The story takes place in the city of Jericho. Zacchaeus, the local senior tax-collector wants to see Jesus. Why?
The story happened near a tollbooth on the road through Jericho. Let me explain. There were two major highways in Israel at that time and one of them went right through Jericho.
Jews traveling north south would all pass through the city and they had to pay poll taxes on every cow, calf, and camel that came through customs.
It was also Passover time which meant that tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims were coming down from Galilee, going around Samaria because it was unsafe, and coming through the toll booth at Jericho and paying their poll taxes. Researchers tell us that two or three million people showed up for the Passover.
Circus time. Jesus had become a circus star. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, healed Bartimaus of his blindness and turned the water into wine. If you can turn water into wine, you become a circus star, a super star. Jesus had superstar status, and the tens of thousands of people passing through customs at Jericho wanted to see Jesus.
Zacchaeus collects taxes. He works for the occupying army of Rome, he is despised and ostracized by every respectable person in town. So, what is stirring in the heart of this heartless man?
Perhaps he’s heard of the way this Jesus accepts all comers. Perhaps he’s reached a point in his life where he know it’s now or never to get his life sorted out.
What Zacchaeus could not have known was that this would be the last time he would have to see Jesus.
Jericho was his last stop on the way to Jerusalem. Luke tells us that from this point on Jesus set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. If Zacchaeus had missed this opportunity, if he’d have thought to himself, “I’ll catch him next time around,” he would never have seen Jesus.
It is a sobering thought that we might miss our last opportunity to do anything, even more sobering to think that we might miss our last chance to meet with Jesus.
Attitudes towards Tax Collectors
Just to get things straight, tax-collectors were not well liked.
"As one robber disgraced his whole family, so one publican in a family; promises were not to be kept with murderers, thieves and publicans" -Nedar 3:4
This typifies the Rabbi’s view of a tax collector. They were little more than thieves and treated as social outcasts. They had no right to attend the Temple or the Synagogue. Their testimony was not accepted in a court. As far as the Rabbis were concerned there was no hope for a tax collector.
The people despised them because they often took more money than the actual taxes in order to make a profit for themselves. They were a constant reminder that the people were slaves in their own land.
For the Pharisees, tax collectors were no better than Gentiles and they too despised them. It must therefore have been quite a surprise when Jesus used a tax-collector as a symbol of a more acceptable prayer than the prayer of a Pharisee.
But Jesus saw them differently. He looked beyond what personal choice and societal pressure may have made of a person. He saw their heart. He even told a story about a religious person and a religious outcast, a Pharisee and a tax collector. And the amazing thing about this story is that the person whose prayer is accepted by God was not the religious person but the so-called “sinner”
And so, as Jesus passes through Jericho on the road to Jerusalem, the scene is set for an encounter between a publicly known sinner and the traveling preacher who was known as ‘a friend of sinners’.
What Jesus knows
He knows his name: Jesus calls Zacchaeus by name, only a prophet would/could do that. For the religious people that raises a difficult question: If he is a prophet how come he doesn’t appear to know what Zacchaeus is, and condemn him for it.
He sees him: Jesus picks out Zacchaeus from the crowd: So many people that it was hard to see, especially for a small man like Zacchaeus. But Jesus sees through the crowd, over the crowd. He is able to pick out Zacchaeus at a distance.
Knows who he is: (is that by reputation or by previous knowledge or is this divinely discerned?) and therefore knows what he is and what he has been doing. But Jesus isn’t about to condemn or reject him. He already has one tax-collector amongst his followers (Levi).
Invites himself to his home: Jesus knows that left to our own devices we might never get around to inviting him, so he invites himself. Not even the most powerful would have the audacity to invite themselves, but Jesus does. Why? Because the grace of God always reaches out, always makes an offer. Zacchaeus had spent a long time hearing that he had no place among the family of God. Perhaps he was wondering if Jesus would reject him too. By calling his name, by inviting himself, Jesus says quite clearly, “Zacchaeus, if you ask me to come to your home, I will come.” Now it was up to Zacchaeus to decide what to do about the offer.
What Zacchaeus does
Zacchaeus welcomed him gladly
Everyone else, considered Zacchaeus beyond redemption. But not to Jesus. Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
What does it mean to be a son of Abraham?
Faith not law: Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Rom.4:3). Paul goes to make the point that this is a gift not a right. Zacchaeus can be made righteous precisely for this reason. He was one of the ungodly who trusts God who justifies the ungodly (Rom.4:5)
Son of a promise: Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring–not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. (Rom.4:16)
Zacchaeus responds to grace rather than trying to buy it. His restitution is much higher than that set by the Pharisees for theft.
Conclusion
We are known; We are invited; We are accepted.
It really doesn’t matter how you come to Jesus, what matters is that you take up his offer to come.
Is your sin any worse than the sin of Zacchaeus? If Jesus accepts the tax-collectors and sinners of the first century do you not think he will accept the 21st century equivalent?
He will, he always will. You are invited, will you come?
