1 [Jesus] 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."
THOUGHTS:
In the Roman Empire, taxes weren't collected based on complex formulas based on income and deductions like we use today. Roman citizens didn't have to pay the taxes -- that burden fell on all the conquered nations. Tax collectors bid on the priviledge to collect the taxes in each community. Whoever bid highest would then front some portion of the money to the treasury. Then, the tax collector basically went around squeezing people to cover what they thought they could collect. Anything they raised above the pledged about was personal profit. It sounds to me like the tax system worked a lot like the mob payoffs on TV.
As you can imagine, tax collection was exceedingly profitable, and tax collectors were not popular. Zacchaeus was a "vertically challenged" tax collector, and he was stinking rich. Try to imagine his situation for a moment. He probably owned whatever he wanted, but he probably didn't have many friends. He made his riches through extortion. When he walked down the street, people might have tried not notice him. Can you imagine what they said behind his back? He may have felt like he was very important sometimes, but I bet he also had a big gaping hole inside -- I doubt his riches brought him joy.
Zacchaeus climbs a tree to see Jesus moving through the crowds. Why? Scripture says he was "seeking to see who Jesus was." Had he been up the tree to see others in the past? Was it a mere whim or was he specifically intrigued about Jesus from stories he had heard? Jesus sees him in the tree and calls him by name, asking Zacchaeus to take him home for lunch. Zacchaeus "hurried" and "received him joyfully". I wonder if the reason he was so joyful was because he felt overwhelmed by the love and compassion of Jesus. This is all we now of Zacchaeus -- we're left to assume that this one encounter -- this one shared lunch -- changed Zacchaeus' life.
He was lost and he probably knew it. He obviously knew he had treated people unfairly. He had all the money he could ask for, but he was lost. After meeting Jesus, he volunteers to give half of his good to the poor and pay back four times any unfair profits. Talk about life changing!
How has Jesus changed your life?
PRAYER:
God, thank you for coming for the lost and broken. Help us to admit that we are lost. Make us whole through Christ. AMEN.
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