The Seeking Savior – Luke 19:1-10

Jesus was a seeking Savior, and He still is. We are here because Jesus sought us out. Some seek after Jesus, but the motivation is to see what He can do for them. Jesus seeks out people with the motivation of what He can do for them!

People have some weird ideas about Jesus. Some people imagine Jesus as a hippy, or a surfer dude, or still as a little baby. Some think He’s okay with the status quo and not really for or against anything, like a Mush God. Some think He was just one of a whole line of Christs that continues to this day. Some faiths like Islam think He was a great prophet; the supposed Jehovah’s Witnesses think He was the angel, Michael; Mormons consider Him the first created being (and Satan’s literal brother), while Christian Science and other variants of gnosticism consider Him a purely spiritual, nonphysical being. But none of this is what the Bible says about Him.

You can distill a lot of what people think of Jesus to Him being a good Man or a good Teacher, but neither of those hold up on their own. For instance, if Jesus were just a good man, He wouldn’t be of any consequence. When asked in the previous chapter (Luke 18:18-19), “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”, Jesus answered, “why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.” It’s not enough for Jesus to be a good man. If Jesus were just a good teacher, He might have been remembered along the likes of Confucius or Buddha, but His teachings would have been blasphemous. Remember when Jesus said, “I and my Father are One,” in John 10:30? What happened? “They picked up stones to stone Him.” Why? It was and is blasphemous to refer to oneself as God!

Calling Himself the Son of Man and Son of God and whatnot is either delusional, deceptive…or, as postulated by C.S. Lewis in his famous trilemma, divine. Liar, Lunatic, or Lord; Mad, Bad, or God. More than good man, more than good teacher: Jesus could only call Himself the Son of Man if He is the good God. The bottom line is that human beings cannot be saved by their goodness or their morals: we need Jesus!

Have you ever heard of a mission statement? It’s simply a short statement as to why something exists, what its goal is, what service it provides, who it is serving, and where it operates. Jesus had a mission statement, and it is found in Luke 19:10. If you want to know what Jesus is all about, and by extension what His Church and His people are all about, see Luke 19:10: “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” And we see this at work very clearly in the life of a man names Zacchaeus.

¹And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. ²And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. ³And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. ⁴And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. ⁵And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. ⁶And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. ⁷And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. ⁸And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. ⁹And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Zacchaeus appears no where else in the Word of God, but he’s one of the most well-known. I imagine most of it is on account of going to Bible School as children. Do you still remember the song about Zacchaeus?

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 when the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree!
And said, Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m going to your house today!
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, but a happy man was he!
For he had seen the Lord that day.

We all know the story, but he reality of the situation was that Zacchaeus was a sad little man, and a sad little man was he. Jericho was a town with a booming economy. It had great tourism due to it being a garden city. There was plenty of spring-fed water available, which lead to it being a Buccee’s-like travel center at the time. They also had a huge trade in balsam from which the famous balm of Gilead was made. You’d think there’d be plenty of opportunity there for someone to make a living, raise a family, and enjoy life.

But for Zacchaeus it wasn’t the case, for the Bible says he was the chief among the publicans. Tax collectors today aren’t liked, but back then it wasn’t just about the money, it was about patriotism. A publican was a man who curried favor with the hated Roman authorities to use their knowledge of the local populace to extract taxes from them. To use a term many southerners know, they were scalawags! And not only was he one of these hated people, he was the boss scalawag.

Not only that, but Zacchaeus was rich. You see, publicans could arbitrarily collect taxes from the people without a hint of fairness or accountability. There wasn’t a form 1040 tax table or a flat rate people could refer to; the tax was whatever the publican said it was. It’s no wonder they were hated so much! So, if a publican was rich, it’s obviously because he was taking more than his “fair share”; he was fleecing the people under his purview. And they knew it, plain as day. So you can imagine that Mrs. Zacchaeus didn’t get invited to Tupperware parties too often. Seriously, would you invite the wife of the biggest crook in town to your house?

However, another thing we know about Zacchaeus was that he wanted to see Jesus. Jesus had cultivated a reputation as the Friend of sinners. Zacchaeus had likely heard about Jesus from the tax collector grapevine (it’s not like he could ask anyone else around him), and it seems to have made an impression on him. I’m sure that he heard how Jesus, unlike all the other teachers, scribes, and Pharisees, didn’t treat the publicans He encountered like trash. Not only that, but He actively looked for them so He could hang out and eat with them. Come to think of it, while traveling through Capernaum some time earlier, Jesus even called another lying crook tax collector named Levi into His inner circle! That disciple apparently went by the name of Matthew these days.

