Series on Luke
V The Imminence of the Kingdom
B Threatening Change
Text: 19:1-10
Introduction
Jesus already has one tax-collector among his disciples. Matthew once called Levi wrote the first gospel. His call is recorded in Matthew 9. It not only evoked the same response from the Pharisees as in our text for today it also brought the same response from Jesus. We read in verse 7, All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner,’” and in verse 10, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Our tax collectors do not have the power they did in the Roman empire. There are laws to prevent them from extorting more than is proper, and becoming very wealthy like Zacchaeus. Furthermore, however much we may hate taxes, we certainly have more to say about how they’re used than the people in Jesus’ day. In spite of that we still don’t have much love or sympathy for tax collectors, but that can help us understand only slightly the hatred and animosity in the first century. The publican was to those people a dirty, dishonest disloyal dog, yet this publican was saved. Given the political climate in our country today this is tantamount to a very wealthy, very corrupt senator suddenly being converted and contritely donating millions to the poor and homeless. Wouldn’t you be surprised? so were they! Let us consider the sinner,the seeker and the salvation.
I The Sinner
We see the sinner in verses 1-4, Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. Zacchaeus was a supervising tax collector. In a very wealthy community called Jericho he was able to extort and skim large amounts of money from both the people and his staff. But he was a curious fellow; a little man with a big problem. The story suggests he had heard about Jesus but knew very little. He climbed a tree to see who Jesus was. I suggest that he had a big problem for three reasons. First he wouldn’t have climbed a tree unless something was stirring in his soul. Secondly he must have had a guilty conscience if he had a conscience at all and i suspect at this point he did. Thirdly, i know he must have discovered by this time that all the ill gotten money wasn’t making him happy. Furthermore the Pharisees hated the publicans and this person Jesus who was locking horns with them, his mortal enemies, and so became a kind of folk hero. We make a big mistake if we think that all the wealthy powerful people in the world are laughing up their sleeves at the average folk. Some of them are, but others are crying in their champagne. The thing about Jesus is that he looks past the beautiful bodies, the rich trappings, the extreme prejudice and what he sees is a soul in need. Zacchaeus probably had mixed motives in welcoming Jesus to his home. It was a spiteful triumph over the Pharisees, but no doubt it was also a chance to bare his soul. What I want you to see here is that whether people are rich or poor, famous or infamous, respected or despised, socially superior or socially inferior there is a place where we are all equal and it only takes a flash of insight, a moment’s reflection to see our common need. As Christians we need to look beyond the things we are conditioned to see and sense the common desperation, the darkness of every lost soul. We are children of the king and it is not fitting that we should be intimidated either by privilege or prejudice.
II The Seeker
We discover the seeker in verses 5 and 6, When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. Jesus not only saw the need he sought to help. The enemies of Christ scoffed and mocked. They said he has gone to be the guest of a sinner. Undeterred as always, the Savior went. He was so far removed from their petty objections they didn’t have the slightest comprehension. If only they knew. Jesus not only goes to eat and sleep at a sinner’s house, he goes to be a friend. He goes to forgive, He goes to die. Yes in this act of caring is the love of Calvary. If Jesus is not willing to go to the cross for Zacchaeus, then he might as well go to somebody else’s house. Here is one whom the Father has given Him. Here is a man he clasps to his bosom and carries through the dark hours of Gethsemane and up the hill called Calvary. Here is one whom having loved, he loved to the end. I am always amazed at how much of our modern Christian literature is focused on seeking God for ourselves and how little on seeking others. Calvin Miller has written a “Requiem for Love,” the poetic story of the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. In it he describes their love before the fall. God has warned them that giving in to the serpent will be the death of love and they promise, “Never shall we will the death of love.” But as the story goes they did. Listen then to the description of this love. “Regina, morning wakes my heart, Regis spoke low. Daily now i try to measure what i cannot measure, love. I love you, with a love which leaps its high-walled doubts, and lives to touch your face and look into your eyes. Born like diamonds in the starlight, kiss me and let your kiss be the pledge that i will always hold you here, Not just enriching sanctuary but making my life possible. For without your love i die, as song strangled into silence, or reason smothered by loneliness.” Reading these words we realize that the unsullied love he pictures is the love that sprang from the heart of God. It is the love he bears to us which is reflected. It is the love with which Jesus loved Zacchaeus and with which he loves us. It is that infinite delight that is sovereignly set upon souls so strongly that even in our sin and shame it does not turn away but reaches out and seeks and finds a rest in that heart that is weary of sin and where the Holy Spirit has made us aware of our need. It was there in Zacchaeus. It was there in you, and it’s there in others if you will seek without fear.
III The Salvation
Nobody else thought Zacchaeus was worth the trouble, but Jesus loved him, and He is not surprised when Zacchaeus repents, as recorded in verses 8 and 9, 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.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Jesus’ statement Today salvation is come to this house is for the Pharisees, the disciples and us. Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham, just what the Pharisees claimed they were! Jesus brought the salvation. What is noteworthy is the nature of Zacchaeus’ response. First of all, it is instantaneous. Behold! He does not agonize over it. It is too hard at all to separate him from his money. This is what we call “cold turkey.” He goes beyond the law. He has cheated, but the kind of abuse of office of which he was guilty was specified in the law in Leviticus 6, and Numbers 5 as requiring a penalty of returning the sum plus one fifth. Zacchaeus views it as out and out thievery and inflicts on himself the fullest penalty of the law. If a man stole a sheep, according to Exodus 22, he was required to give back 4. The point here dear friends is that when we talk about tithing in the church there is usually someone who says well that’s the Old Testament, that’s the law, that’s legalism. But you see when salvation comes to a house the normal response is to go beyond the law. Here is a man who shows his gratitude in the words of David, O how i love your law, it is my constant meditation. He’s not griping, he is anxious to make things right. He is anxious to do more than what is expected. Love begets love. In Calvin Miller’s book again there is a passage where Adam and Eve, Regis and Regina walk to the gates of eden, called sanctuary to look out on the barren desert wasteland beyond and Adam says, “As we behold the barrenness of life beyond his care, perhaps in seeing this great emptiness, we’ll find all sense rebuked, and know insanity for what it is, choosing any opposite of love.” Zacchaeus has been chosen in love and he knew it, so he chose to love. Only the truly penitent, the truly redeemed, the truly loved know that freedom.
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