Luke 19:1-10
When a Little Guy Meets a Big God
Today’s passage is a very popular children’s Bible story, but it’s a lot more than that. It reveals the very heart of God: one who pursues each one of us to draw us into a loving personal relationship with him, and in so doing, to change our entire life for the better. As we walk through the story of the “wee little man,” let’s consider our own spiritual journey, and the one those around us need as well.
First, to follow Zacchaeus’ example, you need to...
1. Recognize your low stature without God.
Let’s look at Zacchaeus’ low stature. He is famous in the Bible for being a short guy. Perhaps he got ribbed growing up, “Zacchaeus, you ought to be a Rabbi. At least your sermons would be short!” Or, “I feel sorry for short people. When it rains they are the last to know!” Zacchaeus was “vertically challenged,” he was “height-impaired.” But his low stature extended beyond his physical attributes; it involved his personal reputation as well.
Back then tax collectors made their living by charging more than they had to for the occupying force and lining their pockets with the difference: kind of an authorized extortion system. Their salary could be as high as their ability to pressure their fellow citizens. The locals considered them traitors and cheats, scoundrels out of reach of retribution. And Zacchaeus was not only an IRS agent; he was head of the department, the “CHIEF tax collector.” The end result was that he was filthy rich ... and greatly despised ... and very lonely ... and very lost.
Have you ever wondered if someone was beyond God’s love? Maybe they are just too wicked? I’ve met many a Veteran who felt they were beyond God’s love. But that’s not the God of the Bible! He gives us a great promise in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from ALL unrighteousness.” When we say, “My sin is just too great. They’re sin is just too great to be forgiven,” we’re really saying more about GOD than we are about that sin; we’re limiting the redemptive power of God’s love. If God loved a Zacchaeus, God can love you. And God can love your worst enemy. Romans 8:38-39 says NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. Nothing!
Zacchaeus recognized he needed help. AA calls it “rock bottom.” That was Zacchaeus: filthy rich and empty, hollow inside. So recognize your low stature without God. And when you realize you are at rock bottom,
2. Reach high for God’s grace.
The good thing about Zacchaeus is that he got curious. When Veterans are bound by their PTSD symptoms, we ask them to get curious, to grow in curiosity about what they’ve always told themselves about their trauma, what it means for who they are and who the world is. As they become curious, and begin putting some of their long-held beliefs to the test, they discover some of those thoughts haven’t been so accurate or helpful after all. “Maybe it wasn’t my fault; maybe there was nothing I could do to prevent it.” Or, “Maybe I could go out to the mall and not risk my life.” Curiosity may have killed the cat but it has saved many a Veteran’s life.
Curiosity saved Zacchaeus’s life, too. Verse 3 says, “He wanted to see who Jesus was.” What a great goal us! But be careful; it could change your life! Zacchaeus undoubtedly had heard of this famous rabbi who was healing people and preaching to the masses in the countryside, who had recently raised Lazarus from the dead just fifteen miles away.
Now Zacchaeus wanted to check out Jesus firsthand, and he wasn’t going to let his short stature get in the way. He decided to climb a sycamore tree, what we would call a mulberry tree. Can you imagine this grown man wearing a robe and climbing up a tree, with bystanders watching? Zacchaeus did whatever it took, not matter what people thought. He lived out the two verses we mentioned last week: Jeremiah 29:13, he sought God with all his heart; and Hebrews 11:6, he earnestly sought after God, which God rewarded. And that leads us to our third action, to:
3. Respond to God’s personal invite.
Did you notice what Jesus did in the story? He invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house! Sound rude? Not if you’re a VIP. Imagine someone very important—a seven- or eight-foot Spurs player—and they come up to you in the crowd and say, “Hey, show me where you live. Let’s go to your house for lunch!” After you get up off the ground (from fainting), you would be thrilled, everyone looking at you as if you were famous, as you go off with your new friend.
