(Traditional site of Zacchaeus’s encounter with Jesus)
Zacchaeus…come down. I must stay at your house today, ( Luke 19:5).
I can only imagine that no one was more surprised than Zacchaeus when Jesus made this statement. It took place in Jericho as Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the Passion Week. If you grew up going to Sunday School (I didn’t), you probably learned some cute little song about Zacchaeus and his adventure up in the sycamore tree.
But for those of you who are not familiar with the incident, let me tell you about it. Zacchaeus was a Roman tax collector in the region of Jericho. He had two distinguishing characteristics that are pointed out in Luke’s gospel. He was short…and he was rich! Since he was the “chief” tax collector, and since Jericho could have been the richest city in Judea, he was probably very rich. The other thing we also know was that he was hated!
The Romans had devised a nifty system for collecting taxes from regions they had conquered and occupied. Instead of the Romans themselves acting as tax collectors, they sold franchises to “businessmen” from the conquered territory. These men then had the freedom to extort as much as they could from their fellow countrymen. As a result, many became rich, and all were viewed as traitors. (Just an aside: in the King James translation of the Bible, King James did not want to make his tax collectors be viewed the same way, so he had all references to tax collectors changed to “publicans”. A publican was someone who owned a pub. Check it out.)
So here comes Jesus through Jericho. And Zacchaeus wants desperately to see him. I imagine the word had spread that this was a Rabbi who was a friend to “tax collectors and sinners.” Unable to see over the crowd, Zacchaeus climbed a tree to get a look. He could not have imagined that Jesus would stop under the tree, call him by name, and invite himself over for dinner! The response of the crowd was predictable: “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
We are not told what Jesus and Zacchaeus talked about over the meal, but my hunch is that Jesus told him that God loved him, could forgive him, and he could become a follower of Jesus. I doubt Jesus revealed to him what was about to happen in Jerusalem that would make all that possible. But we see a changed Zacchaeus when he stands up at the table and makes a monumental commitment.
“Lord, here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will repay them four times the amount.” It was the response of a man whose life had been radically impacted by Jesus. And Jesus was pleased. He proclaimed, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” The entire episode was scandalous by any first century Jewish standard!
Then Jesus topped it all off by informing those at the dinner, “For the Son of Man (Messianic Title) came to seek and save the lost!” Ironically, everyone in the crowd was lost, not just Zacchaeus. But as was often the case, many suffered from delusional self-righteousness.
We aren’t told in the text what happened to Zacchaeus after Jesus left, but credible second and third century sources say his name was changed to Matthias, and he was picked in the Upper Room to replace Judas. Another early source goes on to say he became the first leader of the church in the Roman capital of Judea, Caesarea by the Sea.
Having lived a somewhat depraved life prior to understanding who Jesus was (and is) and what he did (and continues to do), I had the good fortune to know I was lost. And even better, when I understood all this, and responded with faith and acceptance, salvation came to my “house”. How about you?
For more on this great encounter, go to http://highlinecc.org/?page_id=196 for the audio and video of the message I gave on the subject.