Luke tells us a wonderful story about a man who wanted to see Jesus.  What makes it such a great story is that not only did this man want to see Jesus, but Jesus went way out of his way to make sure the man really did see him.  And when the man—Zacchaeus was his name—really saw Jesus, it changed his life.

          Zacchaeus was a tax collector—in fact, he was a chief tax collector, and he was wealthy.  In our country today, we pay our taxes by writing a check and putting it in the mail or by using a credit card online.  Some of our taxes are just a line on our pay stub of money that we never see.  Other taxes are that extra amount that gets added onto our purchases. 

          So we don’t tend to identify the taxes we pay with a certain person—if we are unhappy about our taxes, we complain about the government.  Not the tax collectors.  And even if we complain about the government overtaxing us, at least it is our government.  And often, we ourselves voted in favor of the taxes.  In fact, I’m planning to vote for more taxes in this election, not because I love paying taxes, not because the plan is perfect, but because I think we desperately need better transportation.  We can argue about that later, if you like!

          But in Israel in the time of Jesus it was different.  Israel was occupied by the Romans.  You’ve heard of the Roman Empire, which had its center in Rome.  During the time of Jesus, the Roman Empire stretched from what we now call Spain and France throughout southern Europe to northern Africa and into the Near East.  It was huge.

          The Roman soldiers kept the peace, but the Roman government made use of local Israelites to work for them.  So the tax collector in our story was a Jew who collected taxes from his own people on behalf of the Roman government.  He was somewhat of a turncoat.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, the tax collectors were well known for keeping a hefty portion of the taxes to line their own pockets.

          Our story specifies that this man, Zacchaeus, wasn’t just any ordinary tax collector—he was a chief tax collector and he was wealthy.  But he wanted to see Jesus.  And Jesus wanted to see him.

          Jesus says the reason he wanted to see Zacchaeus is because the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.

          As I read this story, imagine the scene.  Jesus, by this time in his ministry, was rather well known.  So when he came through the city of Jericho, there was quite a crowd of people who wanted to see him.  And one of them had a great idea of how he would see Jesus in spite of the crowd in front of him.  Little did he know that Jesus also wanted to see him.

          I’m reading Luke 19.

¹Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ²A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

 ⁵When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." ⁶So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

 ⁷All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "

 ⁸But 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."

 ⁹Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

            Talk about a changed man!  This money-grubbing tax collector, scorned by the people as a “sinner” has a real encounter with Jesus.  On this day, when Jesus comes to his house, Zacchaeus really sees who Jesus is, and it changes him completely. 

          They say if you really want to know a person’s heart, look at his or her checkbook.  That’s because, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Ouch.  That kind of hurts sometimes, doesn’t it?

          Zacchaeus had a change of heart.  He truly saw Jesus, and he stood up in front of everyone 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."

          My best guess is that Jesus didn’t accuse Zacchaeus of anything.  I don’t think Jesus lectured him on how he had been cheating people out of their money.  What I think happened is that Zacchaeus saw Jesus, and when he saw Jesus, he saw God.

          When we truly come to Jesus and we understand something of who God is and God’s love for us, we are changed from the inside out.  And when we get things right with God, we want to get things right with other people as well.

          The story of Zacchaeus is the story of the gospel in a nutshell.  One day, a person is busily going along through life doing whatever seems best.  In Zacchaeus’ case, what seemed best to him was making a lot of money.  An awful lot of people are just like him today, don’t you think? 

          Then somehow, God breaks through and gets that person’s attention.  And somehow, Jesus makes sense.  Somehow, this unlikely story of God becoming human, living as a man and teaching and doing miracles, and then dying on the cross for the sins of all humankind, and then rising from the dead—somehow it all makes sense.  You come to a place where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus died for your sins, and that God loves you and forgives of all your sins and accepts you as his child.

          And that unlikely story becomes the most true thing in your life.  It’s what happens to each one of us when we come to Jesus in faith.

          Then, like Zacchaeus, we are filled with gratitude towards God.  Our hearts are full of God’s love, and it overflows to others around us.

