I wrote this for the November 1997 issue of our local Mother of Preschoolers Newsletter.
One of the reasons Princess Diana was loved was that she put considerable effort into helping people such as AIDS victims, whose circumstances were so different from hers, because she genuinely cared about people from all walks of life. Ironically, two thousand years ago, Jesus was being criticized for a similar reason: because he spent time with and helped Jewish people that were considered “outcasts” and “sinners” by other Jews. Here’s the account of how Jesus met with one such person, and how his life was changed as a result. This is from Luke 19:1-10 (the New International Version of the Bible):
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a `sinner.'” But 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.”
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
The Jews in Jesus’ time were ruled over by the Romans and had to pay taxes to them. Jews such as Zacchaeus would collect the taxes and were given discretion by the Romans to collect extra money to cover their own wages. The tax collectors were despised by the other Jews because they worked for the Romans, whom the Jews hated, and because they often took more money than they needed to for wages. This may have been how Zacchaeus became rich. In any case, this is why the Jews thought of Zacchaeus as a “sinner” and disliked him.
I think Zacchaeus was very wise to go and see Jesus for himself. Many people today make up their minds about Jesus based on second-hand information. They are content to dismiss him because they had a bad experience with church or with some Christians. Or because they read a book that says he didn’t exist or the Bible can’t be trusted. And yet they have never read the eye-witness accounts of what Jesus said and did which are in the Bible. Let’s read these for ourselves before forming our opinion of Jesus. If we base our view of him solely on our experience with a particular church or specific Christians then we may find ourselves with a very distorted understanding of who he is.
Zacchaeus was interested enough to climb a tree so that he could be certain he would see Jesus as he passed by. I would imagine this might be a little undignified for a man like him. I’m impressed that he was willing to go to such lengths to see Jesus!
Zacchaeus probably was not expecting Jesus even to notice him. He wanted to see Jesus but I don’t expect he knew that Jesus was also looking for him. Later in this passage Jesus tells us that He came to seek “what was lost”, meaning people like Zacchaeus, but Zacchaeus would not have known that when he climbed the tree. So I would imagine Zacchaeus was amazed when Jesus not only stopped to speak to him, but, calling him by name, said “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today!” What an honor this was for Zacchaeus! Obviously Zacchaeus was delighted since he hurried down from the tree.
I am amazed at the contrast between the way Jesus and the people in the crowd viewed Zacchaeus. To the people he was a “sinner”; someone to be despised and shunned. To Jesus he was a “son of Abraham”, one of God’s chosen people, the Jews, valued by God just as much as everyone in the crowd. He was someone worth having dinner with and worth bringing salvation to. Jesus’ mission was to bring those of God’s people who had gotten lost, back to God. So the people in the crowd should not have been surprised that Jesus paid attention to Zacchaeus, someone who they would definitely agree was “lost”!
Jesus saves, or rescues Zacchaeus (the word “salvation” means “rescue” or “deliverance”) from his former way of life and enables Zacchaeus to start a new life. Jesus’ kindness to Zacchaeus enables Zacchaeus to be kind to others, in turn, and to put right what he has done wrong in the past.
Jesus is seeking us too, to offer us salvation and a new life, regardless of what we have done in life or what others think of us. All we need to do is come to him in prayer, having “seen” who he is – the one who God sent so that we could be reconciled to God and have a personal relationship with him. Let’s look for Jesus, who knows us by name and is already looking for us, and he will come to us and give us new lives, just as he did Zacchaeus.