[0:00] Here's a man who, maybe without entirely knowing it, is lost. And Jesus seeks him out and saves him. But before we get too much into this, I want to zoom out just a little bit because the context is also important.
[0:15] This story comes directly after chapter 18. At the end of chapter 18, you'll see there's a story there about Jesus coming into Jerusalem. And while he's still on the outside of the town, a blind beggar calls out to him and says, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
[0:34] That's in 18, verse 38. And Jesus calls him over and he has mercy on him. He heals him. And Luke shows us with that story that Jesus really is the Son of David, the promised Messiah, the Savior who would come to bring the mercy of God to his people.
[0:51] And that includes blind beggars, but also blind sinners who desperately need a Savior. And that second part is what we get a clearer picture of in this account of Jesus and Zacchaeus.
[1:09] Zacchaeus was an outwardly very successful man, very different from the blind beggar outside of the walls. And yet both of these men were blind in their own ways.
[1:23] Zacchaeus was totally blind to God, blind to the ways that his sin was destroying him and others. So this man outside the city was blind. The man inside the city was blind too in a different way.
[1:35] Both of them are unable to save themselves. Both of them are completely transformed when they meet Jesus. Because verse 10 really is true. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.
[1:49] Maybe I think we're just maybe too familiar with the story of Zacchaeus to really see and feel the shock of it. But this conversation plays out in some really unexpected ways.
[2:01] Ways that would have been very surprising to the people at the time. And I think it's a good reminder to us if we pay attention. Because I think it's easy for us to say that Jesus came to bring God's salvation to everyone.
[2:16] We believe that. We acknowledge that. But when we say salvation is available to everyone and anyone who comes, I wonder do we always really think about the implications of what that means.
[2:28] Because in this story, although most people would have, you know, they wouldn't have argued with the idea that Zacchaeus was lost. Everyone would have known that.
[2:39] But it's also very clear that they weren't actually happy about Jesus seeking this man. But Jesus does seek him anyway. So let's think about this.
[2:50] First we'll look at this man Zacchaeus. Who is he? And then how does Jesus interact with him? What the result of that interaction is? And what it all means for us today.
[3:02] So that's where we're headed. Who is this man? Who is Zacchaeus? These verses tell us that Zacchaeus is a very different kind of man from the blind beggar who was outside of the walls of Jericho.
[3:17] This is a wealthy, powerful citizen. He's a tax collector. Well, he's not just a tax collector. He's the chief tax collector. And it's clear that he'd used this high position to gain a fortune for himself.
[3:31] He's quite wealthy. And also very unpopular. He has a reputation as a sinner. We see that in verse 7. And why is that? Well, we see a glimpse of why people might feel this way later in the text in verse 8 when he says, If I have cheated anybody out of anything.
[3:50] Well, he had. He had cheated people. Probably a lot of people. In fact, it's possible almost everyone in town had been cheated by this man in some way.
[4:02] He had the power to pay himself out of the taxes that he collected from the residents. He had the authority to do that. And the way that he had that authority was from the government of Rome, which was the conquering government, the oppressive government, who had been so bad to the Jewish people.
[4:23] One of the ways that they were oppressive was through their high taxes. Taxes that he was enforcing. And so this man was working for the Romans to collect these taxes.
[4:35] And more than that, he was making himself wealthy with the extra that he took from them, using the authority of their oppressors. And he's a Jewish man, supposed to be one of them, and yet he does this for the enemy.
[4:51] I mean, it had to feel like a betrayal. It's no wonder they call him a sinner. It's no wonder they mutter and they grumble when Jesus is kind to this man. This is the guy in town who not only works for the enemy, but abuses his power, makes himself rich off the backs of his own neighbors, his own community, his own flesh and blood.
[5:17] I mean, of course people don't like him. Who would? But look how the story goes. We see who Zacchaeus is.
[5:27] It's not a nice portrait. But let's consider what happens, how Jesus interacts with this man. Luke tells us Zacchaeus is a short man. And he tells us that because he wants us to know why he's climbing in a tree to get a look at Jesus.
[5:41] Well, it's not normal to see the rich guy in town climbing up a tree. I think that detail gives us a hint that this man is drawn to Jesus. He's open, he's interested on some level.
[5:54] And he doesn't just get a look at Jesus like that's what he's after. But he gets a lot more than that because Jesus actually stops and he does something completely unexpected by anyone.