Thinking about it in our terms, it had been a while since Zacchaeus had been to church. After all, the people hated him, and the pastors shunned him. How often does that happen around us today? Zacchaeus may well have felt the effects of a life where he grew up in a faith community but then was ostracized for his lifestyle and wanted to come back. He probably thought how nice it would be to be loved and accepted for himself in the congregation he grew up in, and then he could bring his family into the fold of his old community. It had to have been a lonely existence.

Maybe word of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican got to him: we see it in the preceding chapter where in Luke 18:10, “¹⁰Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. ¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. ¹²I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. ¹³And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other…” As a Southern gospel song once summarized, “one left justified, one just dignified; one prayer reached the heart of God, and the other never left the ground” (Reginald Love, One Left Justified, Megoa Music). Maybe Zacchaeus thought in his heart of hearts, “if Jesus says such a man can be be justified before God, what about me?”

Another thing scripture tells us about Zacchaeus is that he was small of stature. I’m sure he caught it from his friends growing up about being a shrimp or a runt. Nowadays, that was just something people could comment on to add fuel to the fire. “hey, did you see that sawed-off little traitor shaking down the widows for money the other day? What a twerp. If he didn’t have the Roman magistrates backing him up, I’d….” and so on. Perhaps his dishonesty and pursuit of wealth was a means of self-validation, or retaliation, or just the sign of a severe Napolean complex.

At the end of the day, we see a small man making himself into a bigwig with money and power, at the expense of being feared, hated, and reviled. But then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. There was a crowd gathered to see him and be part of the show: after all, it was a big deal when a renowned healer, preacher, and teacher like this rolled in! Zacchaeus wanted to see Him, but because of his diminutive height, Zacchaeus couldn’t see over their heads to spot Jesus. It just so happened that Jericho was filled with sycomore trees…not the maple-like, deciduous sycamore trees typically thought of by that name, but a bushy fig tree that grows tall and wide and bears five times a year with low-hanging branches. It was perfect for Zacchaeus and his short arms and legs to scurry up and sit on a branch and wait for Jesus to pass.

Zacchaeus got more than he bargained for with Jesus. But isn’t that always the case? First, he found out that Jesus saw him. Remember, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and you have to think that he wasn’t the only genius in the crowd to figure that a sycomore tree was a good way to watch the entourage. But out of everyone in that crowd and in the trees, Jesus spied and looked straight at him! What did Jesus see? He locked eyes on a man who wanted to see Him, too. I don’t it would be a stretch to say that Jesus’ plan on going to Jericho may have been expressly to see Zacchaeus. We know from Proverbs 15:3 that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good,” and in Psalm 32:8, “I will guide you with My eye.”

But more than that, Zacchaeus found out that Jesus knew him. Jesus called Zacchaeus by his name! He was probably used to shirking when he heard his name called publicly, knowing it was likely going to be accompanied by some really harsh things and foul language directed towards it. But in the midst of a thronging crowd, Jesus called him out by name. Didn’t Jesus know Zacchaeus was a liar, thief, crook, outcast, traitor? Why, of course He did! But He called him anyway.

Why? Because Zacchaeus found out that Jesus saw him, knew him, and wanted him. Jesus told him to “make haste” (Gr. speudo→“speed,” duh) “and come down.” To Jesus it was an urgent matter for Zacchaeus to descend from the tree: “for today I must abide at thy house.” Not tonight, not tomorrow, but today…and not only that: right now! The word used there for “I must” is the same as found in John 4:4 where Jesus “must needs go to Samaria”. The word speaks of necessity; it was necessary that Jesus go to Jericho for He “must needs” stay at Zacchaeus’s house. Not for a trip to the restroom, not for a quick snack, but to “abide”, or stay for awhile. Jesus doesn’t do us like that: when He comes, when He makes His presence known, He’s there to stay, to fellowship, to make things right, to make things well, to make things new.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus sees you? It’s easy to disappear in the eyes of the world and go unseen. It’s how we have such an epidemic of depression and despondence. People don’t feel that they matter because they often go unnoticed. Mrs. Barbara Breckenridge, the guidance counselor at my high school, once told my mother that children often misbehave because they want to be noticed by their parents. We’ve all known that feeling of being marginalized and minimized to the point of irrelevance and reduced to being a fly on the wall. But God not only sees you, He knows you, and even knowing all about you, He chose to look, anyway! Proverbs 18:24 says, “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” and in 17:17, “a friend loveth at all times.” What a friend we have in Jesus!

