June 30, 2019 Misfits Like Us Zacchaeus – From Lost to Found Luke 19:1-10 “Zacchaeus is one of them … you know, one of those who would do anything to make a buck. Why, he’d sell his own mother if he thought he could get away with it.” It’s amazing the assumptions people make based on your occupation or lack of work, your income or lack of income, your choice of home or car, your level of education, a scar, tattoo, or piercing you have, the people with whom you associate … the list is endless. But those assumptions and the gossip that accompanies it can break a person. Their impressions of you might be correct. And maybe you choose not to let what other people say effect you; but, it does anyway, doesn’t it? What is really sad is that all these assumptions have been made without any attempt to get to know who you really are. Such is the case with Zacchaeus. But who was Zacchaeus? All we know is what Luke writes. (Read text.) He is a man named Zacchaeus. This is the Greek form of a Hebrew name; so he is an Israelite, not an outsider by nationality. He is a tax collector … for the Romans. The Romans most often “hired” indigenous people to collect the taxes they imposed and made it well worth their while. Not only that, but he was a chief tax collector, which means that he was a supervisor of other tax collectors, which was even more lucrative. He was a rich tax collector. Tax collectors had a reputation, a bad one. Tax collectors were considered a traitor to their country. Many demanded more than was actually assessed by the Romans; so they were robbers who never got caught. Therefore, tax collectors were naturally hated. No decent person would associate with a tax collector. Was Zacchaeus deserving of the reputation? We don’t know, the text doesn’t say; so, we can only assume. But there are other things that we don’t have to assume. Regardless of whether he lived into the reputation or not, Zacchaeus had to live out of that reputation. He may have set out to 1 June 30, 2019 Misfits Like Us get wealthy and make a name for himself, and he succeeded. But it left him lost and empty. Money and fame and power didn’t satisfy the longings of his heart. Perhaps he thought that being wealthy would overcome what people said. Maybe he determined not to let what other people said or thought of him to bother him. But the reality is the wealth only made him a slave and the reputation and the shunning from the majority of his own people left him lost and alone. We know Zacchaeus was curious; he wanted to see Jesus. Everyone was talking about this Jesus who on his way into to town had healed a blind man, and that doesn’t happen everyday. Something inside him needed to see Jesus. He was more than just curious. Zacchaeus was courageous. He knew the crowd would not be friendly to him; they might even be hostile. In addition, the crowds were getting huge, and Zacchaeus was vertically challenged. So, in a rather undignified performance for a state official, he found a sycamore tree and climbed up. He had to see this Jesus person. But was it Zacchaeus who sought Jesus, or Jesus who sought Zacchaeus? Jesus walks into town and right up to that sycamore tree, looks up, calls Zacchaeus by name, and informs him that they will be having lunch together at his house. Zacchaeus has only heard of this Jesus, he’s never seen him before and, as far as he knows, Jesus has never seen Zacchaeus before. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd, calls his sheep by name (Jn.10:3). Jesus knows Zacchaeus and loves Zacchaeus. Our text says that Zacchaeus “came down at once.” I’m thinking that Zacchaeus was so flabbergasted and at the same time so excited that he nearly fell out of that tree trying to get down. All the while the crowd looks on in wonderment, “Would you look at that. Jesus is going to that sinner’s house for lunch.” 2 June 30, 2019 Misfits Like Us Notice that Jesus didn’t first say, “Uh, Zacchaeus, I’d really like to be your friend, but first you have to clean up your act.” NO! Jesus put his arm around him and said, “Come on, let’s go get lunch.” Why is it that we get this notion that before Jesus will ever have anything to do with us we first have to “clean up our acts”? Maybe it’s because in order to do anything important, before we can become a friend to anyone of value we’ve been told we have to change. Maybe someone at church looked down on us because we didn’t measure up to their standards of dress or conduct or lifestyle, so we figured God would too. Let me tell you the truth, none of us will ever meet up to God’s standards. None of us can ever be justified by what we do. We are only justified by what Jesus did for us. We are justified by faith. As Paul wrote, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Rm.5:1). There is nothing we can do to gain God’s favor. There is nothing we can do to get Jesus to love us … but he does. And, Jesus loves us right where we are – empty, lost, and alone, good reputation, bad reputation, guilty, innocent – it doesn’t matter. Here’s the blessing: You cannot be in the presence of Jesus and go away the same. You will either go away totally disgusted by Jesus or you will go away totally in love with Jesus; and if you go away totally in love with Jesus your whole being will change. While Jesus accepts us right where we are, something wonderful happens when we come down from the tree and accept Jesus’ invitation to lunch. Jesus makes no demands of Zacchaeus. He doesn’t tell him to clean up his act or change his ways, or adopt a different lifestyle. Zacchaeus was given the grace of God and was changed. No longer was wealth important to him. No longer was reputation important to him. No longer 3 June 30, 2019 Misfits Like Us was he empty and alone. Now he was rich in mercy. Now he was a child of Abraham, a son of God. Now he was full of grace and the Spirit of God. It was not a change brought about by willing himself to do the right thing; it was a change of spirit that resulted in surrendering control of his life to the Lordship of Jesus. “Half of all I own I give to the poor. If I have cheated anybody, I will pay back 400%.” A man lost and alone was now found and restored. “Salvation has come to this house.” Jesus loves you just the way you are. He is calling you by name. He does not demand that you “clean up your act” first. He just invites you to come down and have lunch. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him” (Rev.3:20). I guarantee you that if you accept his invitation, you will never be the same. But honestly, you won’t want to be the same. Suddenly everything that seemed important isn’t. The only thing that is important is to please the new Lord of your life. Come on down, receive the salvation that Jesus has come to give and suddenly you will have so much more – you will become a child of God. As John tells us, “To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn.1:11). After the recitation of the Not a Misfit Creed and before closing benediction: Zacchaeus didn’t know it, but Jesus chose to spend his last Sabbath before his crucifixion with someone whom everyone despised. If ever there was someone people thought was so lost he didn’t have a chance at salvation, it would have been Zacchaeus. But salvation came to Zacchaeus’ house. No one is too lost to not be saved. Now you are the body of Christ, and “the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” To whose home will you bring salvation? 4 .