7
A Sinner Meets the Seeking Savior
(Luke 19:1–10)
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (19:1–10)
The familiar story of Zaccheus, appearing only in Luke’s gospel, is a rich and instructive story with a concluding verse that expresses the most valuable and glorious truth ever revealed. In that closing statement the Lord Jesus Christ summed up the whole purpose of His incarnation—to seek out and redeem lost sinners.
God seeks sinners, because “there is none who seeks for God” (Rom. 3:11). Unless He graciously calls them they will not come (cf. Rom. 1:6–7; 8:28; 11:29; 1 Cor. 1:9, 23–24, 26; Gal. 1:6; Eph. 4:1, 4; Col. 3:15; 1 Thess. 2:12; 2 Thess. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 3:1; 1 Peter 2:9, 21; 3:9; 5:10; 2 Peter 1:3). After Adam and Eve sinned and attempted to hide from Him, God called to them, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:8–9). Throughout history, God has continued to seek for the lost (cf. Ezek. 34:11, 16; Luke 15:4–32). There would be no reconciliation, salvation, forgiveness, or hope of heaven if He did not.
Jesus came into the world not, as some suggest, to be a good teacher, or a moral leader. He did not come to espouse ideas that would raise people’s spiritual consciousness. Nor did He come into the world to provide a human example of noble, religious life. The divine Lord Christ came into the world to rescue doomed sinners, because God is a saving God (cf. Ps. 106:21; Isa. 43:11; 45:15, 17, 21, 22). That is the biblical message and the foundation of the gospel. Everything in the Old Testament points to that truth; everything in the New Testament explains it.
That the Son of God came into the world to save sinners was made clear before His birth. In Matthew 1:21, the angel said to Joseph, “[Mary] will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The apostle John wrote that Jesus “appeared in order to take away sins” (1 John 3:5). Paul testified, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim. 1:15; cf. 4:10; John 4:14, 42; Acts 5:31; 2 Cor. 5:18–21; 2 Tim. 1:10; Titus 2:13).
No inspired gospel writer put more emphasis on this truth than Luke. That emphasis is most clearly and dramatically portrayed in the three parables of Luke chapter 15, in which God likens Himself to a shepherd seeking a lost sheep, a woman seeking a lost coin, and a father seeking a lost son. Those parables not only focus on His seeking, but also express His joy over the salvation of sinners found. God’s extreme joy in recovering the lost is also seen in the Old Testament. Isaiah 62:5 says, “For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.” Through the prophet Jeremiah God declared, “I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul” (Jer. 32:41).
The story of Zaccheus’s conversion is one of the clearest biblical illustrations of God seeking a specific sinner. That man, in the midst of a massive crowd, had a divine appointment with the seeking, saving Lord. Jesus located him, called him by name, and pursued him to salvation.
This profound story may be simply divided into three sections: the sinner, the Savior, and the salvation.
THE SINNER
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. (19:1–4)
As noted in the previous chapter of this volume, Jericho was located about fifteen miles northeast of Jerusalem and about five miles from the Jordan River. The noted nineteenth-century historian Alfred Edersheim gives a vivid description of Jericho as it was in Jesus’ day:
The ancient City occupied not the site of the present wretched hamlet, but lay about half an hour to the north-west of it, by the so-called Elisha-Spring. A second spring rose an hour further to the north-north-west. The water of these springs, distributed by aqueducts, gave, under a tropical sky, unsurpassed fertility to the rich soil along the ‘plain’ of Jericho, which is about twelve or fourteen miles wide. … Josephus describes it as the richest part of the country, and calls it a little Paradise. Antony had bestowed the revenues of its balsam-plantations as an Imperial gift upon Cleopatra, who in turn sold them to Herod. Here grew palm-trees of various kinds, sycamores, the cypress-flower, the myro-balsamum, which yielded precious oil, but especially the balsam-plant. If to these advantages of climate, soil, and productions we add, that it was, so to speak, the key of Judæa towards the east, that it lay on the caravan-road from Damascus and Arabia, that it was a great commercial and military centre, and lastly, its nearness to Jerusalem, to which it formed the last ‘station’ on the road of the festive pilgrims from Galilee and Peræa—it will not be difficult to understand either its importance or its prosperity.
