Introduction:
I have had the privilege this morning of meeting many new people, and that is very encouraging. God has a way of bringing people together for the good. Chance meetings can have a way of opening up new possibilities. Think about it. When you first met your spouse did you think “this is the one” or did you say “who is this?” Was there a good hearted matchmaker involved? Who are the individuals who helped you in your career, who listened, advised, directed and supported you
Sometimes even one brief conversation can set your life going in a whole different direction. Alfred Adler was a young psychoanalyst when he had the opportunity to be in Vienna for a conference. While he was there he plucked up the courage to ask Sigmund Freud, already famous as the father of psychoanalysis,for a meeting. Adler arrived at Freud’s office at the appointed time and was ushered into his counseling room. He was a bit nervous and wanted to break the ice so he began to tell Freud about a young mother and her son he had noticed on the trolley
Adler describe how the woman was harried and frustrated, and was chiding her son to behave. Freud let him talk for several minutes until Adler fell silent. Then he leveled a look at Adler and said “And tell me, are you that boy?” Adler was so turned off by Freud’s response that he decided right then and there that psychoanalysis was mistaken, and went on to develop his own psychological theory and practice which became the basis of the social psychology we use today.
This story highlights the impact that one single meeting, one brief exchange can have for us. How God works with us to move us to new life. It is this type of encounter we find in Scripture today. We don’t know much about Zacchaeus. We know he was short, we know he was rich, we know he was a chief tax collector. But most importantly we know he was bound and determined to meet Jesus. He took great pains to see him. Talking to someone who knew someone who knew Jesus wasn’t enough, Being one of the crowd that followed Jesus wasn’t enough... Nothing was going to satisfy him except seeing Jesus if only from the top of a tree. Why was it so important to Zacchaeus to see Jesus? Because Jesus had a reputation that was important to Zacchaeus Jesus was a friend of publicans and tax-collectors. Believe me being a tax-collector in those days was not an easy thing. We have seen in our own government problems with the tax system. There are annual quotas for monetary penalties to be collected and for the number of offenders who are to be prosecuted. Yet there are so many loopholes that a select group of people can pilot their yachts through the tax laws all the way to their summer estates. Now we are trying to hold the IRS accountable for its offenses, but back in ancient Israel corruption was the standard operating procedure for the entire system.
Let me see if I can explain it to you. The king decided how much money he wanted and collected it directly from his noblemen, they in turn, recovered the money plus their fair share from their chief collectors who, in turn, recouped their losses from the local collectors, plus their percentage and self-determined salary who then recouped their losses, plus their salary and percentage from the common man. A very difficult process if you were the common man! But if you were a part of the system, it wasn’t too bad. The higher the rank, the deeper your pockets and the deeper into the scheme you went. So Zacchaeus - an Israelite - was the chief headhunter for the Roman occupation and oppression of Israel. Knowing all this about him how many friends do you think he had? How well do you think he was received by his countrymen? He would have been judged as both immoral and traitorous. A SINNER according to the crowd in verse 7, And a sinner was someonebeyond the scope of God’s grace or Israel’s concern.
But now here is someone- Jesus - with a reputation for befriending the likes of corrupt henchmen, for offering restoration to the rejected. This guy Zacchaeus just had to see, no matter what he had to do to get to him. And Jesus just had to see Zacchaeus. Something about Zacchaeus so impressed Jesus that he became as intent on seeing and knowing and befriending Zacchaeus, as Zacchaeus had hoped and longed to see the man who was said to know and befriend sinners. Have you ever been impressed like that, where you meet someone briefly and say, “I have just got to get to know you.” Where you hope to become a friend just because you see something special in that person’s spirit? Have you ever thought that you could impress God that way? To hear that divine voice say “I have got to get to know you.” Funny thought isn’t it. God being compelled to know us. Yet its true,
God longs to know us. That is just what Jesus said: “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down from there, I must be your house guest tonight.” More than just chatting by the road side Jesus requested the greatest honor in ancient Israel to receive hospitality from Zacchaeus. To come under his roof and to receive generosity or grace from the hands of Zacchaeus. What a reversal! The most renowned in Israel asking to be received by, to find grace from, the most despised. Everyone who heard it understood exactly what Jesus was doing. The crowd was appalled! “He’s what! He’s going to be the guest of one of those kind of people. Don’t tell be Jesus doesn’t know what a godless character he is. What he’s done and how he lives.” Believe me, the crowd was mortified. But Zacchaeus?... Zacchaeus was thrilled. Imagine for yourself if someone like Billy Grahamor Bishop Tutu asked to be a guest in your home. I would be more than amazed it would be a huge honor to have them with me. It would certainly be a high point in my life. I would open my home and give all I could, and receive from them what they would extent to me. Well it was that great an honor for Zacchaeus too. But it was more than that. He, like the crowd understood exactly what Jesus’ request declared.In that one little phrase “I must be your guest,” everything changed for him.
