The Gospel of Luke 19:1-10 – Zaccheus gets down
Luke 19:1-10 · Vern Peterman · May 29, 2016
Gospel of Luke, No. 72
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926534217758

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

One of the things that we had determined to do is to kind of once a month have focus on missions. And just to get them in name and in pictures here, here are the missionaries that we are supporting here. And of course, one of the things we at Holly Hills support missionaries who are retired all the way to the time when they go home. We earlier this year had that come about with Paul Giles, who went home not too long ago.

But Virginia Tannous is one who is retired and we still support, and Dave and Gwen Ripley as well. Getting the latest letter from Dave Ripley, what's interesting is there are more missionaries, Christian missionaries, in the world today than any time in history. So this is rather amazing. It's a very good thing, too. And we have Steve and Natalie Dupuis, whom we have supported for quite some time in Moscow. Clinton Mahon was Athletes in Action internationally.

I last spoke to him at Clark and Jamie Eccles' wedding reception, and he was going to be in Israel the same time we were, but our schedules were both so busy we couldn't seem to sync them up together. John and Joanne Hobson, Cadence International Fellowship Ranch, which is right here in Colorado, I'm going to make it a point to go, you know, visit them. Directly and and I'll let you know how things are going, right? Terry and Trudy Thompson actually over with the Colorado School of Mines Working with international students there.

So that's another one where there's some local contact Ruth that's good to have you Back with us on on the mend here, but continue to pray. There's a long recovery period I spoke to Hassan a couple times this last week and And so he's doing well. We're hoping to have a conversation with Hassan here in the service a month from today. So anyway, so that should be a neat thing. Hassan was suggesting, how about if I fly over to the United States and just say thank you and then go back? I said, well, let's just have you on the phone. That'll, I think, be good enough, right?

So at any rate, these are our missionaries. We also have a board in the coffee room that you can take a look at. It has kind of the latest newsletters and updates. So anyway, we'll work on keeping you posted here. And so with that, our teachers and children can head off to the children's ministry. And we will go into Luke 19, 1-10. Randy read that for us earlier here.

This is the account of Zacchaeus. It's a very unique account. First of all, only Dr. Luke has it here. None of the others. And one of the things that struck me as I was going through this is oftentimes have found that if I am not stunned, amazed, if I don't see the drama in a scriptural account, then I haven't studied it deeply enough or haven't studied it long enough. This really is actually a very stunning, shocking account of Zacchaeus.

And this is a case where the background comes to the foreground. A lot of times we'll read through things, but unless we understand the background, a lot of times we won't catch it. And this particular account is one where, boy, it really is important to understand the setting and the cultural background for this account. It'll also be insightful as we go through this.

To proceed through this passage, keep an eye on Dr. Luke's pattern of writing in the Gospel of Luke and in Acts. And by the way, Acts is where we're headed next, okay, after Luke. And now, however, this finishing Luke will probably take us a number of months yet.

So, this was Jesus told his disciples, right? He had just told his disciples that he must be killed by the Gentiles and be raised on the third day. And so here's the account, and he took the twelve aside, we went through this just a little bit ago, took the twelve aside and said to them, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and it is up, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished, for he will be handed over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged him, they will kill him, and the third day he will rise again. And they went, Oh! Now we get it, right?

Not so much. They were clueless. Verse 34, But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said. Not a clue. He was passing through Jericho on the way to Jerusalem with this in mind. He had just told them this. He's looking at, it's about a week, and he's going to be crucified.

So they're coming down from the Galilee area, and then heading towards the Jordan River, right? Right past Sethopolis, And then going down the Jordan River Valley and then into Jericho. And so we saw the blind man, that was the reason for, here's Randy's saying about the blind man, right? And then today, Zacchaeus, as he goes through Jericho. And then up from there, and it's really up, into Jerusalem. So here's, it's about a week's time. a week before his death, that this takes place. So, John 11, 15, Jesus may have stayed with Zacchaeus actually a few days. Looking at the clues here from John 11, 5.

So, Zacchaeus is the Greek version of a Hebrew name, zakai, meaning clean or innocent, which is incredibly ironic because, as we'll see, this chief tax collector was looked upon as the scum of the earth. Pure irony. He was the chief tax collector for the despised Romans. Now, you know as well as I, the Ten Commandments included, you know, you shall not lie, right? Shall not bear false witness. Except, the rabbi said it's okay to lie to a Roman tax collector. That's an exception. It's okay to lie to a Roman tax collector because they're terrible, awful people. And so, that's the exception that's allowed. Patriotic Jews considered tax collectors for the Romans to be the worst of the worst. It doesn't get any badder than that, right? So tax collectors and sinners is roughly equivalent to the scum of the earth. The very most awful.