[6:06] He commands Zacchaeus to come down. He invites himself over to Zacchaeus' house. And he says this right there in front of the whole crowd, in front of everybody. What just happened? I mean, Jesus, don't you understand who this man is?
[6:21] He's not on our side. He's working for the enemy. He's working against God's people. He's working against the public good. He's only thinking of himself in the process.
[6:32] He's enriching himself at the expense of everyone. How on earth can Jesus honor this man by eating with him, spending the day with him, when there's so many other homes in Jericho that I'm sure would have gladly hosted Jesus.
[6:46] And they probably would have been much more worthy. I'm sure there were great citizens in Jericho at the time who really did work hard to look after the poor, to build up their community, to do good things.
[6:57] And why on earth doesn't Jesus honor one of them with his limited time going through this town? I mean, Zacchaeus is very happy. He welcomes him gladly.
[7:11] But the rest of the town is not happy. All the people saw this in verse 7. They began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a sinner. I mean, hey, we came out to see this great prophet, this miracle worker, this teacher passing through town, this good man that everyone admires, and now he's consorting with the enemy.
[7:31] This betrayer of his people. This is not a good move, Jesus. People do not approve. This guy is an outcast, and he put himself there by his own choices.
[7:46] This is not what the crowd thought Jesus should be doing. But what I want you to see today is that this is what Jesus came to earth to do. He came to bring God's mercy to people who do not deserve it.
[8:05] Jesus says in verse 10, He came to seek and save the lost. Was Zacchaeus lost? Yes. No one would deny that. They all knew that this man was far from God.
[8:19] His way of life displayed it very clearly for everyone to see. And Jesus seeks this man out of the crowd that day. He eats dinner at this man's house because the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the Eternal King, He did not come to earth to hang out with the upper crust of people who were able to prove their high quality and prove their goodness.
[8:42] He came with a mission to seek and save those who were lost. And He does both. He seeks and He saves.
[8:53] He takes the initiative and comes to sinners in our sin. And only He has the ability to save us out of that sin.
[9:04] I mean, look at Zacchaeus. He's a rich tax collector. And later on, he will give away a lot of money. He will restore what he's taken from people wrongfully. He'll do good things.
[9:16] But when Jesus calls him, when Jesus says He's coming to him, Zacchaeus has not done any of those good things yet. As far as we can tell, he hasn't even tried to clean himself up with good deeds.
[9:30] Jesus seeks Zacchaeus while he is still lost in his sin. And the transformation that comes to Zacchaeus comes after Jesus seeks him, as a result of Jesus seeking him first.
[9:44] And if we're honest, that's our story too. If we're trusting in Jesus, Paul says in Romans 5, God demonstrates His own love for us in this.
[9:56] While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus did not wait for us to clean ourselves up or get ourselves presentable before He would come and save us.
[10:10] He did not come to save us because we're good, lovely people who always do and think and say the right things. I mean, no. If we're honest, that is not a good description of us as humans.
[10:24] Our sin really is ugly. Our selfishness and pride really are destructive. Like Zacchaeus was using other people for his own advantage.
[10:35] Far too often, aren't we doing the same? In our words, in our gossip, in our actions, in our manipulations, in our lies, attacks and defenses, we try to shape reality around ourselves at the center.
[10:51] My desires, my needs, my ambitions, not thinking about how destructive that is to myself, to the people around me, and how offensive that is to the God who made me, who actually is the living, loving center of reality.
[11:07] Zacchaeus was doing this. But every time we sin, we do the same thing. We're putting ourselves at the center of all things. We're pushing everyone else to the side, including God himself.
[11:20] I think sometimes we think that we just ignore God and it's okay and we can just live our personal life as if that's all that matters. But when we do that, what we're really saying to God is, you know, God, I wish you would just go away or not exist or if you have to be there, just fall in line with everyone else and serve me, serve my desires, serve my wishes, treat me like I'm the real God and do my bidding.
[11:48] You're my servant. And at its heart, that's what sin is. It's denying God his rightful place as our Lord, as our King over us, the authority over us, denying him his rightful worship as the true center of reality, the giver of all good gifts, the source of all that is good.
[12:10] Sin is pretending like something else, like me, is the real center. And Zacchaeus was living that way. He was living with his own desires, with his own self in the center.
[12:22] He built his wealth up for himself. He didn't care who he harmed in the process. He lived with his desires. He lived as if his desires mattered more than anyone else, more than God.
