Grace for the Wee Little Man Who Was a Great Sinner

“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.” As children many of us learned that song about short Zacchaeus and his meeting with Jesus in Jericho. The story of Zacchaeus appeals to kids, perhaps because the kids themselves are usually short and they can relate to having to crane their necks to see what’s going on amongst the adults.

In my previous congregation, after one of the services, there were some children at the front. I invited them to come up in the pulpit to check out the view. All these short little kids needed to climb up on the chair up here to see over the pulpit. For the kids who could read, I also pointed out a little sign on the back of the pulpit. Only the minister could see it. It was a quote from John 12:21, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

That’s what Zacchaeus wanted to do in Luke 19. He wanted to see Jesus. As we reflect on this story, we need to do so with that goal in mind too. We need to fix our eyes on Christ, not on Zacchaeus as such. This story is included in the Bible to impress us more with the abounding grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus.

Christ was on his way to Jerusalem to die for our sins. His journey took him through the lovely city of Jericho. Jericho was a paradise in the wilderness, renowned for its tree-lined streets. It was strategically located on an important trade route. It was only logical for the Romans to have a tax headquarters in this city. The Romans charged taxes for several kinds of things, including having trade items pass from one region to another. They contracted out the collection of these taxes. These contractors would make their money by adding a surcharge to what the Romans were demanding. That surcharge could vary from tax collector to tax collector. Some tax collectors became wealthy as a result of this system. Amongst the Jews, they were also greatly despised. They were viewed not only as friends of the Romans, but also as crooked men who took advantage of everyone to make themselves fabulously rich.

Zacchaeus was one of those tax collectors. In fact, Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector in Jericho. That made him public enemy number one. He would have been regarded as a slimeball. He was rich and he’d become rich through corrupt means. His name tells us he was Jewish and his name means “righteous.” However, he was anything but. If you had asked the citizens of Jericho about who were the most notoriously wicked people of the city, Zacchaeus would undoubtedly have been on the list.

Now Jesus is passing through. For some reason, Zacchaeus was curious to see him. We don’t know exactly why. But we do know that there was a crowd and Zacchaeus had a problem. He was much shorter than average and unable to see Jesus over all the heads and shoulders of the crowd. He was indeed a wee little man. But he was also resourceful. He knows the route Jesus is walking and so he runs ahead and finds a convenient tree. Remember what I said earlier about Jericho and its tree-lined streets. Some of the trees were sycamore trees and the branches of these trees usually begin low to the ground. That makes these trees easy to climb, even for a wee little man. So that’s what Zacchaeus did. He climbed up into the tree so that when Jesus would pass by, he could get a look and no one would notice.

Except someone did notice. As our Saviour was walking by that tree, he stopped and looked up. There in the tree was the little rich man everyone hated so much. Jesus looks up to him in the tree and then calls out to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” These are amazing words. They’re amazing because, first of all, our Saviour addresses him by name. He knows who Zacchaeus is. Jesus knows his name and everything about him. Then Scripture says further that Zacchaeus was redeemed to be part of God’s people. That means Jesus suffered and died specifically for this sinner. Christ’s redemptive work was done with the names of all the elect on his heart. He knows his sheep all by name. Therefore, he surely knows the name of Zacchaeus -- this is a name near and dear to our Saviour. Everyone else hates Zacchaeus, but Jesus has a special love for him because he too has been chosen from before the foundation of the world.

He therefore calls to Zacchaeus. He says he must stay at his house today. Christ doesn’t request or suggest it. His words are very direct – it’s absolutely imperative that he come to the house of Zacchaeus and stay with him. Why? Because Jesus knows Zacchaeus is one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Our Saviour knows redemption must come to this man and to his house for the glory of God, to display how his grace is lavished on the most notorious of sinners. The way redemption will come is through the ministry of Christ to this lost sinner in his house.

Zacchaeus clambered down from the tree and then Luke tells us that he “received him joyfully.” He was joyful that Jesus wanted to stay with him, share a meal with him, and talk with him. Christ had taken the initiative in going after Zacchaeus, but Zacchaeus responded positively. Commentators like John Calvin see this as the beginning of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. When someone wants to meet with Jesus, that reflects the stirrings of life in the heart of a sinner. A dead sinner would want nothing to do with Jesus. A slave to sin would ignore Jesus’ call to come down and take him into his house. But not Zacchaeus – he responds with joy and that reflects the initial work of sovereign grace in his heart.

