The Zacchaeus Rule
Luke 19: 1 – 10.
Introduction
Today
is April 15, 2012. Did you know that
April 15 is an important day of the year?
More than just this year, April 15 is an important date in history.
Abraham
Lincoln died on April 15, 1865 after being shot on April 14.
One
hundred years ago today—April 15, 2012—the RMS
Titanic sank in the North Atlantic and
claimed the lives of 1,517 of her passengers.
On a positive note, Jackie
Robinson made his Major League Baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers) debut on April 15,
1947. Robinson was the first African
American player in Major League Baseball.
April
15, 1987 was a very sad day in the United States
Sorry
to be the one to remind you…But, if today were not a Sunday, it would also be
Tax Day. This year, Tax Day is on
Tuesday, April 17, because Monday is Emancipation Day. I’m not sure what Emancipation Day is, but it
does not refer to emancipation from taxes.
Taxes
are getting a lot of attention right now, since this is a presidential election
year. Both political parties are talking
about tax reform. And the rhetoric is
heating up. The Obama administration is promoting
something called the “Buffet Rule,” which is based on suggestions made by
billionaire Warren Buffet. (The
suggestion is to raise the maximum tax rate for wealthy taxpayers to 30%.)
I
don’t want to use my time in the pulpit to promote tax reform or to argue for
or against the Buffet Rule. Instead, I
want to introduce you to the Zacchaeus Rule.
Zacchaeus
was a First Century tax collector, who was hated just as much as Twenty-First
Century tax collectors. If you are
familiar with the story of Zacchaeus, it probably brings back memories from
your childhood and of singing the song: “Zacchaeus
was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a
sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see…” But this is not a sweet,
children’s story. This is a scandalous story of Jesus reaching out to the
untouchables.
Luke 19: 1 – 10.
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.
4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."
6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'"
8 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."
9 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
(NIV)
When we read this story, we need to keep in mind something Luke
told his readers earlier in Luke 9: 51.
Luke tells us that Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem
That is significant, because we all know what was waiting for
Jesus in Jerusalem Jerusalem Jerusalem
Everything Jesus does at this point in the Gospel of Luke is
intentional. He has “resolutely set out
for Jerusalem
For example, we read in Luke 19: 1 that Jesus was “passing
through” Jericho Jericho and Jerusalem Jericho on their
way to Jerusalem Nacogdoches
to get to Lufkin Jericho
Of course not everyone thought Zaccaeus was the type of person
Jesus should be looking for. Zacchaeus
was not exactly what we would call a righteous person. In fact, Zacchaeus was hated by most of the
people in Jericho
Zacchaeus was hated for being Wealthy. This is somewhat difficult for us to
understand, because our culture looks at the wealthy differently than the
ancient Jews did. Late Jewish theology
had developed an association of poverty with piety. In the previous
chapter (18: 24f) Jesus had described the difficulty of the rich entering
heaven. Wealth indicated independence & self sufficiency, even rebellious
spirit…rebelling from religion. Poverty indicated dependence & need
for God. Wealth was also suspicious in
the ancient world. Wealthy people were
usually unscrupulous people, who often profited off of the suffering of poor
people.
Zacchaeus was hated for being a Tax Collector. Jewish people usually thought of tax
collectors as traitors and thieves. And
they had good reason to think this. Tax
collectors in Palestine collected taxes for the
hated Roman Empire from Palestinian people. They took money from Jewish people and gave
it to the Gentiles. Tax collectors were
not usually paid by the Roman government.
The tax collectors had to pay the Romans for a license to collect
taxes. Then, the tax collectors set the
amount of taxes to be paid. They had to
collect enough taxes to pay for their license and to make a profit for
themselves. It was a very corrupt
profession.
Zacchaeus was hated for being the Chief Tax Collector. This is worse than being a simple tax
collector. The Chief Tax Collector set the fees & contracted lower
tax collectors (Publicans) to do the actual collecting. Zacchaeus,
possibly had been so good at defrauding the people of Jericho
Rich People Can Be Lost, too
Zacchaeus was the total package. Luke described Zacchaeus
as everything necessary to be worst possible sinner. He would have been despised by the
self-righteous Pharisees on hand at Jericho
This is remarkable when we compare Luke 19 with the story at
the end of Luke 18. In Luke 18, we read about a man who was lost
in blindness and poverty. The blindness
and poverty didn’t scare Jesus away.
Jesus saved him from blindness and poverty. And, here we encounter a man who was lost in
wealth and corruption. Wealth and
corruption didn’t scare Jesus away either.
Jesus saved Zacchaeus.
The religious establishmen hated Zacchaeus, because the
Pharisees were separatists. They taught the Jewish people not to run
around with “sinners.” Separate yourselves from all evil people. Some of the Pharisees were known to cross the
street so they wouldn’t have to meet a woman walking on the same side of the
street. I suppose this was to avoid
their own lustful thoughts. There was
even a common prayer among the Pharisees.
When they woke up in the mornings, they would pray, “Thank you Lord that
I am not a Gentile, a woman or a sinner.”
They thought they could separate themselves from sin to the point that
they no longer had a sin problem.
However, when we read Luke’s Gospel, we discover that Jesus
spent all his time with people who were not like the Pharisees. Jesus spent time with Gentiles, women and
sinners. Jesus offered the Kingdom of God
This was an important and welcomed theme to Luke’s
readers…Readers were just like you and me…Gentiles, non-Jews who were
previously considered left out of God’s plan of salvation…And Luke shows us
that it is possible for both Jews and Gentiles to be saved…Poor and Rich…Men
and Women…Jesus came that everyone might be saved.
