Gaither.com

By Russ Taff

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. When I was growing up in my dad’s church we used to sing a song about him being “a wee little man who climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see.” I liked the mental picture of that, but I didn’t relate much to the story! It wasn’t until I grew up and walked through some life experiences of my own that kind of cut me down to size that I began to understand the depth of what happened to Zacchaeus.

The story is found in the nineteenth chapter of the gospel of Luke. The Message translation tells it this way:
 1-4 Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.
 5-7 When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.” Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”
 8 Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.”
Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”

Here’s the thing—in those Biblical times, tax collectors were basically considered the scum of the earth. The land of Israel was occupied by Rome, and Zacchaeus was working for the enemy. He was over-charging his fellow Jews excessive amounts of money for taxes, which he then turned over to the Roman government after taking out a hefty cut for himself, which was how he got paid. Tax collectors were considered traitors, cheating their own people and defiling themselves by rubbing shoulders with the Gentile unbelievers. They were ostracized, shunned and bitterly resented. Nobody had a good word to say about Zacchaeus and his kind!
So here comes Jesus, this holy man that everybody had heard so much about, walking right down the main street of Zacchaeus’ hometown with his entourage of disciples and the usual crowd that followed him around. I can just picture it: The mayor is holding the keys to the city, and the local rabbi who’s standing beside him is really hoping Jesus won’t cause any controversy like he heard he did on some of his other stops. The schools have shut down for the day, businesses are closed; the whole town has turned out because everybody’s dying to get a look at this guy!
And that’s where the scandalous part comes in. As Jesus walks into the city, instead of acknowledging all of the nice upstanding citizens that have gathered to greet him, he looks up into a tree where this slimy little creep that everybody in town HATES is perched on a branch and says, “Hey, Zacchaeus, climb on down here, I’m coming to your house for lunch!”
Well, I’m sure Zacchaeus was as freaked out as everybody else! Even though he was thrilled that for some reason he had lucked out and this big celebrity had chosen to hang out with him he also knew better than anyone else just how completely undeserving he was of that honor. He tried to fast-talk his way into Jesus’ good graces by saying, “Listen, I’m not as bad as everybody around here says I am. Maybe I skim off a little money here and there, but when I get caught I always pay what I owe and even throw in some extra, you know, to help the poor…” That probably sounded lame even to him! But Jesus just brushed past his excuses, and he looked down at that nervous, guilty little man and he called him a name—but not the kind of name that everybody else had called him for years! He reminded Zacchaeus who he REALLY was, beneath all of the sin, beneath all of the mistakes and self-hatred. He was still a child of the living God, a true “son of Abraham.” Jesus told Zacchaeus that he and his whole household were going to get saved that day, not because he deserved it, but because that’s what Jesus came to Jericho to do. He came to ‘seek and save what was lost’ and that despised tax collector was as lost as they come.
I don’t know about you, but there have definitely been times in my life when my sin, stubbornness and bad decisions have left me way out on a limb– desperate to catch a glimpse of Jesus, but afraid to let him get a real good look at me. I am so grateful for the scandalous love of the Son of God, who found me every time I tried to hide and saved me when I was too ashamed to ask for help.