Tax collectors and sinners, for example, the phrase used in these passages here in Matthew and Mark and Luke. We've seen them as we've gone through the Gospel of Luke. Tax collectors and prostitutes is another term that was used in Matthew, and tax collectors all by itself in Matthew and Luke in earlier chapters. Then we have tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors and sinners. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have that phrase here. Tax collectors and prostitutes. And then finally, just tax collectors. The references to an individual tax collector are found in Matthew and Luke and in this passage here with Zacchaeus. So, while the Jews, these Jews, they just hated the tax collectors. They hated them.

Understanding Dr. Luke's account of the interactions between Zacchaeus and Jesus is a totally shocking revelation. It is to the Jews and the way Jesus treated Zacchaeus, it was just like, I can't reconcile this. I can't put this together. We'll see shortly there are even more shocking revelations to come in this passage as we step our way through it.

He wasn't just a run-of-the-mill tax collector. You see, they could say tax collectors and sinners and all the other disgusting terms that they would use. This guy was a chief tax collector. He had other tax collectors that worked for him. And the way it worked, by the way, is that Tax collectors put in bids. How much can you get out of this area? And they'd say, okay, I'll get the Romans this much money, and the one who said they'd get the most would get the bid. But there was no limit to what the tax collector himself could glean, and he had the Roman soldiers backing as he went up to houses.

He had lived up his occupation's infamy by accumulating a great deal of money from his fellow Jews. And they were all very, very disgusted. He had heard about Jesus, just like the blind man previously had heard about Jesus. He might have been perhaps just curious, but maybe there was more to it. We'll see when we get to the next verses here. He was quite strongly motivated to see Jesus personally, actually get a glimpse of him. Zacchaeus was, or rather Jesus rather, was being followed by a crowd of people as he approached and was passing through Jericho. And so he's got this crowd, and it was that same crowd that was following Jesus that had gotten the blind man's attention.

Now I hear that, you know, there's kind of an increase in the noise level, right? And so he's passing through. This would be, excuse me, a picture, especially off to the right side would be the area where Old New Testament Jericho was located. This picture, by the way, is taken from Old Testament Jericho. And so Zacchaeus was small in stature. That made a really large problem.

How can I see past all these crowds? And these people have no courtesy for me because I'm a chief tax collector, right? How am I possibly going to get a glimpse of Jesus? And that's about all he was hoping to do. So this Zacchaeus came up with this Zacchaeus solution to run, climb in order to see Jesus. If I climb, I get in the tree in the right spot just before he goes passing by, not too late, then I'll be able to see Jesus. So that's his solution.

He climbs up in this sycamore tree. And by the way, this one here is in Jericho. When we were visiting Jericho, they actually have a row of them growing there. Zacchaeus would get into a place where he could see Christ over the crowd when Christ would come by his tree.

And he could look down and, you know, I don't know if he's going to go, Hey, Jesus, you know, or anything like that. But he at least wanted to get a glimpse. So here's this Middle Eastern sycamore tree. Here's another example of what that might look like. And so he'd climb up into that tree, get up high enough so he could see over the top of the crowd.

So the first part of verse 5 shows that Zacchaeus' resourceful strategy of climbing a tree that Jesus would surely pass by did work well, if simply seeing Jesus was the ultimate goal. Zacchaeus was about to find out that his plan was not the only one in Jericho. Ah, somebody else has a plan. Jesus had some plans that would change Zacchaeus' day big time, and his life, and his eternity. So, Jesus had a plan for Zacchaeus.

So with a crowd around, how did Jesus know to look up to see Zacchaeus? I mean, after all, you're walking along like this and you've got a crowd. Why would your attention go up to that guy up in the tree? How did Jesus know Zacchaeus' name? Was it a miraculous revelation? Or had Jesus asked or even heard his name? There's a great many people in the crowd pressing in on Jesus, at least since Jesus had begun approaching the city of Jericho.

Why take note of a very short, socially and morally rejected man up in the tree? Why bother with a guy? So here's Luke 19, 5 and 6, and when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down. For today I must stay at your house." And he hurried and came down and received him gladly." If we could imagine how the rest of the culture thought of Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector. I hate that guy. It makes my blood boil. I hate that guy so much.

