Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’”
8 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.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
This is a story that most people know about if they went to Sunday School as kids – the story of Zacchaeus, the short guy who climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus. But as familiar as it is, there are some pretty significant things about the story of Zacchaeus that are easy to miss.
It’s probably a good idea to start with the fact that this story is from the Gospel of Luke, and that it includes some of the common themes of that gospel. For instance, there’s the theme of the exalted being humbled and the humble being lifted up.
You might remember that one of our recent readings from Luke was about a Pharisee and a tax collector who go to the temple to pray. In that story, the Pharisee sort of praises himself in the form of a prayer, but the tax collector confesses his sinfulness and asks for mercy. At the end of that passage, Jesus says that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, while those who humble themselves will be exalted.
And you might remember that yesterday’s reading was about a rich guy who comes to Jesus to ask about getting eternal life, and winds up being humbled. Now today we have the story of Zacchaeus, who humbles himself to see Jesus. The scholars say that’s the significance of climbing the tree – it would have called attention to his small stature, and made him look undignified. But Zacchaeus is willing to humble himself, winds up being praised by Jesus. So you can see how this story fits into this common pattern established in Luke.
You might also remember that in yesterday’s Reflection, a virtuous and law-abiding rich man went away sad because Jesus told him to give away all his great wealth. Now in today’s passage, the main character is Zacchaeus, who is a tax collector and so would be assumed to be corrupt and dishonest. But Zacchaeus voluntarily gives away a big part of his wealth, apparently without Jesus even asking him to. I think Luke wants us to notice this contrast in the two stories – one about a person who claims to be virtuous but who doesn’t want to give to the poor, and the other about a corrupt tax collector who just hands over half his wealth without being asked.
And the story of Zacchaeus has connections with other parts of Luke, too. Just a couple of chapters back, Luke reports that Jesus was criticized for being “a friend to sinners.” And here in this passage, he shows his willingness to be exactly that. And it’s kind of interesting that in this case, it isn’t just the scribes and Pharisees who condemn Jesus for being a friend of sinners. In this case it’s “all the people” who complain. It seems that the people at large objected to tax collectors more than to blasphemy.
I think it’s also worth noting that Jesus tells Zacchaeus that he must stay at his house that day. As I hear it, that reinforces the idea that Jesus understood reaching out to “the lost and least of these” to be the very heart of his ministry in this world.
At the end of the story, Jesus declares Zacchaeus “a son of Abraham” – a true heir of the covenant – apparently because of his willingness to confess and repent of his sins, and to give sacrificially to make things right. Jesus specifically repeats here that it’s for sinners – “the lost” – that he came into the world. And in this story, one of those ‘lost’ people is transformed by his encounter with Jesus.
One of the problems of the modern church is that so many of its members were brought to Sunday School as little kids, but then never engaged in serious Bible Study after that, so they never got the benefits of looking deeply at the teachings of Jesus. If you just heard this story on an elementary Sunday School level, you’d just know a song and some hand motions about a “wee little man.” But you’d miss the way this story gathers up a lot of strands from other parts of the Gospel of Luke. And that misses out on the grown-up understanding of this important incident from the life and teachings of Jesus.
Let’s pray. Lord, help us to overcome the obstacles that can stand in the way of a life of devoted discipleship, and inspire our hearts with a hunger to go ever-deeper in the great lessons you teach us in the words and life of Jesus. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 33 and 34; Deuteronomy 30:11-20; and II Corinthians 11:1-21a. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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