So here was Jesus, the “Time magazine Man of the Year,” inviting himself over to Zacchaeus’s house. And Jesus put some urgency into the invitation. Verse 5 says, “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down IMMEDIATELY. I MUST stay at your house today.’” Jesus was quite emphatic. There was no choice. It was God’s will that the two get together that day. Did you know this is the ONLY place in scripture where Jesus did this—invite himself over like that?
And how did Jesus know Zacchaeus’s name? Do you ever wonder about that? Maybe Zacchaeus’ reputation was the talk of the town. Or perhaps God revealed it to Jesus. Worship leader Ricardo Sanchez once said, “The devil knows your name but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin and calls you by your name!”
God’s invitation to you is very personal. After all, he has known you by name from the beginning of time. In today’s story, Zacchaeus responded well to Jesus’ invite. He embraced Jesus warmly. And that leads us to our fourth response, which is to:
4. Rebuild a whole new life.
When Jesus announced publicly that he was going to the house of someone everybody knew as corrupt and unpatriotic, the crowds began to criticize him by association. But Jesus never worried about what others thought; he just tried to please his Father in heaven.
Aren’t you glad that Jesus likes to hang out with “sinners?” Can we all admit that label includes us? Please raise your right hand and repeat after me: “I [state your name] am a sinner.” There, that’s settled. Now please turn to your neighbor and tell them your worst sin ever. (Just kidding.) Think about this: the people who missed out on the Savior were the ones who thought they didn’t need saving. And yet Jesus’ name ironically means, “God saves!”
Look how thoroughly God saved Zacchaeus’ life! One minute he was gypping his fellow countrymen to line his own pockets. The next minute he had a conversation with Jesus—details of which we do not have—and then announced (in verse 8), loud enough for onlookers to hear, “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.” The verbs Zacchaeus uses are in the ongoing present tense, as if he’s handing out twenties and fifties to the crowd even as he is speaking.
Scripture links God’s grace with our obedience. As Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). The Apostle Paul said, “God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4).
The law in Zacchaeus’ day required a cheater to pay back an extra twenty percent (Leviticus 6:5; Numbers 5:6-7). Why did he give away so much more? Because his whole life had been turned upside down by an encounter with Jesus. All his material wealth now seemed inconsequential compared to his newfound spiritual wealth. Zacchaeus wasn’t giving away money to PURCHASE his salvation. He was giving away money to CATCH UP to his salvation. A Christ-follower is a giver, not a taker; a blesser, not an extortionist.
Jesus called Zacchaeus a true “son of Abraham” (verse 9). He was always culturally a Jew, but now he was spiritually in God’s true family. You don’t get saved by your family roots; you get saved when you come to God on your own, confessing your sins to him and receiving forgiveness and life forever in relationship with him.
And that brings us to Jesus’ closing verse, his job description. In verse 10, he said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Jesus came to seek and to save you and me. He sees us hiding in that sycamore tree, checking him out from a distance, and he calls us by name and says, “I absolutely must enter your house today.” Jesus seeks and Jesus saves. He saves us the moment we put our full and complete trust in him, the moment we give him all our sin and all our pride, and receive God’s forgiveness in return. That’s the moment we become a child of God and enter into a love relationship with God for all eternity.
Will you trust Jesus with your life right now? There is no time like the present. As I pray what we might call the “sinner’s prayer,” feel free to pray along with me:
Father, help me to trust my life right now to Jesus, the one who seeks after me to reconcile me to you. Please forgive all my sin. Please help me realize how much you have forgiven me as I give my sin to you. And in my fresh start, please let me live purposefully for you. Use my life to bless others. And help me to see the Zacchaeus’s of the world as you do, in desperate need of you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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For welcome time:
This woman turned on the TV and heard a breaking news report. She called her husband frantically and said, “Honey, they’re saying on TV that some idiot is driving down IH-410 the wrong way! Please be careful!” He shouted back at her, “Honey, that’s nothing! Where I’m at, there are hundreds of cars driving the wrong way!” [modified from Max Lucado’s “How Happiness Happens”]
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Luke 19:1-10
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.”
