May the mumbling commence!
Jesus offered his fellowship with a corrupt and lost tax collector with no strings attached. Jesus took a great risk to see how Zacchaeus would respond. How scandalous! Read the passage from Luke chapter nineteen below:
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'"
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
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 what was lost." (Verses 1-10)
All right, let’s get it out of the way. I know the song is in my head. “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he…” Actually, the Greek is not clear about who is short – Zacchaeus or Jesus.
However, we do know the stature of Zacchaeus among his Jewish brethren. Nothing can be smaller or more insignificant that a sinner who sells out to the Romans and takes advantage of his brothers and sisters. It is no wonder to me that they muttered.
Notice that Jesus did not play the prophet and harangue Zacchaeus with exhortations to change his sinning ways. Jesus made himself small before Zacchaeus. Jesus simply invited himself into Zacchaeus’ home. Jesus must have wanted to see how Zacchaeus would prepare his home for Jesus.
Now there’s a question for us! How would we need to prepare our homes for Jesus to come? What would we feel like we needed to hide away in some closet or garage or basement or storage unit? These thoughts often would cross our minds if we knew that Jesus was coming to stay the night in our homes.
How did Zacchaeus respond? He did not hide away his sinfulness. He did not attempt to hide his hoarded wealth. He acknowledged his hoarded wealth and committed to donating half of it to the poor. He did not attempt to hide that he had swindled his Jewish brothers and sisters out of money and possessions. He committed himself to pay people he cheated four times the amount that he cheated. By committing to four times the restoration, Zacchaeus was admitting that he had stolen from them.
Instead of attempting to hide his sinfulness, Zacchaeus moved to make amends – amends that would change his lifestyle and that had the potential to mend his relationships not only with his Jewish brothers and sisters but also with God.
Jesus acknowledged this bold move to repentance that he did not press for. Jesus said, “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 what was lost.” Salvation had come to Zacchaeus’ house. And Jesus reminded the muttering crowd that Zacchaeus was their brother – a son of Abraham.
Can you and I welcome Jesus into our home and humbly name the things we need to make right? Give us the courage, O God, to name our failings. Give us the courage and wisdom that we need to make things right. Everything will change if we do. Change for the better.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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