The story of Zacchaeus
"On February 24, 1948, one of the most unusual operations in medical history took place in Ohio State University’s department of research surgery.
A stony sheath was removed from around the heart of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age.
When only a boy he had been shot accidentally by a playmate with a .22-caliber rifle.
The bullet had lodged in his heart but had not caused his death.
However, a lime deposit had begun to form over the protective covering of the heart and gradually was strangling it.
The operation was a delicate one separating the ribs and moving the left lung to one side.
Then the stony coating was lifted from the heart as an orange is peeled.
Immediately the pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded by expanding and pumping normally.
"I feel a thousand per cent better already," said the patient soon after the operation.
In the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel we read how the prophet speaking on behalf of God says:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ez 36:26)
Our hearts develop a hard protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life.
They are coated by the deposits of a thousand deceits and rebuffs.
They are hardened by the pressure of circumstance.
Inevitably, they become smothered and insensitive to the divine.
Ever so easily we find it easier to sneer than to pray.
It becomes simpler to work than to worship.
Self-satisfied, proud, often cynical, our hearts need a spiritual operation that only Christ can perform when we dare to surrender our hearts’ burden.
In our Gospel reading today, we see Zacchaeus the tax collector had such a stony heart.
You couldn’t rise to be the Chief Tax Collector in Jericho without having a thick skin
Yet when Jesus came to his home, the encounter with Jesus changed Zacchaeus forever
His heart of stone became a heart of flesh.
Zacchaeus was I believe curious to find out more about Jesus firsthand.
He had heard many stories no doubt and wanted to see for himself
But he was too small to look above the Crowd.
So he did something that was very undignified for a top Roman tax official .
Imagine the Chancellor of the Exchequer shinning up a tree to get a view of Jesus!!
That’s how undignified it was!
But Zacchaeus had a goal and nothing would deflect him from it.
He put his heart and soul into it – even to the point of having the indignity of shinning up a tree.!
He wanted to see Jesus.
In this story I see three important things:
1. Zaccheus looked for Jesus
2. He invited Jesus into his house
3. And when he met Jesus, Jesus changed his heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.
And we can see the result of that change of heart by what Zaccheus did
My first point is that
1. Zacchaeus looked for Jesus
Zacchaeus lived in Jericho.
As a tax collector he was extremely unpopular.
And perhaps very lonely
Tax collectors were seen as the lowest form of life in Jewish society – they were outcasts
Do you remember last week in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector what the Pharisee said
11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
Tax Collectors didn’t have their reputation for nothing.
They were unscrupulous.
They did charge more than they were entitled to.
And they used the Roman Army to enforce their tax bill on the local population – and there was no Court of Appeal to resort to if you felt you were being unfairly taxed.
Just before Jesus started his ministry, John the Baptist came calling the people to repent of their sins and be baptised.
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"
13"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told (Luke 3:12 & 13.)
Tax Collectors weren’t very nice people
Zacchaeus was a hard businessman
But this hard businessman came looking for Jesus.
He felt a need.
It is quite a challenge to us isn’t it to look beyond the tough exterior to see the real needs of people beneath.
Zaccheus heard about Jesus – and wanted to see him, so the only way he could get to him was to climb up the tree.
There are so many people around us climbing up trees to look for Jesus - and we are too busy to notice them.
May the Lord bring such Zacchaeus’ to our prayers today.
People look for Jesus in many different ways:
i) Zacchaeus climbed a tree; (Lk 19:4)
ii) Blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus (Mk 11;46 52)
iii) Jairus came running to Jesus in his need (Luke 8:41),
iv) The unnamed paralytic man was let down through the roof of a house by his friends in order to find Jesus (Mk 2:4) .
As Servants of God, we are called to help people find Jesus.
My second point from the story of Zacchaeus today is that
2. Zacchaeus invited Jesus into his house
We read:
5 When Jesus reached the spot (where Zacchaeus was), 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. (Lk 19:5)
Jesus knew what Zacchaeus was longing for. For we see Jesus mission clearly set out in verse 10:
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
And the Bible records that Zacchaeus was absolutely delighted when Jesus invited himself for dinner and welcomed him gladly.
I am reminded if some words of Jesus in the Book of Revelation where he says to people who are looking for him:
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:20).
Zacchaeus took Jesus’ request literally
The bystanders began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "
But Jesus was only interested in finding the lost
I wonder if the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector wasn’t prophetic of what happened here at Zacchaeus’ house
Perhaps we need to be careful that we don’t have a Pharisaic heart that we miss the wonders of what God is doing around us.
3. Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus changed his heart.
It is interesting that Jesus did not say – as he walked into Zacchaeus house-
Today salvation has come to this house.
Rather Jesus said it in response to what Zacchaeus said in v.8
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."
That was a real change of heart and resulting from it lifestyle.
Becoming a Christian can seriously change your lifestyle.
Because believing in Jesus, is not simply giving intellectual assent to the teaching of Jesus.
It is putting his teaching into effect in your life
St James puts it very well when he says:
14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?
Can such faith save him?
15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder.
20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?
21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend.
24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
Jesus recognised that salvation came to Zacchaeus, not just because he invited Jesus into his house but because as a result Zaccheus cleaned up his act. Zacchaeus decided to stop living for himself and live instead a godly life
Conclusion:
If we want people to come to Jesus, we need to show them that our lives are different.
As someone once put it to a Christian as he tried to share his faith:
Your life is so loud; I can’t hear what you are saying.
I was on a Mission with Keith de Berry many years ago and we put on a play about a Christian on trial
And the essence of the play was this
If it were illegal to be a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?
