finished.

Fixed His Eyes on Jesus

The rich young ruler came to Jesus and saw a source of eternal life, but perhaps one who owed it to him, for he had kept to the law as best he could. So even though he believed Jesus was who He said He was, the young man could not give up everything to follow Him.

Zacchaeus, however, when he saw Jesus he saw a Savior who would provide Zacchaeus with what he couldn’t provide himself. Zacchaeus saw Jesus with no misestimation of his own righteousness but instead welcomed Jesus in with joy and counted everything that he owned as nothing compared to what Jesus could provide.

This is what is possible, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, when we see who He is and what He has to offer.

This is what is possible, when we don’t hold back our possessions, our finances, our health, our relationship, our sense of control, our pride from Jesus and instead follow Him.

This is why we are spending this year teaching through the Gospels, and nothing else.

Because a man was born in Galilee who is God with Us, He set His face toward Jerusalem and saw His mission through to completion and suddenly it doesn’t matter anymore if you can pay the sin debt that you owe because He paid it for you.

Suddenly it doesn’t matter if you fit the mold or you break every corner of the mold because He invites you in.

So I encourage you, church, seek to see Jesus.

Seek Him in Scripture, build a habit of reading God’s word, but don’t feel like you have to do it alone without any help. There are 66 books in the Bible and they are each different and they all work together to tell a single story about God’s work of redemption through Jesus, you don’t have to be able to understand that on your own. There’s nothing at all wrong with using a reading plan, an audio Bible, a podcast, a friend, to work your way through Scripture it doesn’t hinder your view of Jesus.

After all, when Zacchaeus couldn’t see Jesus over the crowd, he climbed the sycamore tree! He didn’t muscle his way through the crowd or just try to focus harder because if he was really trying he’d see Jesus through the crowd.

I’m preaching to me, myself, and I at this moment because I feel this way all the time, I’m reading Scripture and it just seems hard and I think to myself “yes the answer is just stare at it harder, seek no assistance, don’t discuss this passage with anyone, engage no other resources, and of course that means that you will understand it” and that doesn’t make any sense.

One of the things we got the opportunity to do at camp this year was we took a couple of afternoons and tried out different ways to read Scripture devotionally.

We had a guided reading worksheet with questions, we tried listening to worship music to get our minds focused on Christ before reading, we spent time memorizing a verse, coloring a page with a verse, listening to Scripture read aloud. We tried all of these different options because people are all different, and we all have different trees we have to climb in order to see Jesus.

If you’re a person who might benefit from guided reading worksheets with reflection questions, well, I did not ask before mentioning this so she has no idea it’s coming up today but Rhonda very recently published a 52 week online Bible study outline that I know Emily has found personally extremely helpful, and that received excellent reviews when we used it at camp.

Whatever tree you need to climb to see Jesus in your day to day I pray that you’ll do so, because it’s when we see Jesus that we can truly follow Him holding nothing back.

Call

If you have seen Jesus, but haven’t yet decided to follow Him, we have an opportunity for you to do that this morning.

If you have heard all about this Jesus, and haven’t yet made a decision to put Him first, to come when He calls and joyfully receive Him, we offer every week the opportunity to be baptized in response to that call. We believe that the Christian life begins when we follow Jesus’ command to be baptized and raised to new life, and we believe that like the moment of Zacchaeus’ proclamation was the moment Jesus announced salvation had come to his household, the moment of baptism is the moment that Scripture promises we receive the grace of Jesus for our sins, and a new life in Him.

Maybe you have been following Jesus for some time, but have lost sight of Him. Maybe you need the help of this church to climb your tree and get Him in focus again, we’d love to pray with you for that today, and to support you as you seek to see Jesus.

Whatever your need, however we may be of assistance, won’t you make it known by coming forward while together we stand, and sing.