Come On Down

Once upon a time, about 2,000 years ago, a man named Zacchaeus wanted something so badly he climbed a tree to get it - in a skirt. I'm not too fond of climbing trees myself, even in jeans; I'm not always sure about getting down again. But this man didn't care. He lived in a town in Palestine called Jericho, a little bit north of Jerusalem. Like everyone else he wore a long tunic, belted at the waist, which made climbing trees more than a little risky. But there was no other way to get what he wanted.

Back in those days Palestine was ruled by the Romans. The Jews hated the Romans and were always trying to stir up rebellion. So the Romans kept sending in more and more soldiers, and making more and more laws, to keep things quiet. And the harder the Romans tried to suppress things, the more resentful the people became. But even more than they hated the Romans, the Jews hated those from among their own people who worked for the Romans, took money from them to help oppress them. The worst of these were the tax collectors. And Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

Now, a tax collector wasn't like an IRS agent. The way it worked was that the Romans told the tax collectors how much money they wanted to collect, and the tax collectors could keep anything they got above that amount. It was a protection racket, really. You paid up, or they turned you over to the Roman soldiers as a tax-dodger. And the Romans could confiscate your property, or sentence you to be flogged; you could even be sold as a slave. Tax collectors all got rich, because they could take whatever they liked from whomever they liked and call it legal. The Jews hated them. They called them traitors to their own people. And Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

I suppose the nearest thing to a tax collector nowadays, in terms of how much they were hated and feared, is the drug dealer. Just like the drug dealers, tax collectors didn't care how much their people were hurt, as long as they themselves got rich. Unlike the drug dealers, though, the tax collectors operated openly, with the approval of the law. All the Jews could do was hate them and refuse to have anything to do with them. The money a tax collector made was so dirty that a Jew would always make sure that he had the right change when his taxes were due, so that he wouldn't have to touch the tax collector's money in return. It was so dirty that the tax collectors couldn't give money to the temple. The tax collectors themselves were considered so dirty that people wouldn't talk with them or eat with them. The only friends that tax collectors had were other outcasts like themselves, slave dealers and the like. Even the Romans, who hired them, looked down on them. And Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

One day Jesus came to town.

The Bible doesn't tell us why Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. Maybe he'd heard that here was a preacher who was different. Maybe he'd heard that here was a preacher who made lepers clean, who gave sight to the blind, and - most astonishing of all - ate with prostitutes and other sinners. What did Zacchaeus want? We don't know. But maybe he felt dirty on the inside, and wondered if this Jesus - who made lepers clean - could make tax collectors clean, too.

But Jesus was popular with everyone. They were all looking for a way out from the burdens of their life, and they'd heard that Jesus promised freedom and healing. Everyone wanted to come and see, and the streets were just packed, and Zacchaeus was short. He couldn't see above the crowd. What could he do? Whatever the impulse was that sent him out to catch a glimpse of this revolutionary preacher, by this point he was just too stubborn to give up. So he climbed a tree.

And Jesus saw him. Above the bustle and noise and press of people clamoring for his attention, Jesus saw the one man everyone in town would have turned their back on. Jesus saw this man, whom everyone knew was so bad that God couldn't possibly want to have anything to do with him. Jesus saw Zacchaeus, and he spoke to him. And that's not all. Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus' house for dinner.

Have you ever felt that you were in such a mess that there was no way back, no way to start over clean? Have you ever felt that you were so bad that God wouldn't be interested in you? Or have you ever felt that you were so small that God couldn't see you? I tell you that Jesus can see you, wherever you are. And Jesus is already speaking to you. All you have to do is turn so that you can see and hear him. He has already invited himself to come home with you. All you have to do is say, with Zacchaeus, "Yes, Lord. You are welcome." Zacchaeus saw Jesus, and heard him, and welcomed him gladly.