And here Jesus with the crowd and all kinds of people around Him, people that have been following, Jesus seeks out this one guy. And it was a very stunning thing for Jesus to do, and not something at all that people expected. As a matter of fact, we're going to find out they didn't want Jesus to do this.

So Jesus' command to Zacchaeus in verse 5 was to come down, come down from there and hurry, be quick about it. Zacchaeus' action in verse 6 is a direct response to what Jesus said to him, even to the point of matching words. Receiving him gladly tells us the attitude of Zacchaeus. So Jesus' words hurry and today give a sense of immediacy to Jesus' command to Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus had not been given any advance warning and by sundown it would or at least could be the Sabbath. So to comply with Jesus' command he would indeed have to hustle and work to avoid doing any work on the Sabbath. It may have been later in the day as well making time of the essence.

I must stay at your house. So we may not catch the significance of Jesus saying that he must stay at Zacchaeus' house. In Jewish culture, it was thought that to eat with someone evil was to participate in their crimes. In this guy, the worst of the worst. And to be a co-conspirator or an accessory to their crimes. One more thing, I must. The Greek word must, de, in the Gospel of Luke was often something that God required. I must, as a requirement of God, stay at your house.

Here's an example from Luke 2.48, And he said to them, Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my father's house?

Luke 9.22, saying, The Son of Man must.

Suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day Luke 17 25 First he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation So the crowd all went yeah, right Not so much when they saw it they began to grumble oh Oh, he's gone to the guest of a man who's a sinner. So verse 7 is at once significant, pivotal, and totally predictable. Here's this guy that it's okay to lie to in a culture where you're not supposed to lie at all. But you can lie to him because he's that bad.

So let's move in for a closer look at what's going on here. The crowd has not been mentioned here since the brief reference in verse 3. Now we hear about what the crowd saw and what they did in response and what they then said to each other. The crowd would not have missed what just happened.

Zacchaeus was up where he could be seen by everybody. He's up in the tree. Everybody can see that the chief tax collector is up in the tree. Jesus likely had to speak up for Zacchaeus to hear him over the crowd. They would hear crowd noise. I'm not talking about just like a football game or something, but just crowd noise. Just people are talking and you get an audience like that. And so Jesus had to speak up, most likely, for him to be heard. So Dr. Luke uses a word there that's called an onomatopoeia. It's a word intended to imitate the sound that it names, okay?

It's Diagonguzo. Diagonguzo. And if we all sat here in this room and went, Diagonguzo, you know, it would sound like grumbling. So this is a crowd grumbling. Diagonguzo. Okay. So, rumble, grumble, rumble. This is a crowd. So anyway, this Zacchaeus guy is really popular, you can tell. Okay. The buzzing of a person, the person conversation having overtone of negativity passes quickly through the crowd that day. Everybody, Jesus, you know, calls out to Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down. I'm going to stay at your house. You're going to what? I'm going to stay at your house today." Everybody's looking up. They're just stunned, shocked.

And then the next thing, moves through the crowd a wave of grumbling. The brief exchange between Zacchaeus and Jesus had impact. Before we skip over this, however, the small words in this verse, we should take note of the word, all. It wasn't just a few of them doing the grumbling. The grumbling among those in the crowd was universal. Dr. Luke said they all responded alike.

What's puzzling is that they all passed negative judgment on the one who had one day judged them all. See, it wasn't just Zacchaeus that they were judging. They were saying, Jesus, that's not a good choice for you to make. How much does the crowd's opinion, even when it's unanimous, actually matter? Was it going to stop Zacchaeus? Was it going to stop Jesus? Were the disciples going to refuse to go there? So we see here that Zacchaeus' place as a tax collector was virtually equal to being a sinner. A tax collector was a sinner. There's just no doubt about it. Zacchaeus is one who sins habitually by fundamental character.

Verse 8 says that Zacchaeus stopped, the New American Standard there has stood, excuse me, stopped is in the New American Standard, stood is in the King James, implying that he said this right away in response to the crowd. It may be that Zacchaeus stood later on to speak, after he had talked with Jesus and his disciples, perhaps over a meal. In either case, what Zacchaeus said was likely not a private declaration. So we might think that Zacchaeus and Jesus went from the public gathering of the crowd to the privacy of Zacchaeus' own quarters, and that would not necessarily be the case.

