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.