WATCH TODAY’S EPISODE ON YOUTUBE.
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
Luke 19:1–5 NIV
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
CONSIDER
Zacchaeus gets a bad rap. I think it’s undeserved.
It’s why I cannot overemphasize the importance of reading the Bible carefully. Once we see things in a certain way, it is hard to un-see them that way again. I don’t know about you, but for most of my Bible-reading life I’ve seen Zacchaeus as a “wee little man” who was a lying, cheating, stealing, low-down dirty scoundrel of a tax collector. And did I mention stealing? Everybody hated him.
Why have I thought this? Well, for starters, he as much as admitted it, didn’t he, when he said he would give half of his possessions to the poor and pay back anyone he had cheated four times the amount? Wasn’t that pretty much an admission of guilt? After all, wasn’t that why Jesus went to his house—to scold him into changing his ways?
As I learn from my own teachers to read more carefully, I am beginning to see Zach a bit differently. Most translations of Luke 19:8 translate the Greek verb for “give” as the present tense verb that it is.
In other words, instead of Zacchaeus saying, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor,” he actually said, “I give half of my possessions to the poor.” The same can be said of the latter report where he actually says, “I pay back four times the amount to anybody I have cheated.” Zacchaeus is telling Jesus of his present policy and practice as relates to money.
Here’s a wealthy person who gives away half of his possessions to the poor. He tithes 50 percent to the needy. Meanwhile, everybody around has him in the category of sinner, which effectively means scumbag outcast. Nowhere is there a report that Zach actually cheated anyone. Whether or not he had done so before, this policy of paying back four times the amount seems more than fair. I mean, last time I checked, the IRS will give you a refund where they might have “cheated” you, but there are never multiples! Given the kind of report Zach is offering here, he seems like the kind of guy who would catch and report his own errors. Think about it. Why would a guy who gives half of his holdings to the poor turn around and cheat them on their taxes?
When Jesus called out his name and said he wanted to come over, that was all good news to Zacchaeus. He “welcomed him gladly,” we are told. One would think if Zacchaeus was the scuzzball everyone said, he would have been mortified that Jesus wanted to come to his house.
So rather than this being a repentance story, it’s a reward story. It turns out to be another stick it to the self-righteous religious people story—a vindication to restoration to salvation story.
The only people who seem in need of repentance are the grumblers who are angry that Jesus went to see him. When Jesus recognizes Zacchaeus as a “son of Abraham,” he basically restores him to the community—just like he did those lepers the other day.
In short, just like with the widows and the prostitutes and the Samaritan leper and the tax collector in the temple and the blind beggar, Jesus adds Zacchaeus to the list of all-stars you want to be like.
It’s also worth pointing out that Zacchaeus, unlike the rich ruler of a few days back, is an example of a wealthy person who hits the mark. And the grumbling crowd? They get added to the naughty list.
The long and short of today’s lesson: be careful how you read because it will determine how you lead and, yes, how you seed.
It turns out Zacchaeus wasn’t such a wee little man after all. He’s got a massive heart.
PRAY
Lord Jesus, thank you for being the God of the rest of the story. Save us from bad reading and dark prejudices and stereotypes and prejudgments we are all so prone to make. Thank you for the almost constant reversals you do all around us all the time—blowing up our categories and humbling our ways. Keep on keeping on. It will be for your glory, for others’ gain, and for our own good. Praying in your name, Jesus, amen.
JOURNAL
What do you make of this reading of the story of Zaccheus? It’s not a novel or even new reading. What if it’s actually a much much older reading and in keeping with the actual words of Scripture? Do you find yourself wanting to push back on this insight or wanting to read it all now even more deeply?
SING
Today, we will sing “Breathe on Me, Breath of God” (hymn 304) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
John David (J. D.) Walt Jr. is the Sower-in-Chief for Seedbed and the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas.
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4 Responses
Luke 19:6 tells us that Zacchaeus came down from his tree and gladly welcomed Jesus.
If you want to be strong in the Lord, humble yourself, (James 4:10) come down from your high places, and gladly welcome the living Jesus into your heart, your home, and your life. Open up your heart to surrender to and to overflow with God’s joy.
“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) God wants to flood you with His indescribable and glorious joy. (1 Peter 1:8) Jesus says that He wants His joy to be in you and for your joy to be full. (John 15:11) Do you want Christ’s joyfulness?
The Bible says that he kingdom of God is not about religious rules or rituals. It’s about right living, inner peace, and Holy Spirit produced joy. (Romans 14:17) If you aren’t experiencing ongoing joy, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)
Begin to allow God the Holy Spirit to continually produce the fruit of His joy (Galatians 5:22-23) within and through you. Then you will “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)) You’ll discover that a cheerful heart is good medicine. (Proverbs 17:22)
Be glad and rejoice in the Lord. (Psalm 9:2) Let His written words be the joy of your heart. (Psalm 119:111-112) Even when you are persecuted for your faith, rejoice and be glad! (Matthew 5:12) Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. (Luke 6:23)
God keeps me glad by what He has done and is doing within and around me. (Psalm 92:4) Day by day gladness and everlasting joy overtake me and sorrow and sighing flee away. (Isaiah 51:11)
Go beyond routine religion to pure joy. Sermons are too often attempts to explain the unexplainable (Philippians 4:7) and to describe the indescribably glorious, (1 Peter 1:8) but the Bible says that the “enticing words of men’s wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:4) are not able to communicate the reality of risen Jesus. (1 Corinthians 4:20)
People need to see actual demonstrations of Christ’s presence, of His power, and of the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) like Zacchaeus did. People need to continually experience the reality of divine revelation imparted directly to their heart. (Matthew 16:17) not just hear a mentally prepared classroom-style lesson once a week. (2 Corinthians 4:6) People need Christ’s words to burn like fire within them, (Luke 24:32) not merely to be explained to their mind.
“ What if it’s actually a much much older reading and in keeping with the actual words of Scripture?” (JDW)
I read four versions of the passage, esp vs 7& 8. : “ And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
It appears to me that Zach was answering the grumblers.
“. Zaccheus is by birth a son of Abraham, but, being a publican, he was deemed a heathen; they are put upon a level, Matt. 18:17. And as such the Jews were shy of conversing with him, and expected Christ should be so; but he shows that, being a true penitent, he is become rectus in curia—upright in court, as good a son of Abraham as if he had never been an publican, which therefore ought not to be mentioned against him.“
(Matthew Henry)
I’m saying that I believe his repentance and conversion happened that very day and that very hour! “And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
As I mentioned in a reply a few days ago I always read the chapter before I even look at the wake up call post. As I was reading from my NIV Life Application Study Bible I did catch one tiny little word that I have never caught before! And that was in verse 8. “IF” I have cheated anybody out of anything I will pay back four times the amount. That caught my attention. Now, after reading the Wake Up Call I went back in my version and it says very clearly “here and now I give half of my possessions..” NOT I will give! What an Enlightenment this morning!