Jesus is looking for Zacchaeuses to follow Him. Who is
Zacchaeus and why should we be like him as Christians? Zacchaeus was a tax
collector. He had reached the apogee of his career. He occupied an exalted
position as Chief Revenue Collector of the country and was very rich. Notwithstanding Zacchaeus’
exalted position, he sought to see Jesus.
“And, behold, there was
a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was
rich. And he sought to see Jesus”. Luke 19:2-3
Jesus was passing through the town of Jericho, and Zacchaeus
desirous of seeing Him, went and climbed a sycamore tree. He is described in
the Bible as a short man. Having known the road Jesus was to pass, Zacchaeus
went ahead of the multitudes to climb a tree purposely to see Jesus. Just to
see Jesus with his own eyes was enough for him.
Zacchaeus climbed up the sycamore tree and remained there
patiently for the time Jesus would pass the road to another town. He didn’t
expect Jesus to look up when He got to the place. Just to see Jesus would
satisfy him and he would then come down from the tree. But when Jesus came to
the place, He looked up despite the crowd of people that were following Him. Then
unusual happened. A sinner was up in a tree, the Son of God was down walking along
the road, but He stopped and looked up for the ordinary man, a sinner for that
matter.
Jesus called Zacchaeus and commanded him to come down for He
was going to be a guest to him tonight.
“And 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”. Luke 19:5, KJV
Zacchaeus came down without wasting time and Jesus gladly
received him and went with him to his house. People began to wonder why Jesus,
a righteous Son of the most High God could make friend with a sinner. People
then began to murmur and said:
“That he was going to be a guest with a man that is a sinner”.
Luke 19:7, KJV
“He has gone to be the guest with a notorious sinner”. 19:7, NLT
Zacchaeus took Jesus to his house with joy and excitement. At
the house, Zacchaues wasted no time to confess his sins to Jesus. He told Jesus
that he got some of his money through dubious means. He assuredly told Jesus
that he would give half of his wealth he legitimately acquired to the poor. He said,
for the ill-gotten wealth, he would return four times the amount defrauded to
the victims of his fraudulent activities.
“I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have
cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” Luke
19:8, NLT
Jesus was happy with Zacchaeus and said, He came to “seek and
save those who are lost”. Zacchaeus proved to be a true son of Abraham, thus
Jesus said:
“Salvation has come to this house today, for this man has
shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and
save those who are lost”. Luke 19:9-10, NLT
We shall treat lessons learned from the story of Zacchaeus in
the concluding part of this Bible Study.
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