Wednesday: Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus was a wealthy Jew who had made his money by working as a tax collector for the hated Romans. For that, and because he and other tax collectors exacted more tax than was really due, Zacchaeus was hated and called a “sinner.”
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Zacchaeus lived in Jericho, which sat on a trade route with much business commerce. The meeting of Zacchaeus and Jesus was not a coincidence. Zacchaeus had apparently come under spiritual conviction and wanted to make some changes in his life. He had heard about Jesus and wanted to see Him. Word must have gotten out that the group Jesus was traveling with would arrive in Jericho that day. Jesus needed to pass through Jericho from Galilee, on His final trip to Jerusalem. Christ’s first words to Zacchaeus revealed that, even before entering the town, Jesus knew all about him.
Read Luke 19:1-10. What were the differences between this rich man’s experience with Jesus and that of the rich young ruler?
Zacchaeus and the rich young ruler had some things in common. Both were rich; both wanted to see Jesus, and both wanted eternal life. But here the similarities stop.
Notice that when Zacchaeus said that he would give “half of my goods” (Luke 19:8) to the poor, Jesus accepted this gesture as an expression of a true conversion experience. He didn’t say to him, Sorry, Zac, but like with the rich young ruler, it’s all or nothing. Half is not going to cut it. Why? Most likely because, though Zacchaeus surely liked his wealth, it wasn’t the god to him that it was to the rich young ruler. In fact, though we don’t know what Jesus specially said to him, Zacchaeus is the one who first speaks about giving money to the poor. In contrast, Jesus had to tell the rich young ruler specifically to give it all up; otherwise it would have destroyed him. Though Zacchaeus, like any wealthy person, needed to be careful about the dangers of wealth, he seemed to have had it under better control than did the rich young ruler.
“When the rich young ruler had turned away from Jesus, the disciples had marveled at their Master’s saying, ‘How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!’ They had exclaimed one to another, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Now they had a demonstration of the truth of Christ’s words, ‘The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.’ Mark 10:24, Mark 10:26; Luke 18:27. They saw how, through the grace of God, a rich man could enter into the kingdom.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 555.
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If Zacchaeus were living today he would have been a scammer. I get emails and phone calls from people purporting to be from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) claiming that I owe them large sums of money and will go to prison if I do not pay it by a certain date. It has not worked on me - my income is below the tax threshold - but it works on some people. Estimates of how much the scammers get run into millions of dollars. That was the sort of guy that Zacchaeus was. We like to portray him as the cute little guy who climbed a sycamore tree. More than likely he was a bit scared that someone in the crowd would point him out as the scammer and tramp on him as though he was a cockroach.
And Jesus sees Zacchaeus and shocks the crowd - they knew who he was - by inviting himself to lunch.
We like to think that the big picture of this story is that Zacchaeus turned his life around and paid back his victims even more than he had taken from them. But I think the bigger picture is that Jesus saw value in a scammer.
The person in need in this story was Zacchaeus, and Jesus saw that need and made him a friend. And as they say, the rest is history.
Interesting…in this sense, Zacchaeus is also among the least of these. He is unseen because of his stature and despised because of his profession. However, upon conversion by the love of Christ, he immediately responds in love toward Christ by attending to who we normally consider “the least of these”.
Thanks Maurice! Indeed Zacchaeus was in real need of Jesus after having heard about Him.As a tax collector positioned along the busy Jericho route, I believe he made a fortune as head of the publicans. But God has His remnants among all sorts. When he heard Jesus was coming by, he came in Christ's way not only to have a sight of Him, but he was deeply disturbed inwardly in matters salvation. Christ's fame filled his ears and what a better opportunity that it was for him to take a leap of faith!.
But the eye is not satisfied with seeing. He sought to see Jesus with an eye of faith,to see who He really is but his only obstacle was that he was of low stature, so he could not get a sight of Jesus.
But many that are of little stature have large souls and are lively in spirit. Christ took notice of him and his life changed forever. That was an honor too great, you cannot meet the Saviour and come out unchanged!.When he offered to give "half of his goods " to the poor, he showed true conversion from the heart.
Am I able to touch water? Feel it, swallow it or even inhale it? There are a bunch of other ways to describe an existent matter, beauty, fear, joy, descriptions that can relate to psychological- emotional experiences. Even though some descriptions of the water may differ among people, because of their own experience with it, water continues to be water, chemically represented and although as simple as it seems to be, it takes a lot of energy to create it, that's why nobody makes water. The notion of faith is also like that, the description of it may also be meshed with a lot of personal experiences, which can provoke feelings. But faith, as the truth, continues to exist independently of my feelings. What is holding me so tight to this planet that I'm valuing so much to the point of wasting eternity? The rich young ruler that came to Jesus wanted to know the truth, but chose not to believe it, based on his own experiences. Differently, Zacchaeus also wanted eternity, but his experiences with his riches were not able to make him whole. Has my faith satisfied me? Is it really going to take me to eternity? Is there any obstacle between me and the acceptance of the truth? Faith can also be related to choices.
One glimpse of Jesus makes all this world's good fade for a needy soul. I love how the Bible says Zacchaeus "received him joyfully", this is a big difference from the rich young ruler who "went away sorrowful". The rich young ruler did not receive Jesus into his heart, Zacchaeus did, and that made all the difference. I'm sure in the end this led Zacchaeus to surrender all to God.
God is no respect of person. Glory to God