We can picture to ourselves the scene, as our Lord on that afternoon in early spring beheld it. There it was, indeed, already summer, for, as Josephus tells us, even in winter the inhabitants could only bear the lightest clothing of linen. We are approaching it from the Jordan. It is protected by walls, flanked by four forts. These walls, the theatre, and the Amphitheatre, have been built by Herod; the new palace and its splendid gardens are the work of Archelaus. All around wave groves of feathery palms, rising in stately beauty; stretch gardens of roses, and especially sweet-scented balsam-plantations—the largest behind the royal gardens, of which the perfume is carried by the wind almost out to sea, and which may have given to the city its name (Jericho, ‘the perfumed’). It is the Eden of Palestine, the very fairyland of the old world. And how strangely is this gem set! Deep down in that hollowed valley, through which tortuous Jordan winds, to lose his waters in the slimy mass of the Sea of Judgment. The river and the Dead Sea are nearly equidistant from the town—about six miles. Far across the river rise the mountains of Moab, on which lies the purple and violet colouring. Towards Jerusalem and northwards stretch those bare limestone hills, the hiding-place of robbers along the desolate road towards the City. There, and in the neighbouring wilderness of Judæa, are also the lonely dwellings of anchorites [hermits]—while over all this strangely varied scene has been flung the many-coloured mantle of a perpetual summer. And in the streets of Jericho a motley throng meets: pilgrims from Galilee and Peræa, priests who have a ‘station’ here, traders from all lands, who have come to purchase or to sell, or are on the great caravan-road from Arabia and Damascus—robbers and anchorites, wild fanatics, soldiers, courtiers, and busy publicans—for Jericho was the central station for the collection of tax and custom, both on native produce and on that brought from across Jordan. (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Reprint; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], 2:349–51. Italics in original)
The miracle-working Lord’s arrival in Jericho, accompanied by a large crowd of pilgrims bound for Jerusalem, understandably created a sensation. It was to this huge crowd that Jesus declared that He had come to seek and to save the lost, and demonstrated that by bringing salvation to Jericho’s most notorious sinner.
One of the many people watching while Jesus was passing through the city was a man called by the name of Zaccheus. Here is Luke’s sixth and final reference to tax collectors (cf. 3:12; 5:27–32; 7:29–34; 15:1; 18:10–13). Although tax collectors were the most hated and despised outcasts in Israel, it was not a crime to be one, since taxation is a divine institution. The theocratic kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament was funded by a detailed taxation system in which every Jewish person paid essentially 23.3 percent of their income to support the government. When some repentant tax collectors asked John the Baptist, “Teacher, what shall we do?” (Luke 3:12), he did not tell them to quit their jobs as tax collectors, but rather charged them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to” (v. 13). Jesus commanded that taxes be paid when He said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Luke 20:25; cf. Rom. 13:7), and He Himself paid the required taxes (Matt. 17:24–27).
What God denounced was abusive or illegitimate taxes, extortion, dishonesty, and taking money from people by use of physical violence, intimidation, and cruelty, as tax collectors in the ancient world did. As I noted in an earlier volume of this series,
The Roman occupation of Israel involved more than just a military presence; the nation was also subject to Roman taxation. The taxes in Galilee, for example, were forwarded by tax collectors to Herod Antipas, and by him to Rome. Antipas sold tax franchises to the highest bidder, and such franchises were a lucrative business. Tax collectors had a certain amount that they were required to collect, and whatever they collected beyond that they were permitted to keep (cf. Luke 3:12–13). In addition to the poll tax (on everyone, including slaves), income tax (about one percent), and land tax (one tenth of all grain, and one fifth of all wine and fruit), there were taxes on the transport of goods, letters, produce, using roads, crossing bridges, and almost anything else the rapacious, greedy minds of the tax collectors could think of. All of that left plenty of room for larceny, extortion, exploitation, and even loan sharking, as tax collectors loaned money at exorbitant interest to those who were unable to pay their taxes. Tax collectors also employed thugs to physically intimidate people into paying, and to beat up those who refused. (Luke 1–5, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 2009], 330)
The behavior of tax collectors made them rich, but at the cost of being barred from the synagogue. Because people considered them unclean, they were cut off from social relationships. They could associate only with their fellow tax collectors and the other outcast sinners with whom they associated (15:1; cf. Matt. 9:10–11; 11:19).
Ironically, considering his occupation and reputation, the name Zaccheus means “clean,” “innocent,” “pure,” or “righteous.” The only other tax gatherer named in the New Testament is Levi (Matthew 9:9; Luke 5:27). Like Bartimaeus (cf. the previous chapter of this volume), Luke may have given his name because he had become well known in the early church (according to tradition, he was appointed bishop of Caesarea by Peter).
Zaccheus was no low-level tax collector. Architelōnēs (chief tax collector), used only here in the New Testament, means that he was the commissioner of taxes; the head of the region’s tax collectors. Zaccheus was at the top of the pyramid; the common tax collectors had to pay him a percentage of what they collected. As a result, he was rich.
Like many in the crowd, Zaccheus was continually trying to see who Jesus was. He, too, was curious about Him, but more than that, he had a dissatisfied heart. Zaccheus knew that he was alienated from God, and lacked eternal life. He was feeling guilty over his sin.
Zaccheus’s effort to see Jesus faced two obstacles, however: the crowd was large, and he was small in stature. With determination and desperation, Zaccheus ran on ahead on the path he knew Jesus would take and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. A sycamore (or mulberry) tree had a relatively short trunk with low branches that Zaccheus reached. Having climbed into the tree, he waited for Jesus to become visible.
