I imagined this week what it would be like to talk to Zacchaeus if I were to meet him in heaven. What story would he tell me? We get an idea of the Gospel according to Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-19. If Zacchaeus could tell us something today about the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, (like most sermons), The Gospel of Zacchaeus would have three points. In this case, the three points would be, “He saw me, He welcomed me, He changed me.”
“He Saw Me”
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the Sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.” That is how we all learned it in Sunday School. And that is what verse 5 tells us. Zacchaeus, a man who was “vertically challenged,” let us say, climbed in that Palestinian tree with low lying branches to get a glimpse of the One called Y’Shua. If the Gospel of Zacchaeus were to begin, “He saw me,” it would mean that Jesus that day saw the real Zacchaeus.
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Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, a despised man. Was he a crook? Probably, from the Jew’s response to Jesus going over to his house, but it doesn’t exactly say. All we know is that he wasn’t liked. No, no, that is not right. Zacchaeus was hated. He was seen as a vile sinner to be treated with distrust.
But in the heart of the real Zacchaeus, the man behind the mask of disrespect, something was happening. Now this is not explicit in the text, but is the implicit force behind the story. Something was happening in his life. He had apparently heard about Jesus and when Jesus came to Jericho, the place where the first Joshua brought the walls down, Zacchaeus no doubt wanted the walls in his life to come down. He surely wanted what all men in his condition want, a way out, a way to be redeemed, forgiven of the sins which must have haunted him. He wanted to be accepted.
John Calvin, in his commentaries on this passage, draws our attention to the ministry of the preparation of the Holy Spirit. God was at work in this man’s life. There were religious leaders all around in their finest showy garments out in the market place, but God wasn’t at work in their lives. He was at work in the one least suspected of being a child of God.
I think this is good for Christians to remember and good for missionaries to remember. God is building His Church His own way. When we show up with the Gospel, God has already been there. He has prepared the hearts of those who will come. He shows them their sins. God shows them their need.
I wonder if there is someone here today like Zacchaeus. Oh, you may not be short, but you may be short on joy. You may be short on meaning and purpose to life. You may be short on hope. But, the Lord in some way is drawing you to Himself.