| “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” |
| —Luke 19:5 |
Do you ever remember singing this song in your childhood Sunday School?
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 came that way,
He looked up in the tree.
(Spoken:) And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down from there,”
For I’m going to your house today.
For I’m going to your house today.
It’s amazing how certain childhood songs just stick with you. This one certainly stuck with me. It is, of course, based on a real life adventure that Jesus had when He was here on earth.
Dr. Luke narrates the event in Luke 19:1-10:
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 because he was short he could not see over 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 the lost.”
As I’ve shared in this blog before, tax collectors were hated by their fellow Jews. The tax collectors, also known as “publicans,” had given in to Roman rule and had purchased the right to collect taxes for Rome. The occupation of most of the then known world by the Romans was really all about collecting enough money to continue to build the magnificent city of Rome. So, the taxes were oppressive. The tax collectors could also add a surcharge, really any amount they wished to add to the taxes demanded by Rome. By these surcharges, the tax collectors became very wealthy men.
The man in this account, Zacchaeus, was a tax collector. Like all tax collectors, he was hated by their fellow Jews. Yet, he was chosen by Jesus to become part of His Kingdom. Choosing a tax collector would be like Jesus today choosing the most vile individual we could possible think of to belong to Himself.
Verse 10 sums up who Jesus was and is: “He came to save the lost.” This day, let’s rejoice that among those who were lost, Jesus saved us, too. It’s something for which we truly should daily praise God.
Here’s a very cute video of the children’s song to which I referred in this blog post:
Based on a blog originally posted on Thursday, July 19, 2018