Jesus Spent Time with Lost People
When Jesus invited himself to go home with Zacchaeus, the
religious folk began to whisper. Jesus was “Guilty by association.” Of course, I think Jesus had to invite
himself to Zacchaeus’ house, because Zacchaeus knew what the religious folk
thought about him. He would have assumed
Jesus was just like the Pharisees and wanted nothing to do with him.
There was a common belief that eating in the home of someone
like Zacchaeus was eating food purchased with dirty money. Eating food bought with dirty money was to participate
in (or at least giving approval to) the crime that brought it about.
Therefore, Jesus was guilty in their eyes. They accused Jesus of
being Zacchaeus’ partner.
However, Jesus was not afraid of spending time with lost
people. Jesus touched unclean lepers,
even though he knew this would make him unclean in the eyes of the Jews. Jesus ate in Zacchaeus’ house, even though he
knew this would make him unclean in the eyes of the self-righteous
Pharisees.
I like to think of it this way.
Imagine that after church today we all go out to eat together in a local
restaurant. We are all sitting together
at one big table. And right next to our
table is a table full of sinners. The
sinners I’m talking about are the worst kind of sinners you can imagine. They don’t look like you, dress like you or vote
like you. In fact, they don’t
acknowledge anything you believe. What
would happen if Jesus walked into the same restaurant? Would Jesus sit at our table? Or, would Jesus sit with “those people?”
I have read the Gospels many times over the years. And, every time I read the Gospels, they say
the same thing. Jesus wouldn’t sit at
our table. Jesus would sit with the
other table.
But, notice what happened to Zacchaeus. Once Zacchaeus had his encounter with Jesus,
a real change happened in his life. We
know he was changed, because of several things.
First, Zacchaeus’ actions demonstrated his change. He offered to give away half of his
possessions to the poor and to repay everyone he has cheated four times what he
owed them. People who have received Grace always show Grace to others. Forgiven people know how to forgive
others. When God has been generous to
you, you can be generous to others.
Second, Jesus told the crowd of self-righteous Pharisees that
Zacchaeus is a Son of Abraham. This
ought to remind us of the message John the Baptist preached at the beginning of
the Gospel of Luke and one of Luke’s dominant themes. John the Baptist told the Jews not to think
they were safe from judgment because they were biologically the sons of
Abraham. John said, God could turn
stones into sons of Abraham (Luke 3: 8).
This is why Luke often showed Jesus spending time with undesirable
people. Luke knew that the Kingdom of God Kingdom of God
Third, we need to pay attention to Jesus’ use of the word
“today.” Jesus said, “Today, salvation
has come…” In other words, there was
something different about Zacchaeus “today.”
He was not the same person he had been “yesterday.” Zacchaeus had been changed. He experienced a conversion.
When I use the word “conversion” I don’t necessarily mean sudden
conversion. But a change ALWAYS take
place when a person encounters Jesus. For
some people, conversion takes place over a course of time, slowly. For Zacchaeus, conversion was sudden.
When a baby is born, there is a certain degree of suddenness.
One day there are two, the next day there are three. But this is
not a sudden change, it is a process that took at least nine months to
complete.
Jesus Is Our Model
At the beginning of the story, Zacchaeus was searching for
Jesus. Zacchaeus had everything money
could buy. But, he couldn’t buy
Jesus. He could not buy his way into the
Kingdom of God
In the middle of the story, Jesus took over. Jesus looked into the tree and called
Zacchaeus by name. We don’t know how
Jesus knew his name. Jesus must have
been looking for him. Then, Jesus
invited himself to eat at Zacchaeus’ house.
At the house, Jesus the guest became Jesus the host. He invited Zacchaeus to place his faith in
Jesus.
How many times have we heard sermon or bible lesson on this
story with Zacchaeus as the hero? Verse 10 turns this view completely
around.
Luke 19:
10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
This is not a story about a man searching for Jesus. This is a story about Jesus searching for all
lost people. Some people are lost in
blindness and poverty. Some people are
lost in wealth and corruption. But,
everyone is lost at one time or another. And, Jesus is searching for lost people.
If we are Jesus’ people, we are supposed to follow Jesus’
example. We are to search for lost
people.
Keep in mind, this is not a passive activity. Jesus never waited for lost people to come to
him. Jesus is actively searching for
lost people.
Conclusion
We make two big mistakes when it comes to searching for lost
people.
Our first mistake is that we are passive. We gather on Sunday mornings in a beautiful
sanctuary and wait for people to come to us.
They know we are here. All they
have to do is walk through those doors and ask us about Jesus. We will be happy to answer all their
questions about Jesus as long as it doesn’t make us late for lunch!
Our second mistake we make is we expect people to clean up their
own lives before we introduce them to Jesus.
This is what the Pharisees thought about Zacchaeus. If Zacchaeus had not been a wealthy, chief
tax collector, no one would have given a second thought about Jesus’ eating in
his house. This is also why people don’t
walk through our church doors to ask us about Jesus. They know we expect them to dress right and
live right before they can meet Jesus.
If there is anything we can learn from Luke 19, it is that Jesus
searches for lost people and meets with them before their lives are
perfect.
I once saw a church sign on the side of the highway that read,
“Jesus called us to be fishers of men.
You catch ‘em. He’ll clean ‘em.”
Jesus once told us to be the light of the world. Light can only be effective in darkness. That means we have to get out of the church
and into the dark world. We have to
actively search for sinners and meet them where they are. That is the Zacchaeus Rule.
The story of Zacchaeus is not a sweet, children’s story.
It is scandalous and offensive. If you find this to be offensive,
you are in good company. The Pharisees
found it offensive, but there is no other Gospel.
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