          Zacchaeus might have been a short man who had to climb up into a sycamore-fig tree in order to see Jesus, but he was a man who really lived.  When he was living just for himself, he did things in a big way.  He was a chief tax collector and he was wealthy, and if he wanted to do something (like see Jesus) he figured out a way to do it, even if it meant looking a bit silly.  So when he really encountered Jesus; when he truly understood God’s love for him, he had big ideas of what he was going to do to make amends.

          I don’t think any of this was suggested by Jesus.  I just think Zacchaeus was used to thinking on a grand scale, and he probably didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about what other people thought of him.  So he stood up and announced to everyone who was around what he was going to do, now that he had met Jesus and his heart had been changed.  He doesn’t quite go so far as to admit to any wrongdoing—I think Zacchaeus must have been something of a politician.  He says, “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.” 

          But don’t you imagine that there were those listening to him who knew he had cheated them, and I suppose they were eager to let him know that he owed them a refund!

            And Jesus was pleased.  He said, “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."

          Jesus reminds those around who have called Zacchaeus a “sinner” that Zacchaeus is still one of them.  He is a son of Abraham.  And Jesus does not want anyone to be lost. 

          It’s what Jesus wanted then and it’s what Jesus still wants today.  Jesus wants lost people found.  In God’s eyes, there are no throwaway people.  He wants everyone to know him and come to a saving faith in him.

          It’s easy for us to discount some people.  Most of us have friends who need to know Jesus.  We know they need to know Jesus, but somehow we think they probably aren’t interested.

          But as French Mathematician and Philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”  We all have this inner longing to know God.

          Do you think anyone at all looked at Zacchaeus and thought to himself, “I really ought to bring Zacchaeus around and introduce him to Jesus.  I bet he would really like to have God in his life.” 

            It’s not very likely, is it?  They probably just wrote him off.  First of all, he was rich.  We all know rich people don’t need God, right?  Well, it may be true that many rich people don’t think they need God, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an inner longing to know God.

          And second, Zacchaeus was not what you would think of as a good man.  He probably had a big house and he probably had lots of parties, but maybe most of us wouldn’t have wanted to associate with him.  He was, as the people said, a “sinner.” 

          In fact, that’s why the people criticized Jesus for going to his house to eat.  Zacchaeus was the wrong sort of person.  Here’s another interesting thought.  When we Christians think about reaching out to someone with the gospel, don’t we often look around for some poor unfortunate person?  I’m not suggesting we should ignore the poor unfortunate people around us for one minute.  But maybe we need to think about those who don’t seem to be either poor or unfortunate, but nevertheless need to know Jesus. 

          And do you notice what Jesus did?  He invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house, and allowed Zacchaeus to be the host.  Jesus graciously accepted hospitality from Zacchaeus.  Jesus probably brought along his whole retinue of ragtag disciples, and all of them probably had a great meal with Zacchaeus and his unsavory friends.  Sometimes our picture of Jesus is of someone too holy to laugh and have a good time.  But the Jesus of the Bible liked to hang out with people like Zacchaeus, and I’m pretty sure Jesus joined in the meal and the laughter and the camaraderie.

          Maybe we Christians have sometimes been a little too haughty for this sort of thing.  Maybe we Christians have been too worried about how we look and we have forgotten that Jesus died for the unsavory folks we might not think to be friends with.

          Jesus says he “came to seek and to save what was lost.”  He calls us to come to him, and to join him in seeking those who need to know him.  And that includes everyone, from the high and mighty to the low and powerless; from the good and wise to the bad and foolish.  That’s because God loves all of us.

Prayer: 

          Thank you, Jesus, for coming to seek and to save what was lost, because every one of us is lost until we find you.  Thank you, Jesus, for your free gift of salvation and forgiveness of all our sins.  Thank you Jesus, for showing us the love of God that is so high and so wide and so deep that we cannot escape it.

          May we, who have been saved by your grace, join you in seeking to save those who are lost.  May we, who know the height and the width and the depth of your love we willing to share your love with others.                 Amen