The
story of Zacchaeus beautifully captures the message of the gospel and
the transforming power of God’s grace. Zacchaeus wasn’t a popular
person at all. As a chief tax collector, his job was to gather taxes
for the Roman government. This profession was notorious for
corruption. Not only was he a man of great wealth based on the job he
had, but he may well have been lonely—generally rejected by his own
people.
Zacchaeus
was small in stature as well as being small in character. But he
wanted to see Jesus, so he climbed a tree to see over the crowd. As
Jesus approached, he picked out Zacchaeus and invited himself to the
man’s home. Certainly this would have upset the townspeople, but
Jesus saw something in Zacchaeus that only God can see in a person.
He saw the man he could be. And Zacchaeus’s transformation was
dramatic. His salvation came not because he returned a large part of
his riches, but because he received the grace and mercy of Jesus—and
it changed the way he lived. His transformation was public and
personal and urgently important.
From
sinner to seeker to follower, Zacchaeus became an example of the
change that takes place in our lives because of Christ. Yes, the same
happens in our lives too, because a change of heart leads to a change
of character and behavior.