More than seeing and knowing us, Jesus wants us. Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” He won’t turn you away. Think of the Lord’s supper, where He says, “this is my body…this is my blood…given for you.” (Luke 22:19-20) Ephesians 1:4 says that God “has chosen us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world”!1 John 3:1 says, “behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” Ephesians 2:4-7 goes further: “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” Why? “…that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

This world would have you think that you are worthless and without merit. The people around Jesus and Zacchaeus “all murmured, saying, that He was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.” First of all, the world doesn’t realize that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) I mean, who else was Jesus going to eat with? He is the only perfect, sinless Man to have ever lived! Of course, He’s going to eat with sinners, if He’s gonna ever eat with anyone! But that’s the world for you; don’t listen to it. God finds value in you, just like He did with Zacchaeus. He sees you, He knows all about you, and He wants to love you and be with you and bless you forever and ever. What a great truth in this short story from Scripture! I think everyone across the globe should hear about it!

So, what happened? Jesus said, “make haste, and come down, for to day I must abide at thy house.” Verse six says Zacchaeus “made haste, and came down, and received Him”. That’s about the most perfect obedience you will ever see. Zacchaeus trusted in Jesus…then he obeyed him. But that’s not the end of the verse: he did so “joyfully”. Joyfully! Remember the old hymn song, “Trust and Obey”, and its chorus? “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” As Bro. Oscar Poole used to say, Zacchaeus joined the T&O club! I used to call it the Christian Formula 409, since that was the hymn number for that song in the old hymnal, but I digress. Zacchaeus learned about trusting and obeying and being happy in Jesus.

I believe it’s right here at this very moment that Zacchaeus became a follower of Jesus, because after the people murmured about it, he announced to Jesus something astounding. “Look, Lord, I’m giving half of my wealth to the poor.” Zacchaeus was rich, but half? That’s a lot! He’s suddenly not concerned with keeping score or keeping up with the Joneses, or proving himself, or getting back at others. That calls to mind another song from our hymnal: “what a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart!” But he didn’t stop there: he went over and above when he said, “if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” In the Old Testament law found in Leviticus 6:5, the rule for restoration of ill-gotten gains was “the principal, and…the fifth part more”. In other words, if I stole a hundred dollars from you, I should be handing you back a Benjamin AND a Jackson: a hundred and twenty dollars. Zacchaeus said, “I’ll give them four hundred dollars back!” By this we know that Zacchaeus was serious, and we know he was sincere.

By the way: the “if” didn’t mean, “just in case I did it” but “since I did it”; literally “forasmuch as”. We see an echo of that in Jesus’ response: “this day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.” Many people read this as meaning it was because Zacchaeus was a Jew that salvation had come, and it is true that the Gospel was first given to the Jewish people. In fact, Jesus said in John 4 that salvation was of the Jews, essentially because He was one of them. But remember that Abraham was the father of faith: “And he (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and he (the Lord) counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6) Paul commented on this scripture by direction of the Holy Spirit in Romans 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” While a Jew is a physical child of Abraham, he truly receives that inheritance by moving past rite and ritual and accepting God by faith as father Abraham did…the same basis by which all must come to Him. Hebrews 11:6 tell us that “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Have you turned to Jesus like Zacchaeus did? Are you seeking to see Jesus and who He is like Zacchaeus did? I can assure you beyond question that Jesus, “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” That’s His mission statement: it’s who He is, and that’s what He does. If you have received Him, like Zacchaeus did so long ago, is there joy in your life? Has Jesus made the difference in your eternal future? A good indication is what difference Jesus has made in your life here and now. Like Zacchaeus, have you let go of your hangups, your crooked dealings, your hard feelings, the things that have hurt and offended you in the past? Have you forgiven those who have wronged you? Have you sought to restore those you have alienated? Would you like to? Come to Jesus.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, but he was also a changed man and a brother in Christ. So, one day, when you chance to look him up in glory, don’t forget to sing his song for him!