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Luke 19:1-10: "He entered Jericho and was passing through.  2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.  3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature.  4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.  5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.'  6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.  7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.'  8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.'  9 And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.  10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.'"

 

INTRODUCTION

 

We've been on a journey of sorts through the book of Luke as we unpack the various meal narratives of Jesus.  So important are these meals that some commentators believe Luke wrote this Gospel with the meal narratives as the central thread that best highlights Jesus' purpose and mission. 

 

These meals show us the welcoming grace of God-a God who seeks out the most unlikely people to spend time with and befriend over a meal.  A God who comforts the troubled and troubles the comfortable.  A God who changes people by His presence.  A God who enjoys those whom the world and religion have cast off. 

 

These meals show us the transforming grace of God-a scandalous God who comes with scandalous grace to transform the broken into lovers of Him and lovers of others. 

 

STUDY

 

Verses 1-3: "He entered Jericho and was passing through.  2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.  3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature."

 

Zaccheaus

 

As we've seen, tax collectors were despised more than pagans, more than prostitutes and pimps, more than murderers. 

 

They were traitors of their nation and traitors of God.  They sold themselves out to their enemy and became collaborators of the occupying, imperial government of Rome.  Even Rome despised them because they knew what they were doing.  They were collecting taxes for Rome and were not given a salary.  The way they made their money was by taxing the people more than what Rome required. 

 

In a place like Jericho, this would have made you very rich and very hated. Jericho was located on two major trade routes just outside of Jerusalem.  It was an important center that had plenty of commerce and exchange.

 

As a man, Zacchaeus could have anything he wanted.  As a Jew, Zacchaeus would be despised.  His money would buy him friends, but not family.  His parents, brothers and sisters, and extended family would have disowned him and considered him dead to them. 

 

You can imagine the guilt and shame that a man like Zacchaeus would try to repress and ignore.  Making more money, having more sex, drinking more wine would numb him so that he would no longer feel the sting of his conscience. 

 

We're not told much about him, but we're told that he was rich, that he was not only a tax collector but the chief tax collector, and we're told that he was short. We can also surmise by the story that he was greedy, a traitor, a cheat, and an exploiter. 

 

Yet this greedy traitor is given grace and finds salvation! How does God's grace come to us?  How does God's grace flow through us to others? What does transformation look like when you meet Jesus?  This is what this story is all about.  Jesus says in verses 9 and 10 that He came to bring salvation and to seek and save that which was lost.  This is what He's all about. 

 

So how do we get Jesus' grace?  How does His grace change us?

 

Well, let's look first at how we receive it.

 

Verse 3: "And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature." 

 

The first thing we notice is that Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. 

 

Some commentators have brushed this off by saying his motive was nothing more than mere curiosity.  I don't think so.  I think Zacchaeus heard about this man named Jesus.  I think he probably heard about a man who called Levi, the tax collector, to come follow Him.  I think he probably heard about this man who welcomed a prostitute and loved her.  I think he probably heard the stories of Jesus' rebuke of the self-righteous and religious Pharisees.  I think Jesus' reputation for loving and welcoming the outcast and marginalized was known by Zacchaeus.

 

He was "seeking to see who Jesus was."  This word "seeking" is the same word Jesus uses in v. 10 where Jesus says He had come to "seek and save that which was lost."  It was more than just catching a glimpse of someone.  It was a concerted effort to find someone.  Zacchaeus wanted to see the real Jesus.

 

Do you?  Do you want to find the real Jesus or the Jesus that you think you're already familiar with?  There is a difference.    

 

But there were obstacles for Zacchaeus to see Jesus clearly just like there are obstacles for us.    

In order to meet the real Jesus there are a couple of things we need to deal with first. 

 

Verse 4: "So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way."

 

1- We have to deal with the crowd

 

The main thing that is keeping Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus is the crowd.  And this is a judgmental, self-righteous, religious crowd that looks down its nose as him. 

 

He's not only short in stature, he is short in character to them.  They would see him as small even if he were 6'5".  That's what self-righteous people have to do; they have to look down on others. 

 

This was a problem for Zaccheaus and it's a problem today.  Most people have a hard time seeing Jesus because their view is obscured by people who claim to follow Him.  It is perhaps one of the greatest barriers for people to come and see Jesus. 