In the Jewish culture of Jesus' day, people, even crowds, often gathered to watch others eat and to listen in on conversations, make comments, and interact with those eating. And that's something in our culture, if we, say, invited some guests over, what would we do? say okay we're going to sit down here quietly if you had people looking in the doorway and looking in the windows and making comments and asking questions while you're in the middle of eating we would be very disturbed and offended by that that was normal in the Jewish culture to have people standing in your doorway and looking at what you ate and looking at what you said and to have people even standing up on things to look in the windows and make comments, ask questions about things, that was normal Jewish behavior. I see you shaking your head. Yes, it was.

And so, even when Jesus went in with His disciples into the meal, People would still be free to make comments and ask questions and talk to each other about what you're doing and not doing and eating and all that. So whether Zacchaeus spoke right there after coming down from the tree or later when Jesus was at Zacchaeus' home, it's clear that he and Jesus spoke in a public forum with a number of people gathered.

The other offers of giving half in scripture were also made in public forum by royalty. An example reading of the king of Persia doing this in the book of Esther. Herod Antipas as well, as recorded in Mark chapter 6. And so I'll give up to half, half of the kingdom, etc. As Achaeus tells of his intent to restore dishonest gains to people, he gives two numbers to work with. The first is the half. Start by giving half of what he has to the poor outright. Ah, but then the next one. He says he will restore four times as much as any taxes taken dishonestly. Why four?

Well, this will take a lot of digging through Roman tax records, right? I go through all these Roman tax records and figure out who I took from what or what I took from who. So he's the chief tax collector, so that's a lot to try to reconcile. And of course, he got out the laptop and put it in the program, right? So, you know, here's TurboTax Emperor.

No, probably not. So, the rabbis taught that it was not prudent to give away more than 20% of one's possessions. And of course, here's Zacchaeus, I'll give back half, and I'll pay back four times. A man would make restitution 20% above what was taken dishonestly in the case of extortion, but look, but paying back four times was what was applied for stealing cheap. He is basically admitting that he had stolen from people. Stolen from people.

So, if. Let's talk about that if. If I have defrauded anyone of anything. In the Greek text this is called a first class condition. Zacchaeus was saying if, and it is assumed to be true, I have defrauded anyone. So what is he saying? I have defrauded. Right? Zacchaeus isn't denying or doubting that he has been dishonest with people. He's openly saying that it is assumed to be the case.

Pretty stunning admission. Right in front of everybody, right? Being a tax collector was looked upon with such disfavor in Jewish culture, it was assumed a tax collector was guilty. You're a tax collector, you must be guilty, right? Unless. Unless the tax collector could be proven and publicly declared not guilty, Jesus did exactly that after Zacchaeus' public declaration.

So what Jesus says here leaves us with a question. Why is it that we hear salvation announced without hearing Zacchaeus trust, believes, or has faith in Christ? Are we missing something here? We've been presented with a faint outline of what actually took place, what actually was said went way beyond what was recorded for us here by Dr. Luke. So this is not the complete account, is it? This is just simply a summary of what took place and what was said.

Now, so in the typical Jewish mindset there was an obvious logical connection between being a Jew and daily living out the law. Be holy for I am holy. That was God's basis in Leviticus 11.44. Placing one's faith in God was logically expressed by living out the law. That was the Jewish mindset. Law of Moses in the Old Testament prophets told repeatedly of the coming of the Son of Man, the Messiah. So faith among the Jews was expressed through the law and hope in the Messiah.

Jesus says, He too is a son of Abraham. Jesus declares Zacchaeus to be a son of Abraham. Abraham was not under the law of Moses, but the faith of Abraham was accounted unto him as righteousness. So beyond being a physical son of Abraham, which he was, which Jesus said wasn't sufficient anyway, Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham in the sense that he had placed his faith in God, and he would carry it out.

He would act on that faith. That term, Son of Man, is one that comes out of Daniel 7, 13 and 14 and refers to the Messiah's coming, as he will come and reign in the Millennial Kingdom forever, and after that in the new heavens and new earth. Jesus often called himself Son of Man. We've seen that previously here in the Gospel of Luke. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

So these words draw upon what Jesus said in Matthew 5.24, 10.6, and also we see it in other places in the Gospel of Luke.