Zacchaeus the outcast was not rejected, Zacchaeus the notorious was not despised, Zacchaeus the forsaken was not outside the love and care and grace of God. No - he, Zacchaeus the man, was the object of God’s compassion and regard and desire. In that moment Zacchaeus’ whole reality was transformed. He saw his life and his world with divine eyes, and he chose a new way of living. “Here and now, Lord, I give half my wealth to the poor and if I defraud anyone I will restore it four fold.” Zacchaeus didn’t need to be judged a sinner by Christ or by any one else. He judged himself and choose his own repentance.He declared he would make amends, that he would make things right again. He went far beyond the requirement of the law of restitution which required a full payment plus 20%. He judged and accepted for himself the law imposed on thieves, to repay the victim four times the original loss. But then he moved beyond restitution to Jewish covenantal “hesed”, to loving-kindness, and freely gave away half his estate to the impoverished. If John the Baptist’s words to tax collectors received a listening ear in Zacchaeus then here was fruit that befit repentance. Here was a man who was saved where he lived!
And Jesus joyfully acknowledged Zacchaeus’ transformation. “Today salvation has come to this house.” This is a unique word from Jesus. Look closely at what he says... and at what he doesn’t say. He never says a word about repentance, never mentions God’s mercy, never even refers to faith in himself as our savior. He just looks at Zacchaeus and proclaims. “Yep - your saved.” And then he explains to all who will hear - “ This is why I have come - to seek and save those deemed ‘lost’.” Understand this! Jesus is saying there are no lost ones. Even today the ‘righteous’ crowd is prone to look at others at the unsavory characters and say “well there’s a lost soul”. Unfortunately it means the same thing now as it did 2000 years ago; someone is so ignorant or indifferent to God that they are lawless, hopeless and godless. And that is a terrible thing. But the righteous work very hard to be righteous, they strive to do right and to be found acceptable to God. And they expect everyone else to live up to that measure of holiness. But how does the Holiest of Holies look on the holier than thou’s? With tremendous compassion, because they fear above all else to be ‘a lost soul.” They do not want to be found godless, helpless or hopeless in this world. Yet to God no one is lost. Jesus came seeking and he found us. Those who are the most desperate and unacceptable to the world are found. Even those who are most righteous are found. Christ reached out to all who sought him in his world, and he still reaches out today.
A few years ago a young woman discovered this amazing truth. She had lived in a family which never had been in church and she never had been taught anything of God. She married and had a family of her own, raising them as she had learned from her family. One night, when her daughter was a teen, she got a call that her daughter had been in a terrible accident, and was at the hospital in serious condition. She sat there in the hospital for days, waiting for her daughter to recover until the doctors insisted she go home and get some rest. Well she left the hospital and when to a bar, where she tried to drink away the crisis. Afterwards she drove home through the blur of exhaustion and alcohol, shut off the car and sat because she couldn’t move. And then the torrent came. She began swearing, at God, because of all that had happened. She used every colorful and descriptive word she knew to tell God exactly what she thought. After a while the words ran out and she fell silent. And then she heard God’s answer. He said to her “That is the first time you have ever spoken my name and I love you.” In that moment her life was transformed, and she knew she was not lost.
God has a way of finding us, both the righteous and the lost, no matter where we are, or what our need. He is there, offering hope, offering grace, offering love. The question is will you, like Zacchaeus, seek him out. You have heard how he has welcomed others, will you engage him, and let him encounter you. Then when you see yourself in Christ’s eyes like Zacchaeus, your life will take on a new direction in the faithfulness and compassion of God’s grace. And you will go with Christ’s joy and blessing, for salvation will indeed have come to you.