 

Moralistic, self-righteous Christianity is so destructive and so damaging that even people that I've met who are willing to talk about Jesus, want nothing to do with His church because of the hypocrisy and lack of compassion and grace that they've experienced.  It is a visceral emotion and we have to deal with it if we're going to have Jesus' grace flowing through us to the world.  Both the non-Christian and Christian have to deal with this.  If you're a non-Christian, it's a major obstacle to see Jesus.  If you're a Christian, it's problem because it chokes out the power and dynamic of grace flowing through you to the world.

 

Have you ever heard, "If Christianity were true, it wouldn't produce people like this?"  How do you deal with that argument?

 

You have to do what Zacchaeus did.  Zacchaeus didn't allow the crowd to keep him from seeing Jesus clearly.  He didn't even attempt to see Jesus through the crowd.  He found a place where He could get past the crowd and see Jesus most clearly. 

 

Every one of us has to deal with the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of those who are obstructing our view of Jesus or we're not going to see Jesus.  Where do we see Jesus most clearly?  In His great self-disclosure, His word!  If I want to see Him most clearly I have to get to know Him where He's chosen to show Himself off most clearly, the Bible-without which I will just form my opinion about Jesus from others. 

 

It is in this Bible that we see Jesus continuously saying to the prideful, upright and respectable people, "The tax collectors and prostitutes enter the kingdom before you" (Matthew 21:31).  He continuously condemns, with scathing rebukes, their legalism, bigotry, and love of wealth and power by telling them, "You cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness...You neglect justice and the love of God...You load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them...You devour widows houses and for a show make long prayers" (Luke 11:39-46; 20:47). 

 

It was the righteous and religious establishments who put Jesus to death. 

Whenever we see Jesus talk to tax-collectors, prostitutes, and sinful broken people, He's gentle and compassionate even when He's calling them to repent and change.  Yet when we see Jesus raise His voice and thunder words of rebuke and criticism, it is when He's talking to moralistic Bible teachers who claim to love God and follow Him. 

 

We have to see that the church is for broken people, not fixed-up, shiny, happy people who have it all together.  It is a group of people who have looked at themselves and have realized that though they thought they were tall, we are all small in comparison to God and we need to see the real Jesus.  So we gather together and live lives in relationship to one another to help each other see Jesus more clearly. 

 

Religion teaches us that we're good enough and tall enough to reach God.  The gospel is that we're too small and He has to come down to us.  He has to seek and save us who are small and lost. 

 

Don't let the crowd keep you from seeing Jesus when Jesus is more turned off and disgusted by the self-righteous than we are. 

 

One other note: to be this angry at self-righteous people requires a degree of self-righteousness.  To be that disgusted at those who are judgmental takes a degree of judgmentalism.   Every one of us is hypocritical, self-righteous and judgmental.  We all need to deal with the crowd so we can see Jesus more clearly. 

 

2- We have to deal with our pride

 

The second major issue we have to deal with in order to meet the real Jesus and have His grace flow through us is our pride and dignity. 

 

When Zaccheaus ran ahead and climbed up the tree, he was putting to death whatever remnants of pride and dignity he had left. 

 

If the mayor of San Diego was downtown and someone passed by and he ran through the crowds and climbed a pole to see him, it would be all over the evening news and he would be mocked.  It would be undignified to do something like this, even in our informal culture.

 

You can imagine in a traditional culture like this, where outward appearances were so important, how silly and undignified it would be for a chief tax collector, who had money and power, to climb up a sycamore tree to see Jesus.  Even his sinful friends would have a problem because it was so immature and foolish to do such a thing.  This was not fitting for a man with status. 

 

When Zacchaeus climbed this tree he would have paid an enormous price.  A child was allowed to do such a thing, not a grow man.  Even the Roman officials would have been disgusted by this act.

 

He paid the price of ridicule and he lost what little dignity he had left in order to see Jesus.  Nothing has changed.  We still have to deal with our damnable pride and dignity if we want to see Jesus.  And we'll never have Jesus' grace flowing through our lives until we are willing to lose our pride and dignity and look foolish to ourselves and others. 