THE SAVIOR
When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” (19:5–7)
When Jesus came to the place where Zaccheus sat in the tree waiting, He made some moves that must have shocked him. First, the Lord stopped, then looked up and made eye contact with Zaccheus, and called him by name, though they had never met (cf. His interaction with Nathanael in John 1:45–48). Finally, and most stunning of all, the Lord commanded Zaccheus to take Him home! He said, “Hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” The verbs translated hurry and come down are imperatives, and call for immediate action. The Lord knows not only who He will save, but where and when that salvation will take place (cf. John 3:8). The particle dei (must) is used throughout Luke’s gospel to speak of divine necessity (cf. 2:49; 4:43; 9:22; 13:33; 17:25; 22:37; 24:7, 44). It was predetermined before the foundation of the world that Jesus would stay at Zaccheus’s house that day and grant him eternal life.
After Zaccheus overcame his shock and surprise, he hurried and came down from his perch in the tree and received Jesus gladly. This would have been the first time any honorable, ceremonially clean, and respected person had ever come to his house. As the father received the prodigal (Luke 15:11–32), Jesus embraced a sinning hated agent of Rome and reconciled him.
Nothing more clearly illustrates the difference between the heart of God and apostate first-century Judaism than the reaction of outrage by the crowd. When they saw that Jesus was going to stay with Zaccheus, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” The onomatopoeic verb diagonguzō (grumble) is a strong word, indicating the crowd’s intense disapproval of the Lord’s action, not only of speaking with Zaccheus, but also of staying the night (the verb translated gone to be the guest means to loosen one’s clothing in preparation for staying overnight). No self-respecting Jew would ever pollute himself by staying at the house of the chief administrator of Roman taxation. That, however, meant nothing to Jesus, who was on a divine mission, established by divine sovereign electing grace and operating on the divine timetable, to bring this lost sinner to salvation.
Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (19:8–10)
Luke does not describe the Lord’s presentation of the gospel to Zaccheus, or his response. But the salvation of the man is evident from the transformation of his life, which revealed itself in that part of his life where his sin was most openly manifested. Zaccheus stopped (the Greek word is better translated “took a stand”), acknowledged Jesus as Lord (cf. Rom. 10:9–10), and expressed his self-denial (cf. Luke 9:23–24) by saying to Him, “Half of my possessions I will give to the poor” (cf. 2 Cor. 8:3; James 2:15–16; 1 John 3:17). Further, his statement, “If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much,” declared his intent to make restitution for the wrongs he had committed, in keeping with the maximum amount required by the Old Testament law (Ex. 22:1; cf. vv. 4–14; Num. 5:6–7). The genuineness of Zaccheus’s salvation was made evident by the complete transformation of his behavior.
Jesus confirmed the reality of Zaccheus’s salvation when He said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.” Zaccheus had, of course, been a son of Abraham ethnically all of his life. But as the apostle Paul wrote,
He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. (Rom. 2:28–29; cf. 9:6)
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. … And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Gal. 3:6–9, 29; cf. John 8:33–44)
Paul had been a zealous Pharisee, proud of his Abrahamic heritage (Phil. 3:4–6). But after his salvation he viewed all of that as “rubbish” (v. 8), and himself as the foremost of all sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).
So complete was Zaccheus’s transformation that he instantaneously went from being a thief to being a benefactor; from being selfish to being unselfish, from being a taker to being a giver. He became a true Jew, part of the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16), a Jew who was one inwardly. He was no longer just a son of Abraham by race, but a son of Abraham by faith. That very day he was justified by faith. The one who had been lost was saved and delivered from sin, death, and hell. The Lord gave him life and light to believe and repent and his conduct was transformed.
Son of Man, a messianic title taken from Daniel 7:13, was Jesus’ most common way of referring to Himself. It describes both His humanity and His deity. The verbs translated seek and save are infinitives, and express the purpose for which Jesus came into world. To save is to rescue from harm and deliver from danger. Lost translates a form of the verb apollumi, which means “to be ruined,” or “destroyed.” Sin has devastated all of humanity, leaving lost sinners marred, corrupted, evil, ruined, and headed for eternal damnation (Rom. 3:10–18; Eph. 4:17). But God, in His mercy, grace, and love, sent Christ to seek and to save those who face His own wrath and judgment. In the words of Philip P. Bliss’s hymn “Hallelujah, What a Savior!”:
“Man of Sorrows!” what a name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
When a sinner does seek after God (Jer. 29:13; Amos 5:4; Matt. 6:33; 11:28) he does so only because God has first sought him (John 6:44; cf. 1 John 4:19), called him “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9), and shattered his state of death by making him alive (cf. Eph. 2:1–3).