Then look at how the crowd reacts to all this. They see Jesus walking with Zacchaeus to his house. He’s a rich man, so he probably has a beautiful place. That house is beautiful because Zacchaeus rips everybody off. It’s a monument to his wickedness. They see Jesus entering in that house along with public enemy number one. He’s going to stay overnight and eat there. He’s going to talk with Zacchaeus and his family. This is absolutely scandalous. No self-respecting rabbi would hang around with this type of low-life. Because of the sheer scandal of it all, they murmur. The original Greek here uses a vivid form of onomatopoeia – this is a literary device where the words resemble the sounds. In English we say that bees buzz. Here in Greek the word is an intense form of the verb gonguzo. Gonguzo sounds like the grumbling of people upset at scandalous behaviour.

“He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” What they mean is that Zacchaeus is a wicked, notorious, public sinner. And now Jesus is saying he is okay because he’s staying with him, eating with him, and having fellowship with him. They can’t handle it that Zacchaeus is receiving grace from the Lord. The Lord should be casting down hell-fire and brimstone on him, but instead he’s sitting with him and ministering to him. He should get what he deserves. There should be justice for all the times “Mr. Righteous” has ripped off the public.

What we see here is the scandalous nature of God’s grace. There’s something in sinners that wants to see other sinners, especially ones that are perceived to be worse than ourselves, receiving exactly what they deserve. It happens throughout the ministry of our Lord Jesus that when grace is shown to great sinners, other “average” sinners react with indignation. Grace is nice for us, but not for them. They don’t deserve it. When anyone thinks that way, they’re missing the whole point of grace. No one deserves grace. No one deserves to have Jesus call them by name, to have him bear their name on his heart as he suffers and dies. Because the reality is that while we may not all be notorious and public with our sins, if we’re honest we know that we’re all great sinners in need of a great Saviour. We’ve all been lavished with extravagant grace from the beginning to the end of our salvation. The more we see that, the more we’ll grow in patience with others who are either not yet in the kingdom or who are slowly being brought into the kingdom. The more we’ll rejoice when we see God’s grace given to others.

The story of Zacchaeus has a remarkable ending. As our Saviour is leaving the next day, the wee little man demonstrates that he’s had a huge change of heart. What we read in verse 8 is evidence that Christ’s ministry to him was effective. Zacchaeus was brought to faith and then his faith immediately bore fruit. He calls Jesus, “Lord.” He’s now a disciple of Christ. He says he’ll give half of his wealth to the poor. Then he adds, “And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” This is an incredible statement. In the original, there’s actually a confession in that statement. When he says, “If I have defrauded anyone of anything,” he’s saying, “and I have.” Zacchaeus has come to honesty about his sins. Moreover, he’s going to do something about it. He will restore four times what he stole. That went far beyond what God’s law required. The Mosaic laws required a thief to pay back what he had stolen, plus a fifth. But Zacchaeus was led by the Holy Spirit living in him so he was going to go way beyond. He’d been an extreme sinner, but his repentance was also going to be extreme. That’s how he responds to the gracious ministry of our Saviour in his house.

Jesus says because of that ministry, salvation has come to the house of Zacchaeus. Covenantal language seems to be used there. No, we’re not told whether Zacchaeus had a wife and children. But if he did, the pattern we see elsewhere in the New Testament is that when the head of the household repents and believes, that has a bearing on everyone in the household. That could have happened here too. What we do know for sure is that Zacchaeus received the gift of faith and entrance into eternal life. So, when Jesus suffers and dies on the cross shortly after this, he will suffer and die with the name of Zacchaeus on his heart. Zacchaeus is not only physically a Jew descended from Abraham, but also, through faith, a spiritual son of Abraham. This is all because of Christ’s ministry to him in his house that day. All because of grace.

Then we find those incredible words of verse 10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” He came to look for great sinners like Zacchaeus – and like me and you. He came to save those who are lost, not the people who think they have it all together. He came to bring amazing grace for the broken and the despised. This is our Saviour and this is why he came. Zacchaeus wanted to see him and what he was about. He got to see it. And now, so have we.