JESUS AND ZACCHAEUS
1He entered
Jericho and was passing through. 2And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
3And he was
seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because
he was small in stature. 4So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore
tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
5And when Jesus
came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come
down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6So he hurried and came down
and received him joyfully. 7And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has
gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
8And Zacchaeus
stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the
poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
9And Jesus said
to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of
Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
LUKE 19:1-10
COMMENTARY
Coming down from
Galilee to Jerusalem for his crucifixion (Luke 18:31-34), Lord Jesus, after
healing and teaching many along the way, passed through the famous town of Jericho,
where a Jewish Roman Tax collector, a short man called Zacchaeus was interested
in getting to know more of this famous Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to
be the Messiah promised in the Torah and the Prophets.
But even though
Zacchaeus had never met Jesus before, he denoted a pre-existent faith in Jesus,
when he shows his anxiety for seeing Him and calls Him ‘Lord’, and makes promises
of repentance before Him (v.3-4,8); but Jesus was the one who stopped, looked
at Zacchaeus, and calling him by name (v.5), announced his intention to stay at
his house, which indicates that Jesus was aware of who he was, that He knew about
the terrible reputation of Zacchaeus before the Jewish society by being a money
collector at the service of the invader Romans; and Jesus was also aware of the
faith that this Tax collector had already in his soul for Jesus.
The fact that he
was a Tax collector, a traitor, a servant of the oppressors; and that this was
a motive of criticism from those who saw Jesus going to stay at this traitor’s
home as a guest (v.7), is mentioned by Luke, to exalt the great mercy of Jesus
towards the worst of sinners.
JESUS did not
pay attention of other’s opinion about Him or Zacchaeus, or treated Zacchaeus
with disdain, knowing his type of work; but instead, showed his mercy before
the whole world by giving this man forgiveness, assumed in his words, ‘Salvation
has come to this house’ (v.9).
BUT JESUS did
not just freely forgive Zacchaeus, as some may think today in the evangelical
world. Jesus offered his mercy in the opportunity for redemption to a man who
had already opened his heart to Him, but also who had demonstrated repentance from
his evil life (v.8); but once faith and repentance had been shown, forgiveness
came freely from the Son of God, who said:
“For the
Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Omar Flores
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