November 2, 2025
Luke 19:1-10
Over the last few months, we’ve talked about quite a few people whose stories from the Bible have made them famous. Just last week we talked about the Pharisee and the tax collector, characters in a very well-known story. We’ve talked about the persistent widow and the unjust judge and we’ve talked about the rich man and Lazarus, also all characters from well-known stories. We’ve talked about Nicodemus, the other Lazarus, and Jairus. All of these folks are people for whom their stories being in the Bible have made them famous over the millennia. But you know what? These people may be famous, but they aren’t “somebody wrote a song about me famous”! But today we have the real deal. This guy today is so famous that somebody actually DID write a song about him.
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he,
he climbed up in a sycamore tree, the Savior for to see.
And as the Savior passed that way he looked up in the tree, and he said,
“Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m going to your house today.”
And not only is Zacchaeus “somebody wrote a song about me” famous, but when they sing his song, his song has hand motions. There’s this whole actual pantomime thing that goes along with his song. Now that, THAT is famous!
I would imagine that at least a few of us have heard the story of Zacchaeus somewhere along the line. (Other than the song, I mean). Jesus is traveling through Jericho and Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, wants to see him, actually the text tells us that Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was. But apparently, Zacchaeus was, umm, vertically challenged, and so, he climbed a Sycamore Tree to get a better view. And just incidentally, in modern day Jericho, on the main road that goes past Jericho, there is a 2,000-year-old sycamore tree right by the side of the road that tradition tells us is Zacchaeus’ actual tree. I guess it goes without saying that it is a big tourist attraction. Anyway, Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the tree and tells him; commands him actually, to come down from the tree because Jesus MUST have dinner at his house tonight. Zacchaeus, delighted at Jesus’ call, excitedly comes to Jesus and proclaims that he is giving half of his possessions to the poor and that, if he has defrauded anyone, he is repaying them fourfold. Jesus proclaims that “Salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ household today”.
As we dig into this story, we need to remember that Zacchaeus wasn’t JUST a tax collector, he was the CHIEF tax collector. He was the guy who the Romans had put in charge of all of the tax collecting for the district in which he lived. Now, there is something that we need to understand about the Roman tax collector system. The Romans actually didn’t pay tax collectors particularly well. An honest tax collector would not be significantly better off financially than any of the other average inhabitants of Palestine. But you see, tax collectors had the weight of a ruthless and brutal Roman army behind them. And as a result of this very intimidating support, an opportunistic tax collector could inflate the amount of the taxes due and pocket the difference. And the taxpayers had little if any recourse to combat this, let’s call it what it is: theft. The bottom line is, if a tax collector was wealthy, he had to have been cheating people in order to acquire that wealth. And ALL of the tax collectors were wealthy. So, it wasn’t bad enough that the tax collectors were collaborating with the enemy, they were defrauding their own people as well. Is it any wonder that they were despised? And so, it’s not hard to imagine why our story today tells us that when Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house the people were grumbling about Jesus keeping company with such a man as Zacchaeus.
When one studies Luke’s Gospel, one finds it to be quite well organized. Luke has chosen to situate his stories in such a way that a preceding story will often set the foundation for the following story, or a following story will help to interpret or illuminate the previous story, and that is the case today. Today’s story about Zacchaeus follows the parable of the rich young ruler. In that parable a young, devout, and wealthy ruler of the Jewish people came to Jesus and said to Him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds by telling the man to follow the Law and the man replies that he always has. “One thing you lack” Jesus tells him, “Sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven, then come and follow me”. The man walked away sad because he was unwilling to part with his wealth.
And so, today, Luke tells us another story about another wealthy official. One who very badly wanted to see who Jesus was. So much so that he ran forward of the crowd and climbed a tree to get a better view. In the culture of the ancient East, it was considered undignified for an adult to run, and we can imagine how even MORE undignified it would have been for an adult to climb a tree, especially when that adult is wealthy and is a high ranking official. What a picture that must have been, a short man, almost certainly wearing fine, expensive clothes, scrambling up a tree. But Zacchaeus wasn’t concerned with appearances. He wanted to see who Jesus was.
We don’t really know why he wanted so badly to see who Jesus was, but we can probably speculate. Tax collectors were despised, and Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector and so his life was almost certainly filled with endless episodes of abuse and malicious treatment from the Jewish community. And maybe he was tired of that. Maybe he was tired of being branded a “sinner”, which was the common epithet directed at tax collectors. Or maybe he wanted to see Jesus because he had heard some of Jesus’ teachings and Jesus’ words had moved him to decide that he no longer wanted to be participating in something that he knew was so hurtful to so many people. The truth is, we really don’t know.
