Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
Zacchaeus was a wealthy man, which had the potential to be a problem, because Jesus had said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" (see Luke 18:25). Difficult, perhaps, but not definitively impossible as we shall see. Zacchaeus gained this wealth in his unsavory profession as chief tax collector. This meant that he was thought of as a collaborator with the occupying Roman forces and was considered a sinner. He might have used these facts as reasons to ignore the inner draw he felt to Jesus, but he did not. Instead, he sought to see who Jesus was. Perhaps he had heard that Jesus had spoken of a sinner and tax collector who went home justified (see Luke 18:9-14) and this stirred something within him. Although his wealth and his profession were not ideal there was still hope for him.
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
This decision to climb the tree was key for Zacchaeus. His natural endowments were not enough to allow him to see Jesus. Neither his height, not his position in society, nor his wealth, had any special claim that would gain him an audience with him. Would Zacchaeus go away sad, holding tight to the prerogatives of his station as wealthy and important? Or would he instead humble himself, doing something that must have seemed ridiculous to many onlookers, all the more so because of his wealth and status? He chose to climb. In doing so he was implicitly treating his wealth and status with disdain compared to the greater good of knowing Jesus Christ himself, just as Paul counted as loss all that he once regarded as gain (see Philippians 3:7).
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.”
Curiously, when Jesus did pass by, a reversal took place. Zacchaeus thought he had been seeking Jesus. But it turned out that Jesus himself was first seeking Zacchaeus. He needed him to come down quickly because he said that he must stay at his house on that very day. The draw in the heart of Zacchaeus that motivated him to climb that tree was not mere curiosity like that of Herod Antipas. It was the Father himself drawing Zacchaeus to Jesus, placing him in just the right position for Jesus to seek and to save this descendant of Abraham. Until that moment when Jesus looked up at him he had been a lost and wandering sheep. But now he had been found. When Jesus found him he found his own true place in the story of salvation history. He was no longer defined as only and exclusively sinner and tax collector. As part of the flock of the Good Shepherd, as one to whose house Jesus himself was willing to come and stay, he found a new and higher identity, which we see from the genuine joy with which he received Jesus.
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
What happened to Zacchaeus was no merely subjective encounter, it transformed him from the inside out, and drastically redefined all of his previous priorities.
“Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over.”
Zacchaeus was not lukewarm, and for that reason climbed the tree to see Jesus. Sometimes we are asked to climb a tree to experience more of Jesus, or to encounter him in others, especially the poor. But often we are too lukewarm, too content with things as they are and willing to let Jesus pass by at a distance, where he cannot have such a dramatic and dangerous impact on our lives as he did on Zacchaeus. We appear to be living the Christian life, but when it comes time to show forth the love that is supposed to mark us as Christians we prove more dead then alive, more like the Pharisees, and less like Zacchaeus. What then? We need what Zacchaeus seemed to have, that being a better understanding of our need for Jesus. We too are "pitiable, poor, blind, and naked". We too need to be "watchful and strengthen what is left, which is going to die". But this invitation is not all about us any more than it was necessary for Zacchaeus to first clean up his behavior, his house, or his social circles before Jesus came to stay. It's all about opening the door to the one who is already knocking.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
then I will enter his house and dine with him,
and he with me.
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