Luke 19:1-10 - The Big Small Man

Jesus came to seek and to save wee little men like us.

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Gospels: Week 8 — Mercy, repentance, and the Good Shepherd

DailyVerses.net

Luke 19:1–10 (NASB95)

¹ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. ³ Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. ⁴ So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.

⁵ When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” ⁶ And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.

⁷ When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”

⁸ Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”

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

Belgic Confession

Article 24: The Sanctification of Sinners

We believe that this true faith,

produced in man by the hearing of God’s Word

and by the work of the Holy Spirit,

regenerates him and makes him a “new man,”

causing him to live the “new life”

and freeing him from the slavery of sin.

--

It is impossible

for this holy faith to be unfruitful in men,

seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith

but of what Scripture calls

“faith working through love,”

which leads a man to do by himself

the works that God has commanded

in his Word.

These works,

proceeding from the good root of faith,

are good and acceptable to God,

since they are all sanctified by his grace.

Yet they do not count toward our justification—

for by faith in Christ we are justified,

even before we do good works...

Summary

A few weeks ago, we read of Jesus calling Matthew to follow Him. Matthew had been a young tax collector, hated by his fellow countrymen for extracting revenue for the tyrannical foreign oppressors, but also under the unscrupulous thumb of a chief tax collector who ran their territories not unlike a mob boss. Zacchaeus was one of these bosses, and Luke here informs us of the obvious: he was rich.

But this powerful big man had a big problem. He was small in stature. So although he desperately was trying to see who Jesus was, he was unable because of the crowd. But as Luke tells us the story, it becomes clear that Zacchaeus had more than just a passing curiosity to see somebody famous. It takes a bigger reason than that for a rich man like Zacchaeus to climb up into a sycamore tree like a little child.

The ironic part of this story - and remember, our narrator Luke loves to point out irony - is that it wasn't Zacchaeus who saw Jesus. It was Jesus who saw Zacchaeus. Looking up, Jesus said to him, 'Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.'

So far, we're tracking right along with the song so many of us learned so long ago:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man,

And a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree

For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior passed that way

He looked up in the tree,

And he said, "Zacchaeus you come down,

For I'm going to your house today!"

  Dig Deeper  

But the song we sang said nothing of the grumbling that ensued. Luke, somewhat enigmatically, simply reports that they all began to grumble because Jesus had gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner without telling us who the they refers to. But we don't need any help - it's the same self righteous theys who'd been criticizing Jesus' grace since the beginning.

Maybe it seems a bit like these theys got into Zacchaeus' head, as he suddenly realizes his unworthiness and concedes half of his possessions to the poor and to pay pack those he'd defrauded four times as much, as if he could win the crowd's favor by writing a check. But that's not what's going on here. Notice that Zacchaeus doesn't say a word to the gathered crowd. He speaks only to the Lord.

So did he purchase his salvation with his new found generosity? After all, no sooner after Zacchaeus makes his financial commitment, Jesus announces that today salvation has come to Zacchaeus' house. No longer, Jesus continues, was this chief tax collector to be considered to be an unclean sinner, but now he, too, is a son of Abraham.

Of course not. Zacchaeus' costly change of heart was the evidence of his saving faith, not the cause of it - the same Spirit given faith that drove him to climb that sycamore tree in the first place so that he could see Jesus. And that same faith opened his eyes to see that he needed to repent of his sins, and that in his case, repentance needed to be financially demonstrated.

In the end, Jesus makes clear it that Zacchaeus wasn't the instigator of this saving encounter. People never are. It's always our sovereign, Triune God who initiates salvation, for the Son of Man has come, Jesus reports, to seek and save the lost: wee little men like you and me. Oh, and Zacchaeus too.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who sent His Son to seek and save the lost;

  ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that like Zacchaeus, you'll give evidence of your saving faith as well, even if it's costly;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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