Luke 19 New International Version (NIV) Zacchaeus the Tax Collector 19 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. |
Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he! Probably my favorite children’s church song was about Zacchaeus. So catchy! I can still remember the hand signs to go along with it.
Songs are great for kids. I am thankful I remember the story. I do sometimes wonder how much of the story we missed as kids. “Wee little man” as an adult sounds like a cutesy phrase. The actual phrase should have probably been “Zacchaeus was a hated man. A hated man indeed.” EVERYONE HATED TAX COLLECTORS. Collectors were the most reviled Jews. They were considered traitors who stole money from their own people to give to Rome.
They lived lavished lives. Usually living among the Romans and protected by Roman guards. Their life was lonely n. Caught in between providing for their family and honoring their culture, tax collectors had few friends. Can we relate to that a little more today? We know what loneliness is like during quarantine.
I pray that this time apart shows us that people are more than their actions. Zacchaeus made a life choice. We have no idea why he chose to be a tax collector. Maybe he had some good reasons. Humanity has always judged so harshly people’s decisions. We see from this story that Jesus doesn’t allow outside influences to determine our inner heart. There are two takeaways from this.
If you have been making poor choices in your outward life, Jesus loves you too. You do not need to be afraid to approach Jesus. He cares about your heart. Secondly, Jesus wants to heal your broken heart. Many of us outwardly appear to be in good spirits, but our insides are broken. Jesus cares about that. He will not say to you, “but you have the biggest house and best job. What does your heart matter?” There is comfort knowing that no matter our failures and successes in our outside world our inside reality matters more to Jesus. That inside reality is what we can control the most. Praise be to God for sending His son to change not just our outside reality but also our inner most being.
Pastor Mat