The Relentless Pursuit of God

Luke 19:1-10

Antioch Christian Fellowship

Nov. 4, 2004

The Text

Luke 19:1 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."

The Sermon

Jesus knows where he is going and he knows what will happen when he arrives.  He’s on his way to Jerusalem.  Jesus has just told his disciples that the word of the prophets is about to be fulfilled (Luke 18:31).  He tells them that in Jerusalem he will be handed over to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spit upon, scourged and killed.  And he tells them on the third day, he will rise.  The disciples aren’t sure what to make of this, they don’t really understand, perhaps in the midst of all the commotion, they don’t even really hear him.

In addition to the twelve disciples, there were crowds of people traveling with Jesus.  The crowds swell as an air of excitement and expectation fills the land.  They are on their way to Jerusalem and everyone seems to know that when they arrive something big will happen.  The crowd rumbles with rumors about the coming kingdom that Jesus has talked so much about.  Something was going to happen when they arrived in the Holy City.  Some said the Kingdom of God would immediately appear.

On their way to Jerusalem, this great throng passes through the city of Jericho, one of the wealthiest cities in all of Palestine.  It was situated in the midst of the most fertile land in Judea.  There were spacious parks with plantings of trees, palm trees and trees called sycamores, but not like our tall sycamores, these are really more like fig trees with low growing branches.  Jericho was such a pleasant place that King Herod had built a grand palace there.  If one was a tax collector, Jericho was the place to set up shop.  To be the chief tax collector in such a place would mean considerable wealth.  In a place like this, a tax collector could get rich honestly.

But the chief tax collector of Jericho, Zacchaeus by his own admission seems to have used at least some extortion to increase his means.  But then an honest tax collector would have been considered an oxymoron in the first century world. The Roman Empire had employed tax collectors for at least two hundred years by this time.  No one liked them.  Cicero, an important author in the century before Christ was born had no use for tax collectors, calling them vulgar. Their reputation did not get any better so that by the time Jesus begins to teach, he uses them as the example of selfishness.  In his teaching about the quality of generous love in Matthew 5:46, Jesus says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”  One would certainly never want to be associated in any way with tax collectors and for the pious Jew, this prevailing disgust for the profession was aggravated by religious considerations.  The tax collector was ceremonially unclean because his job required constant contact with Gentiles and then there was his need to work on the Sabbath.  To be ceremonially unclean meant that you could not go into the temple to worship.  Eating with such a person was out of the question:  how could you possibly trust the food at a tax collector’s table, someone who so blatantly disregarded God’s law?

There are all kinds of barriers between Zacchaeus and Jesus.  There are religious and social barriers and then there is the physical barrier, Zacchaeus is not tall enough to see over the crowd.  But Zacchaeus really wants to see Jesus.  We don’t know why, maybe it was just idol curiosity, like Ophra or Tom Hanks or Brittany Spears coming into town.  Perhaps he was caught up in the excitement of the day and wanted to see the one causing such a stir.  Perhaps he had heard what people were saying about Jesus that he was a “friend of tax collectors and sinners,” (Luke 7:34) and he needed a friend.  We really don’t know why, we only know that Zacchaeus had a compelling need to see Jesus.  He wanted to see him enough to risk public ridicule.  Zacchaeus runs ahead of the crowd, finds a tree to climb along the path that Jesus is walking and waits for him. Zacchaeus, the prominent government official is perched in a tree hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesus.

Zacchaeus receives what he desires and a whole lot more.  When Jesus reaches the place where Zacchaeus is, he stops his crucial mission to the world and speaks to one man.  He tells Zacchaeus to come “quickly because it is necessary for me to remain with you.”  Jesus knows about tax collectors.  He knows Zacchaeus’ name and so we can safely assume that he knows Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector.  Even in this culture of renown hospitality, and even for a prominent person, it was not common to invite yourself to another’s home.  Jesus crosses every barrier to meet Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus accepts with joy his unexpected house-guest.

Jesus does not just say, “I’d like to stay with you.”  His words are emphatic; he says it is “necessary.”  We are not told why it is necessary for Jesus to stay with Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus doesn’t question it.  We do know that Luke has a tendency to use that word to denote divine necessity.   With this encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, God wants to teach us something about His mission on earth.  We are not told anything about the conversation or events that occurred while Jesus is there.  We don’t know if it was something Jesus said like his conversation with the Samaritan woman.  We don’t know if it was something Jesus did, like healing the blind man.  We don’t know if it was just being in the presence of God incarnate.  All that we know is that after spending time with Jesus, Zacchaeus is a new man.  He no longer identifies himself as tax collector, but as a follower of Jesus who happens to collect taxes.  The text is clear that when Zacchaeus’ identity changes, so does his behavior.  No longer can this man be used as an example of selfishness, he is now the example of generosity.  From this encounter with Jesus, Zacchaeus is filled with joy, generosity and a compelling desire to right previous wrongs.  It was considered generous to give away 20% of one’s possessions.  Zacchaeus wants to give away half, an amount that would have been considered foolish.  Legal restitution for extortion was 20%.  Zacchaeus wants to restore four times the amount taken wrongly.  This is extravagant generosity, generosity not dictated by any law.

This kind of generosity can only come from personally experiencing the generosity of God.  God’s mission on earth is to heal the broken relationship between us and himself.   The story of Zacchaeus demonstrates the powerful transformation that occurs when our relationship with our creator is healed.  It is interesting that the word “faith” is not used anywhere in this account, perhaps it is because it is not considered necessary as the story so clearly demonstrates it.  Jesus says that salvation has come to this house not because Zacchaeus gives away so much of his wealth, but because Zacchaeus gives up his life, recognizing his need for the generous grace of God.  His faith in God’s ability to provide has healed him of the need to get whatever he can by whatever means he can.  His security now rests in God and not in his lucrative profession.

This episode in the life of our Lord demonstrates how relentless, how persistent, how zealous he is in overcoming the barriers that separate us from him.  Jesus found in Zacchaeus something that he could connect to, something that he could use to build a relationship with him so that Zacchaeus could experience faith, hope and love personally.  Jesus found a man who for all we know never really knew he was lost, he only knew he wanted to see Jesus.

Jesus told Zacchaeus “it is necessary that I remain with you” and he does.  Today he remains with us through his Spirit.  When God was present among us in the person of Jesus, he was confined by human characteristics:  he could only be in one place at one time, but now, the Spirit of Christ has been given.  While Jesus stayed with Zacchaeus in his home, Christ’s Spirit lives within us.  It is necessary because being a follower of Jesus in the world is not easy, it is necessary so that we might fight the daily battles of our lives with the confidence of who we are in Christ.

It is necessary because today, there are people perched in trees seeking to catch a glimpse of faith in action, longing for hope, desiring to hear about God’s love for them.  People, so disappointed by broken promises, unfulfilled expectations, shattered trust, that they wonder if there really is anything, anyone who offers hope.

There are people who long to see Jesus, but Jesus is no longer here.  Who will stop and visit with them if Jesus is not here?  There are plenty of Hindus ready to tell them about Chrisna; plenty of Muslims ready to tell them about Allah; there are plenty of people willing to tell others about what means the most in their lives.  Surely, there is someone who will tell them about Jesus.  There are people waiting to hear the story that only you can tell.