What can Jesus' encounter with Zacchaeus teach us today?
19 1Jesus 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 because he was short he could not see over 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 the lost."
"Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he..."
That little refrain brings back a lot of memories -- memories of singing a song in Vacation Bible School and Sunday school. I can still do the hand motions to the song.
The story of Zacchaeus, which only the Gospel of Luke records, is more than a catchy song for children. It's also more than a story which provided the letter Z for alphabet rhymes in the New England Primer of the 1700s.
Luke's record is the very real story of a man who met Jesus. Zacchaeus had heard so much about the Messiah that he desperately wanted to see Jesus. Most important, this is the story of a man whose life was changed by meeting the Lord.
Bible study outlines on this story usually suggest that one lesson to be learned from it is that the gospel is for the rich as well as for the poor. Well, that's okay as a lesson, but I think Zacchaeus' story can teach us some other things.
Do you remember that Zacchaeus had a height problem? I can identify with him. I'm barely 5'6". It seems to me that most biblical commentators -- who are probably tall anyway like my tall and lanky seminary professor Dr. Ralph Earle -- pass lightly over what to us short people is one significant truth of the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus: The gospel is not only for the tall, dark, and handsome. It's also for the short and scrawny. The gospel is for the jaded rich as well as for the hopelessly poor.
Jesus loves us all, just as we are. Zacchaeus' story shows clearly the seeking and saving work of Jesus. In the face of withering criticism, Jesus seeks for the soul of Zacchaeus, the hated tax man. And Jesus wins him over.
The story is told simply by Luke. But what a moment it must have been as Zacchaeus realized the radical changes that were taking place inside him. Genuine repentance was for Zacchaeus a costly affair. Following Jesus had for Zacchaeus the high cost Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about in his book The Cost of Discipleship.
In fact, the restitution that Zacchaeus made was not simply to even out things in making wrongs right. He returned four for one in the spirit of the Old Testament restitution requirement.
There are a number of very sound reasons why making restitution like Zacchaeus should be a part of our becoming and living as disciples of Christ:
Maybe the Holy Spirit is dealing with you about making something right. Is God leading you? Why not write a letter or an email right now, or pick up the telephone and call? You'll be glad you did.
I wrote this devotional article while Barbara and I were serving as missionaries in Italy. It was published in Standard, a weekly Faith Connections take-home curriculum piece for adult Sunday school classes produced The Foundry.
-- Howard Culbertson,
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