INTRODUCTION
“Long, long time ago there was a short man who . . .” The story captures our imagination. It is a story about Jesus and sinners. It was preserved to teach us how the saving power of Jesus can transform a life. It is a story about a person who was dissatisfied with his achievements and who was looking for something better. His soul was yearning for the good and beautiful; for the divine, and the divine found him where we all were found—on a tree.
I. ZACCHAEUS, THE CHIEF TAX COLLECTOR
We know a few things about this man. First, his name is Zacchaeus (Zakchaios), based on the Hebrew Zakkai, meaning “clean,” “innocent,” expressing the wishes of his parents. How little we know about the future of our children! They come as a gift, we embrace them with love, and we wonder about their future. We want them to be good, to enjoy life, and to be pure. But others also influence them and often the future we imagined perishes before our eyes. Zacchaeus made a number of choices and they transformed him into who he was.
Second, Zacchaeus is “a chief tax collector” (Luke 19:2, ESV), meaning that he was in charge of collecting the taxes and tolls of a region, and that other tax collectors worked for him. The Roman government allowed persons like Zacchaeus to collect taxes and tolls and to obtain some personal gain by overcharging the people. The result was abuse and the exploitation of the poor. The phrase “Zacchaeus the chief tax collector” is an oxymoron. A tax collector could not be an innocent person!
Third, Zacchaeus is “rich.” Tax collectors were hated by Jews and were never totally accepted by the Romans. He knew that his fortune was the result of his exploitation of the poor. However, the story suggests that Zacchaeus was yearning for something better—friendship, acceptance, and inner peace. Fourth, today Zacchaeus is in Jericho on his business, or so he thought. God never abandons our children because they are also His children. That very same day Jesus entered Jericho on His last journey to Jerusalem. They will meet each other and Zacchaeus will never again be the same.
II. ZACCHAEUS ON A TREE: JESUS SAW HIM
Zacchaeus sees a crowd in conversation with a person and wonders what is happening. I suppose he asked about this person and, knowing that He is Jesus, he wants to see Him. You have to ask yourself, why would he want to see Jesus? Perhaps, when tax collectors gathered together to talk about their exploits, someone may have mentioned Jesus and said in a tone of amazement, “The Jewish leaders say that there is something wrong with Him because He eats with tax collectors and sinners” (cf. Luke 7:34). Yes, Zacchaeus has to see this Man who has fellowship with people like him. Perhaps, he may have said to himself, I could invite Him to come home to dine with me. The yearning was there because the One whom he has not yet seen was causing him to long to see Him. Before we went out seeking for Jesus, Jesus was already there seeking us.
Zacchaeus longs to find out whether Jesus would accept him, the despised chief tax collector. “Is there anyone who really cares for me? If that is the case, I have to see that person.” The story is there for you. It tells you, “Yes, there is such a Person.” Zacchaeus jumps up and down trying to get a glimpse of the young Rabbi, but being of short stature he is unable to see Him. Then, Zacchaeus sees the sycamore tree on the side of the road.
The branches of the tree are low enough for Zacchaeus to grab them and climb on to the tree. From there he sees Jesus! Soon Jesus looks up and says to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down [Gk. katabaino], for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5, ESV). I imagine Zacchaeus thinking, Jesus knows my name and my desire to be true to it; to be pure, and innocent! He indeed eats with tax collectors and sinners like me! Jesus had approached other trees seeking fruit and found none, but today, as He is approaching the sycamore tree, He finds a wonderful fruit, Zacchaeus! This fruit must be removed from the tree in order to be part of His Kingdom. So, Jesus shouts to Zacchaeus, “Do not waste time, come down quickly, I am going home with you.” This is divine acceptance. The joy of salvation possesses him and he hurries home with the Man who invited Himself to dinner.
Some in the crowd are not happy: All who saw it “grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner’” (Luke 19:7, ESV). Somehow we expect God to reject those whom we reject. Somehow we have concluded that our standards for fellowship ought to bind and limit God’s love and compassion. Everybody was complaining, including the disciples. Zacchaeus was a sinner, but not them. We are hard on others because we have forgotten that the grace extended to Zacchaeus was also extended to us.
III. COME DOWN FOR I WILL GO UP: SALVATION
Repentance is not mentioned, but it is there. Grace brings with it radical change and we see things in a different light. Zacchaeus is accepted by Jesus and He wants now to be the person he intended to be. Zacchaeus has decided to help the poor (giving them half of what he has), and to redress the abuses he has committed (paying back fourfold those he abused); the fruit of repentance. He wants to be as gracious to all as Jesus has been to Him. The beauty of this response is that it was not solicited by Jesus. It came from the heart of the tax collector as his response to the grace received.
The last voice we hear in the story is that of Jesus. He answers the charges of the multitude and explicitly tells Zacchaeus how divine grace reached him today in Jericho. In the story, salvation and Jesus are equated (Luke 19:5, 9). Jesus seems to be saying to the crowd, “Even before you realized that you were sinners God had sent the Son of Man ‘to seek and to save that which was lost.’” Those who open the door of their heart to Jesus are true children of Abraham.
The mystery of this grace was revealed by the sycamore tree. For Jesus Zacchaeus was in the wrong place; on the tree. His place is at home with Jesus. The tree is for Jesus. He is the One who will go up the tree rejected by all. His enemies will tempt Him to come down from the tree: “If you are the Son of God, come down [Gk. katabaino] from the cross’’ (Matt 27:39–42, ESV).
Jesus will ascend the tree, in order for Zacchaeus to descend from it. Jesus said to him, “Today I must stay at your house.” Soon after that, Jesus ascended to Jerusalem to be nailed to the tree for us (Acts 5:30; 10:39; cf. Luke 23:31). He bore our sin on the tree (1 Pet 2:24) and became who we are. What happened in Jericho was part of the divine plan for Jesus: this “must happen” today. Jesus was taking sinners down from the tree; His mission was to seek them and free them. It happened in Jericho that day; it is happening here today.
CONCLUSION
The story of Zacchaeus is a story about the cost of salvation; the price God paid to eat with and to transform sinners into clean, innocent persons, children of Abraham. Have you experienced the transforming power of the one who took you down from the tree and accepted you into His fellowship of love? Perhaps today is the day to say to Him, Please take me and transform me, or to thank Jesus for taking my place on the tree.
Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, ThD, is a retired director of the Biblical Research Institute at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