But regardless of why Zacchaeus wanted so badly to see Jesus, this we do know… Without boring everyone with a long Greek lesson. In English we modify words to indicate tense and voice by changing the words themselves (I’m going, I go, I went) but in the Greek, these things are indicated by using a system of different endings attached to the root words. And in our story today, according to this Greek system of identifying tenses and voices, this passage was written in the present tense and uses an active voice. Please allow me to re-read Luke 19 verse 8 from the English Standard Version: “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.” Did you happen to hear the subtle difference? The NIV says, “I WILL give”. The EST says, “I AM giving”.
This parable today is a wonderful picture of how Jesus changes lives when those lives are open to being changed. How much money do we think Zacchaeus would have had left over after he gave half of everything to the poor, and then gave fourfold restitution to those who he had defrauded? Probably not much, right? In fact, he may very well have given away everything. But you see, Zacchaeus had just found the pearl of great price. In Matthew 13 Jesus tells this parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Everything he had! For Zacchaeus, to give away all in exchange for being made right with God wasn’t a sacrifice to him at all. And the text tells us that Zacchaeus was joyful.
And here is where Luke contrasts Zacchaeus’ joyful response to Jesus’ call, with the rich, young ruler’s sad rejection of Jesus. In these two stories we can see clearly how the way that we handle earthly things reveals the condition of our hearts. When we cling to earthly things then those things become our master. Our earthly possessions will dictate to us what we do and how we live. And ultimately, our earthly possessions will define who we are. Coble gave us a great explanation of this when he said, “In the New Testament, ‘the world’ represents that order of human life which consistently rejects or defies God and His claims upon [humans]. It is essentially a self-centered life. Its primary traits are the giving of great effort to gratify appetites physical, mental, and emotional, and intense hatred of any who may resist or fail to cooperate in efforts to attain that satisfaction”.
Those who are wrapped up in that pursuit of worldly satisfaction will neither have the ability nor the inclination to love others. Our rich, young ruler friend walked away from Jesus, he walked away because he was unwilling to give up that pursuit of worldly satisfaction. But when Zacchaeus climbed down from that tree, the only satisfaction that mattered to him was the satisfaction of a renewed and right relationship with God. And this is the lesson that Luke gives us as he contrasts these two stories.
N. T. Wright comments that, “The hardened old tax collector fits in to three of Luke’s regular themes: the problem of riches and what to do about it, the identification of Jesus with ‘sinners’ and the faith which recognizes Jesus as Lord and discovers new life as a result”. [1] Indeed, Luke here gives us three quarters of a summary of the Gospel itself: Jesus calls, we answer, and our lives are changed as a result.
But there is more to this lesson than just that summery. Zacchaeus wanted to know WHO Jesus was. This was a curiosity that was born of the work of the Holy Spirit. Before Zacchaeus ever climbed that tree, the Sprit was already calling him and preparing him for his encounter with Jesus. Zacchaeus pursued his call with a sense of urgency, not walking but running so that he wouldn’t miss his chance to see Jesus. Zacchaeus abandoned all concern about how his actions would be viewed by others, climbing that tree in full view of the community. Undignified or not, Zacchaeus was not going to miss out on this opportunity. And when Jesus called Zacchaeus by name, Zacchaeus responded with JOY at Jesus’ call and already had begun to exhibit the fruits of a transformed heart. Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus without regard for the fact that the crowds seriously and loudly disapproved, a wonderful illustration of how Jesus accepts us exactly as we are, even though He never LEAVES us the way we are. And where that crowd had excluded Zacchaeus from the fellowship of the temple and the community, Jesus embraced him and declared him to be a true son of Abraham, restoring him to his rightful place among God’s beloved people.
Our story closes with the fourth and final quarter of that Gospel summary when Jesus said that “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Our social status doesn’t matter to Jesus. Whether we are wealthy or poor, popular or outcast, white collar or blue collar, none of this matters to Jesus. The only thing that matters is… when Jesus calls, how do we respond? Do we jealously guard our worldly lives like the rich, young, ruler? Or do we recognize the fact that we have finally found that pearl of great price? That we have found the one thing that is worth more to us than everything else? And if we have made that discovery, are we allowing God to touch us with the power of His love and allowing Him to change our lives? In a world that is full of rich young rulers, let us be Zacchaeus.
[1] N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, Pg. 165
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