[12:38] And you know, the world actually tells us to do this, to follow our own hearts, to chase our own happiness above anything and anyone that could get in our way.
[12:51] And Zacchaeus was just living that out. He was following his heart, following his desires. And in the process, he hurt himself. He hurt his whole community.
[13:02] And he pushed God away. But when he meets Jesus, everything changes. We've seen who this man is. We've seen how Jesus interacts with him in such a surprising way.
[13:16] Now let's consider the result of their meeting. You look in verses 8 and 9. 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've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
[13:33] 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.
[13:47] What on earth could make a man who lived so selfishly for so long do something so entirely out of character? Give up the one thing he loved more than anything else in the world, his money.
[14:01] And not only that, but actually he gave his treasure, his money, to the very people he'd been stealing it from. I mean, this man has just done a complete turnaround.
[14:14] It's as much of a miracle as the blind man outside the city who can now see. This man was blind in a different way and now he can see like never before.
[14:25] Everything is different. Back in chapter 18, there's another story that Luke tells us about when Jesus met a rich young ruler. he ended up walking away from Jesus because Jesus told him to give away his wealth.
[14:42] That's in chapter 18, but in verses 24 and 25 back there, Jesus tells his disciples how hard it is for a rich to enter the kingdom of God.
[14:55] Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. That rich man just like Zacchaeus had made money his God.
[15:09] He was living for his own desires. He was trying to satisfy those desires with money. But when it came down to it, when Jesus was there, he could not turn away from his little cold, dead, golden God to come to the real living Savior who was standing right in front of him inviting him to eternal life.
[15:31] Camels don't naturally go through the eye of a needle. People with false gods, like money, don't naturally turn away from those gods.
[15:47] But Jesus says in chapter 18 verse 27, what is impossible with man is possible with God. And here, in the story of Zacchaeus, just one chapter later, we see this miracle of a man transformed.
[16:03] A blind beggar outside the city is now seeing and a spiritually blind rich man inside the city is now seeing. He is seeing the value, the treasure of following Jesus instead of his money.
[16:18] And he's actually willingly, even joyfully, giving up so much of his wealth. All of a sudden he saw that his wealth that he had been living for all of this time was nothing compared to the treasure of actually knowing and following Jesus.
[16:37] And Jesus says in verse 9, today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. This betrayer of his people, this oppressor who is now the one inheriting all the good and gracious promises of God that God had made so long ago to Abraham.
[16:59] Zacchaeus did not deserve that. But the son of man came to seek and save the lost and restore them. Notice though that Jesus does not just seek Zacchaeus out and tell him that he's fine.
[17:13] Tell him that all of his life choices, he just comes to affirm all of that, all that Zacchaeus is already doing with his life. No, he doesn't do that.
[17:24] He doesn't come and say, Zacchaeus, you're good, you're grand, no problem. He seeks him out just as he is before any change happens. But he does not leave him just as he is in his sin.
[17:38] He seeks him and he saves him. This transformation that we see here in Zacchaeus with joy, but it's a sign that he's really been saved out of his sin.
[17:52] it shows that his heart has actually been able to let go of his idols and is now turning back towards God. With the rich young ruler in chapter 18 who walked away, Jesus had told him to give up his money and he couldn't do it.
[18:13] But with Zacchaeus, there's no command like that. Jesus doesn't tell him he needs to do this. He just does it. He does it voluntarily. He offers it up of his own accord. He gives up his wealth.
[18:25] And why does he do that? He does it because he is so caught up with a better treasure. He's found salvation from sin, but that's not all that he's found.
[18:37] He's also found a completely different purpose for his life, something better to live for than his little cold, dead, golden God that he had been giving everything to.
[18:50] He's now turning his entire life around to joyfully follow his living King and Savior Jesus. So his gifts of money to the poor, they're not given begrudgingly, they're not given reluctantly, out of duty or something.
[19:06] He is joyfully letting go of his old God and joining the mission of his new Savior to seek and save those who are lost.
[19:16] He went from thinking that other people are just stepping stones to use for his own advancement, something that he can use to get more money, more of what he wants. But now he is turning that around and he is giving what he has collected on earth to care for others like Jesus had cared for him.
[19:36] He's imitating his Savior. He's giving generously to others as Jesus had given mercy to him. His blindness is healed. He sees that these people that he had been robbing from, that he had been using for himself are actually people that God has made in his image, that Jesus loves, who are worth more than all of his earthly treasures put together.