 

We have to be willing to look like a child.  Jesus says so:

 

Luke 18:17: "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

 

Clearly Jesus doesn't mean that we're to stay immature or fill a diaper in order to receive the Kingdom!  What He's saying is that we're to have the disposition of a child who is willing to admit their need, trust in their Father, and not worry about what others think about us.

 

When you're a child you don't care what others think when you throw your arms around your dad.  You have a kind of blessed self-forgetfulness about you.  But as you grow into an older child and then a teenager, you start to look at yourself and you begin to care what others think about you.  You're not as willing to show signs of affection to your parents and you kind of cringe when your parents kiss you on the cheek in public.  Pride sets in and you become more and more concerned about what others think than what your parents think.  It is unfortunate, but it's true. 

 

You also start to care about being dignified and not looking foolish.  You want to be accepted by others so you do whatever it takes to not be mocked by your peers.  You begin to define yourself by the opinions of others rather than the love you have from your parents.  We begin to idolize approval from others.  We begin to view ourselves as the sum total of the opinions and verdicts charged against us.  Again, it happens.

 

To be like a child, to be willing to look foolish for Jesus is a crushing blow to your pride, and it is a necessary step to meet the real Jesus. 

 

C.S. Lewis says something so interesting about fairy tales and growing up.  He says this:

 

"When I was ten I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

 

Have you gotten over the fear of looking childish?  It's one of the ways you know you're growing up.  To be so self-absorbed, so fearful of the opinions of others, so defined by what others think, is a sure way to miss the real Jesus. 

 

There is nothing more childish than to worry about looking childish. 

 

Q-In what ways are we afraid of looking childish? 

 

Q-How does pride and dignity (looking mature before others) keep us from seeing Jesus?

 

Q-Was Jesus shamed and ridiculed?

 

 

 

 

3- We have to take Jesus home

 

Verse 5: "And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.'" 

 

This shows us the incredible nature of grace.

 

Q-When did grace come to Zaccheaus?  When Jesus welcomed Himself into his life. 

 

The appropriate thing would be for Jesus to tell him, "When you clean up your life I'll come over," instead Jesus invites Himself over just as He is and realizes that it is Jesus' grace that will transform Him. 

 

How does this grace change us?

 

Verses 6-10: "So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.  7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.'  8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.'  9 And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.  10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.'"

 

Look at Zaccheus' response, because of the grace and welcome of Jesus, Zaccheaus becomes gracious and generous.  The change comes because of the welcoming grace of God not the other way around. 

 

Salvation came in Jesus and Zaccheaus responded immediately. 

 

To go home with Zaccheaus (and the context is that he probably lodged there), was more than just having a quiet meal.  It was to get into someone's life, to be welcomed into every aspect of someone's life in relationship to Him, to be so affected that Jesus is at home at all times in our lives. 

 

Zaccheaus was only required to give back 20% on top of what he took, but he gave back 400%.  He didn't just tithe 10% of what he had, he gave 50%.  Why?  Because he saw the real Jesus and experienced the welcoming grace of God and it made him gracious. 

 

Revelation 3:19-20: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.  20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me."

 

How could Jesus do this?  Because He was the ultimate insider who was rejected and shamed, ridiculed and mocked so that we can be brought into relationship with God. 

 

Q-What kind of person was Zacchaeus at the beginning of the story (v. 2)?
Greedy. Exploiter. Cheat. Traitor to the nation and a traitor to God.

 

Q-What kind of person was Zacchaeus at the end of the story (v. 8)?
Just. Generous. Obedient. Confessing Christ as Lord of his life.

 

Q-What made Zacchaeus change?
Meeting Jesus. What was it about meeting Jesus that was so significant? The grace of God expressed in the invitation to a meal.

 

Q-Who took the initiative (v. 5)?
Jesus. Grace is God taking the initiative.

 

Q-What did people think of Jesus' choice for a dinner companion (v. 7)?
Disapproved.

 

Q-How does the story of Zacchaeus show what it means to be saved?

(What do we need to do to be accepted by God? Does God leave us as we are?)
It is to be accepted by God as we are-grace takes the initiative.
It is to be changed by God from what we are-grace transforms us.

 

Q-How should we be like Jesus in this story?
Accept one another as we are but also expect people to change.

 

Q-How would you use this story with someone who:
was trying to be right with God by being religious?
said we should accept them without expecting them to change?