Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'"
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."
Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.
Zacchaeus was a tax collector which could have earned one an honest living, but the passage calls him wealthy. He earned more money than he should have through less than righteous means. He was a sinner that became wealthy off the world through his sinful dealings in the world. He was curious about Jesus when he heard that He was coming. Who would not be interested in the man that was said to change lives? But when Zacchaeus tried to see him, he could not because he was short and the crowd was in the way. So he ran and climbed the tree to see Jesus. In the same way, we build up for ourselves treasure and happiness with our sins. This has made us short and cost us the ability to easily see our Lord. So we must work harder to get past the sins and get away from them to see Jesus through the distractions of the world that we build up. But the greatness comes from when He sees us.
Zacchaeus was then seen by Jesus who told him to come down because He had to stay at his house. Zacchaeus came down right away and gladly accepted the request. The passage said that when Jesus came by He looked up at Zacchaeus. Even though we climb up our own "tree" to get over the world to see Jesus, once we get up the tree, we realize that it was so that Jesus could see us; or rather, that we could realize that Jesus has always seen us. Jesus then tells us to come down from the high place we climbed up because Jesus came down as a human in ultimate humility to live in the world, not to rule over it above everyone, but to be with everyone. We cannot commune with Him if we are making ourselves tall. So Jesus calls us down and reminds us that we are short and that we are sinners like everyone else in the world. Jesus then tells Zacchaeus that He must stay with him in his house. Jesus tells us the same thing, He must stay within us, because that is how He saves us from our sin: By coming inside of us and washing us clean with His Love and Forgiveness. There are always reactions to this however.
The people began to mutter about Zacchaeus and Jesus in contempt for the two of them, Zacchaeus for being a "sinner" and Jesus for being his guest. In the same way, this world does not like to let people forget the things they do wrong. Look at celebrity media, or the way people's "friends" treat them on the internet. We judge each other for what we do wrong every chance we get. And then there's the judgement and contempt from people towards God. They say that He won't forgive or that He is not really there. But when we ignore their words and let Jesus in He changes everything.
Zacchaeus reaction to them was to let Jesus stay with him and to take all the money he had amassed sinfully, and gave half away and paid back anyone he cheated. Jesus however, did not tell Zacchaeus to do this. When Zacchaeus let Jesus in to his home, that little bit of time with Jesus changed everything for him. He was overcome and changed his ways because of his contact with Jesus. The same thing happens when we receive Jesus. His Love changes us because He has forgiven us our sins and we feel free. We take the freedom and we stop our sinning and start serving instead.
Jesus concluded by telling Zacchaeus that salvation had come to him because he was a son of Abraham. The children of the promise that came from God and was given to Abraham, the father of God's people. The Israelites are God's children through the promise to Abraham. In the same way, we are all God's children through the promise of salvation that came through Jesus Christ's death. We have received salvation because we are God's children whom He dearly Loves and sent His Son to find and save.
The passage concludes saying that Jesus came to seek and save what was lost. We have been lost in our sin in the maze of this world. So we must work to climb out of it so we may realize the Love and Glory of the God who then brings us back down to humble us and show us that His Love is greater than we thought by saying that He does not care if we are short, lowly sinners. He tells us that He wants to be part of us and make us into new people. But do we read that Zacchaeus suddenly grew taller or wealthy again? No. We are still sinners in a world that likes to make us feel small, but we have the Great God who is bigger than the world within our hearts. And because we are no longer lost, but found and made part of Him, we can be in this world, but we no longer belong to it. We belong to Him
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
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