[20:00] I wonder, do we see other people this way? We've looked at the unworthiness of Zacchaeus, the surprising mercy of Jesus, which led to this complete transformation in Zacchaeus.
[20:16] A miracle if there ever was one. But what does it all mean for us? I think for one, it gives us a picture of the mercy that God has shown us.
[20:28] We may not be blind beggars, we may not be tax collectors, but our basic condition is the same. We are all spiritually blind in sin, desperately in need of God's mercy apart from Christ.
[20:46] And like those men, God didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up, make ourselves good enough, or presentable enough. He just came and sought us out.
[20:57] While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's amazing grace, that great hymn says, I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see.
[21:09] And that's our story too. If we have come to Christ, we are the lost that Jesus came to seek and save. And if you've come to him, if you've been found, and if you see now, then one of the things you see is the lost that remain around you.
[21:30] The lost that Jesus also came to seek and to save. And will you join Jesus in seeking those lost?
[21:41] lost, and I mean all kinds of lost. Not only the people who naturally draw sympathy from us, or the people everybody wants to show compassion to already. I mean, like the blind beggar outside the walls.
[21:54] We should certainly, absolutely bring God's mercy to those people. But we can't stop there. We must also travel with Jesus inside the walls of Jericho and follow him in seeking all kinds of people, every kind of person, even the people everyone knows are undeserving and unworthy, like this betrayer of his people, this turncoat tax collector that everyone disliked.
[22:22] Are you willing to seek people like that with the mercy of God? Are you willing to seek after people who have wronged you personally, like this man had wronged so many in his town?
[22:36] Are you willing to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you as Jesus said, knowing that when you do, Jesus said you are like your father in heaven, who extends his mercy even to his enemies.
[22:54] I think sometimes that we think God's mercy, maybe God's mercy is a little bigger than we want it to be. we want it to cover us, obviously.
[23:09] But when it comes to those really terrible people over there, we want justice, not mercy. Like this town was so upset with Jesus for seeking Zacchaeus, or like Jonah who ran away from Nineveh because he was afraid that his enemies might repent and they might receive God's mercy instead of God's justice.
[23:30] Look, God's justice is real. The fact is it will fall on all who reject his salvation. We need his salvation. We can either pay for our sins ourselves or we can accept Jesus' payment on our behalf.
[23:46] We must come to him to be saved. He is the only way to be saved. But Jesus' offer of salvation is good for everyone in the exact same way, including us, thankfully, for our own crimes against God.
[24:01] But that same salvation is offered to everyone else as well. And that even includes those who have wronged us, those who have hurt us. The Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost and no one is too lost for Jesus to save.
[24:20] So as we thank God that Jesus came to find us in our sin while we were still sinners, we should also see the deep need of those around us for the exact same salvation.
[24:32] Whether they're poor beggars or whether they're corrupt rich people or anyone else at all, including the people who have wronged us. Jesus did not come to save good people. Good people don't need saving.
[24:46] He came to save sinners who are lost and that's us and that's everyone else too. And now we have the privilege to join him joyfully in his mission to seek the lost wherever they are to help them to come back to their savior.
[25:07] So I just want to ask you as I close, who can you seek today or this week with God's mercy, with God's love?
[25:18] Who can you show forgiveness to? Who can you show kindness to or share the good news of God's salvation with so that they can stop being lost so they can come back to the God who made them?
[25:33] Are there any Zacchaeus like people in your life that you need to start praying for that God will open their eyes and have mercy on them like he did for Zacchaeus?
[25:46] Jesus did not seek Zacchaeus because he was worthy. He was not worthy. Jesus did not seek us because we are worthy. we were not worthy either.
[26:00] The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. How will you join in seeking and sharing God's mercy with them this week?
[26:13] Let's pray. Lord, we can never thank you enough for your mercy that you have come to seek and save us while we were still sinners that you came to pay for our sin to win us new life in you.
[26:28] We will trust, put our faith in you. Lord, I pray that if there is anyone here this morning that does not know you, that they will put their trust in you, that they will be found in you.
[26:44] And Lord, I pray that you would give us the eyes to see those around us and how you see them, that you have come to seek and save the lost. I pray that you would give us opportunities, Lord, to share your mercy with others this week.
[26:59] And I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.