1 Then Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, who was very wealthy. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but could not see over the crowd because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him, since Jesus was about to pass that way.

5 When Jesus came to that place, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down, for I must stay at your house today.”

6 So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Him joyfully. 7 And all who saw this began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will repay it fourfold.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Laura Lie

As a child, I thought this passage was all about Zacchaeus. I suppose that was reinforced by the songs we learned about him in kids church: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in that sycamore tree, the Lord he wanted to see…”

To me, Zacchaeus seemed to be something of a genius. “He ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him, since Jesus was about to pass that way” (v4). Brilliant! What a clever man! His strategy works too – Jesus sees him, calls him down and to the general irritation of the crowd (v7), goes and has a private lunch in HIS house.

The cleverness continues. Zacchaeus realises he’s been a bit self-centred and clumsy with his tax collecting, renounces his ways, and Jesus welcomes him to the fold: “…salvation has come to this house…” (v9). Job done.

As an adult, I reread this passage and realise it is all about Jesus – as he says in verse 10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

It occurs to me that Zacchaeus wouldn’t have been the first to think of climbing a tree to see Jesus. I always had visions of him perched up there alone, easy for Jesus to spot. But there were large crowds gathering to see Jesus, so there were probably lots of people climbing trees, not to mention the thousands thronging the streets to get a glimpse of the Messiah.

So how did little Zacchaeus, up in the tree, end up sharing a meal with Jesus? 

Jesus was looking for him. He called him by name. “Zacchaeus, hurry down, for I must stay at your house today” (v5).

How incredibly humbling, mortifying, gratifying – what a rollercoaster of emotions that must have been, to be called by name by the Son of God! Out of the crowd of thousands, who he had probably taxed and cheated (into significant poverty!), Jesus sought Zacchaeus out. 

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 the lost.” (v9-10)

As a child, I loved the story of how Zacchaeus was able to be seen and saved by Jesus. As an adult, I am so thankful that Jesus sought Zacchaeus out, that he still seeks to save the lost like us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laura is a member of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.