Zacchaeus was a tax collector. In fact, he was chief tax collector and
a wealthy man.
Tax collectors were hated because they sometimes cheated people by
collecting more
than they should. They gave part of the money to the government and
kept the rest
for themselves.
When the tax collectors asked John the Baptist what they should do,
he told them
to not collect more than they were required to.
Many times in the Bible they are grouped with sinners, pagans, and immoral
people.
However, Jesus portrayed many of them as teachable and ready to repent.
The
parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector shows the contrast in
their attitude.
The Pharisee was proud of his goodness, but the tax collector was humble
and
asked for forgiveness. You can read this parable in Luke 18:10-14.
Zacchaeus was such a man. He wanted to see Jesus, but he was not very
tall.
All his life he had trouble seeing over the heads and shoulders of
people in crowds.
He had an idea. He would run ahead of the crowd and climb up in the
sycamore
fig tree that was beside the path where Jesus would walk.
His short legs carried him to the spot, and he climbed the tree. What
an excellent
place! We could say he had a "front row seat".
When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up at Zacchaeus. He told him to
come down,
immediately. He wanted to go to Zacchaeus' house! Zacchaeus was so
excited.
He climbed down and welcomed Jesus.
People began to criticize Jesus because he was going to the house of
a "sinner",
but Zacchaeus was a repentant sinner. He was sorry for the bad things
he had done.
He told the Lord that he would give half of his possessions to the
poor, and if he had
cheated anybody out of anything, he would give back four times that
amount.
Jesus was pleased with this little man's excellent attitude of heart.
He said, "Today salvation has come to this house."
Memory Verse
The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.
Luke 19:10 (NKJV)
Listen to this story about Zacchaeus at:
http://gardenofpraise.com/bibl51s.htm