Here in Matthew 10.5 and 6, these twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Matthew 15, 24, but He answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus didn't go to India like some stories tell, and He didn't go up into Europe and all those things. No, He went to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's where He was sent. Jeremiah 50, verse 6, My people Israel have become lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray. In this perspective here, we say your problem is you're not Jewish. If you were Jewish, you wouldn't have those problems. You've had other problems.

One of the things that's clear is on through time, and actually on into eternity, there are three particular groups of people that God continues to address, and that's Gentiles, Israel, and the Church. And at this point in time, recorded here, the Church had not begun yet. It was about two months out.

But Israel was the target here that Jesus was sent to in His first coming. So God has worked through these three people groups, working out His eternal purpose. So Gentiles and the Jews, or Israel, and then subsequently the Church. Since the account in Luke 19, 1-10 is so much about Christ's singular ministry to the Jew in Israel, what part of this applies to us in the Church?

What are some things that I can take home today from this very Jewish account? So God has now begun this group called the church about two months after this event that we just looked at here. Zacchaeus was just in the tree for a passing look. Jesus was pursuing personal fellowship with one man who didn't deserve it. Just like you and me.

You may recall this promise by Christ from the book of Revelation 2.17. To him who overcomes, and that's all who believe, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. Now I think this is an important thing for us as believers to understand.

You have God's undivided attention. God is not overwhelmed with everything that's going on in the universe and is going to go on. He is an infinite being and you have His undivided attention. He is not too busy for you. Anytime you want to talk to the Lord, He says, I'm going to use an expression, I'm all ears. The Lord wants to have relationship with you. He wants to hear from you.

One of the things we've been underscoring as we go through Revelation on Thursday nights at our home study is that the prayers of the Saints are kept in golden bowls. It indicates their value. God doesn't just toss them, right? They're valuable. God values relationship with you.

And here, this Revelation 2.17 passage says that You have an individual identity before the Lord. There will be a new name that only the two of you will know. Isn't that something? You have a personal identity with the Lord on which He is completely focused because He can't be distracted and He doesn't need to divide His time and attention between all of us. I will give him a new name, that's you, and the new name written on the stone, which no one knows but he who receives it."

Here's Zacchaeus. Everybody despised this guy. The Lord sought him out. There's nothing that we've done or failed to do that changes that. That the Lord loves us, that He individually cares for us. And He's got all the time in the world to listen to you.

The crowd may get in the way of our beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. You notice that? That we can get distracted by all the things people are doing and saying and all that's going on. Distracted from our focus upon the Lord. The opinion of the crowd may well be in direct opposition to what God has in mind for us as well as for Himself. The crowd may be quite opposed to what the Lord wants for us.

By outward appearance, the crowd was close to Jesus. Remember, they're all moving around, getting close to Him, and even moving along with Him. But looking close to Jesus was not the same as being close to Jesus. Looking close to Jesus is not the same as being close to Jesus.

And there is more than one kind of a son of Abraham. Galatians 3, 6 and 7, Even so Abraham believed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham." Ah, sons by faith. Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham because as an ethnic Jew he had expressed his faith in Jesus the Messiah. We are now sons of Abraham by faith in Christ apart from the law of the Jews."

It was amazing. You're going to meet Zacchaeus. He might not be short, I can't guarantee that. But you're going to get to meet this guy. The Lord came to seek and to save. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled his appointed ministry among those of Israel that day as he came into the earthly life of a lost Jewish man named Zacchaeus, restoring him among Israel. In just a week, Jesus would fulfill a necessary ministry to all fallen humans, all those who are in Adam, by dying on a cross and doing so taking upon himself the sins of the whole world.

Yours and mine. It's all about our position, too. By birth, God gave the Jews a door of opportunity by faith for spiritual position based on their own earthly ethnicity, that faith was to be expressed in living by the law in their daily condition. See that? We in the church by spiritual birth, by faith, have been given an eternal position in the heavenlies in Christ, which is apart from the law, and faith is expressed by Christ's life through us in our daily condition. Jesus said to Zacchaeus, the lost Jew, hurry and come down. Jesus says to you, the church saint, stay right there, right here, where you've been seated, up here with me. Okay, let's pray.

Lord, we do ask as we look at this, it's really an amazing account, and we do ask as we look at this that we take in in this brief account all the rich things that are there and it points to and we thank you Lord for the care shown to this man Zacchaeus and how that reflects how much you care for us individually and it doesn't matter what we have done or not done you love us immensely and you have all the time in the world for us and we give you thanks in Jesus name Amen