I have shared with you before one of my favorite stories about Saint Francis of Assisi. At one point, in his attempt to start a new religious order based on his lifestyle as a beggar, he had an audience with Pope Innocent. The Pope allegedly told Saint Francis to go roll around with the pigs which Saint Francia actually did. How low can you go? I can’t think of too many things that are lower than rolling around with the pigs. Yet Saint Francis joyfully humbled himself in service of the Lord. Zacchaeus too humbles himself before the Lord and in doing so provides all of us an example to follow.
Jesus and Zacchaeus
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 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 any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19 : 1-10
Scriptural Analysis
The encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus in Jericho is unique to Luke’s Gospel. Jericho is located near the border between Roman-controlled Judea and Perea and it was on an east-west trade route. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector which meant he oversaw the collection of tolls and duties on transported goods. His collaboration with the Romans, necessary for his occupation, made him a sinner in the eyes of the people. The repentance of a tax collector was recently presented in Luke 18. Zacchaeus’s position also made him wealthy thus we also have Jesus’s warning to the rich (Luke 18:25) coming into play. The story of Zacchaeus crosses these two storylines.
The first problem Zacchaeus must overcome is his short stature. With the crowd, he could not see over them to see Jesus. Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree so that he could see him. This gesture is far more important than perhaps we believe it to be. Zacchaeus was a man of prominence but he was not afraid to humiliate himself in order to see Jesus. Thus, Zacchaeus had a humble disposition.
Jesus stops for Zacchaeus, calling him by name and telling him to come down from the tree. This was no chance encounter but rather out of God’s divine plan. Jesus must visit Zacchaeus’s home and he must do it today. Such a request can only be responded to in haste. Recall how Abraham greeted his visitors with haste, “When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them.” (Genesis 18:2) Jesus will later describe Zacchaeus as a descendent of Abraham and Zacchaeus imitates the Patriarch’s response, and hospitality.
There is another comparison to the Old Testament as well. Rahab, the prostitute, received the messengers sent by the prophet Joshua, also in Jericho, “And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ And they went, and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.” (Joshua 2:1) Jesus goes to stay with Zacchaeus in his house. The crowd grumbled at Jesus recalling the same reaction Jesus received earlier from the Pharisees when he dealt with tax Collectors (5:30, 15:2). This should also draw a comparison with the wilderness generation of Israel who grumbled against God and Moses.
Addressing Jesus as Lord, Zacchaeus resolves to change his life. From his possessions, he will give to the poor, and whatever he has left he will repay people four times what he defrauded from them when originally collecting their taxes. This is well above what the law required when making such amends, “he shall confess his sin which he has committed; and he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it, and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.” (Numbers 5:7). This is evidence of the fruits of repentance. Zacchaeus has been completely transformed.
The final words of Jesus addressed to Zacchaeus, tell Zacchaeus and us what was on the line, salvation. Zacchaeus was lost but now he has been found. Meeting Jesus, the savior, was a turning point in his life just as it was for another tax collector, Levi. Zacchaeus thought he was seeking Jesus but in reality, it was Jesus who was seeking him, this corrupt son of Abraham.
Daily Application
One of the most overlooked elements of the Zacchaeus story is his climbing up a sycamore tree to get a better view of Jesus. It is easy to look at that as a minor detail, color commentary in the story. Zacchaeus was short and needed to get above the crowd and climbing a tree is a logical way to do that. However, Zacchaeus was not just another individual, a member of the crowd. Zacchaeus was a tax collector and not just any tax collector but a chief tax collector. He was a man of importance.
Jericho was an extremely wealthy and immensely important town. It had a great palm forest and famous balsam groves which perfumed the air for miles around. Its rose gardens were known far and wide. It was called “The City Of Palms.” The historian Josephus called it, “a divine region, the fattest in Palestine.” The Romans carried its produce to worldwide trade and fame. All of this made Jericho one of the greatest taxation centers in Palestine. To be a chief tax collector there was to be at the top of one’s profession, the highest position one could have.
Zacchaeus was a hated man: potentially the most hated man in his district. For him to go out into the crowd at all was a risk. Many would have liked to have gotten a shot in at Zacchaeus. They certainly were not going to be kind and allow him to get a front-row seat. Yet this man of great wealth and power risked physical violence to see Jesus. He would not be deterred so he climbed up a tree. People would have seen that and would have laughed at him, mocked him for having to climb a tree to see Jesus. It would have been humiliating for Zacchaeus. Yet he did it anyway. He humbled himself as low as he could so that he could be fully present and see the Master: so that he could encounter Jesus.
Are we willing to go to great lengths, just as Zacchaeus did, so that we can see Jesus? Are we willing to risk humiliation in order to have an encounter with Jesus? How low will we go in order that we may see the King of Kings? These may seem like trivial questions but they are not. They are the question we all need to ask ourselves each and every day. If we truly believe that Jesus is who he said he is then there should be nothing that will prevent us from following him. No amount of humiliation, scorn, or riducle should keep us from him.
Yet how many of us are affraid to say grace in a restratun out of fear of being looked at or mocked? How many of us are too scared to ask the clerk at the store if they would like us to pray for them? How many of us hide our faith in the workplace for fear of not fitting in? In doign these we push Jesus away from him. We make it harder for us to see him and to encounter him. We make is so that we also need to climb a sycamore tree just to see him.
There is nothing in this world that is greater than Jesus. Do not be affraid to be mcoked, ridiculed, or even killed on his account. Do not be affraid to go as low as you possibley can, if doing so will allow you to see Jesus and grow closer to him. For it is in that lowest of low places that we will discover the greatest of joys.
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