There’s a story about a local fitness center, which was offering $1,000 to anyone who could demonstrate that they were stronger than the owner of the place. Here’s how it worked. This muscle man would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and then hand the lemon to the next challenger. Anyone who could squeeze just one more drop of juice out would win the money.
Many people tried over time – other weightlifters, construction workers, even professional wrestlers, but nobody could do it.
One day a short and skinny guy came in and signed up for the contest. After the laughter died down, the owner grabbed a lemon and squeezed away. Then he handed the wrinkled remains to the little man.
The crowd’s laughter turned to silence as the man clenched his fist around the lemon and six drops fell into the glass. As the crowd cheered, the manager paid out the winning prize and asked the short guy what he did for a living. “Are you a lumberjack, a weightlifter, or what?”
The man replied, “I work for the IRS.”
This morning we’ll look at the account of a first century IRS agent and see how Jesus ministered to him as we continue our series that is focusing on how Jesus ministered to others. Since every Christ follower is a minister, we are looking to the example of Jesus to learn how we can be more effective in our own ministry to others, both personally and as a body.
So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 19 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 1:
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 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.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:1-10 (ESV)
Before we develop some ministry principles from this passage, we need to take a few moments to make sure we understand the cultural background here.
Collecting taxes during the time of Jesus was a bit different than it was today. There were no 1040 forms that everyone filled out and mailed into the IRS along with a check. The Roman government sold the equivalent of a franchise to Jews who then were given the right to collect taxes from their own people. But there was no Internal Revenue Code to determine how much each person had to pay in taxes. Instead, the Roman government required each tax collector to remit a certain amount of taxes to them and the tax collector got to keep everything he could collect over and above that amount.
As you can imagine, this led to all kinds of extortion, fraud and abuse. It’s no wonder that the Jews regarded the tax collectors as traitors. Since they were considered to be liars and defiled, no tax collector could testify in a Jewish court and they were not allowed to worship in the Temple or in a synagogue.
But by taking the time to minister to a despised tax collector named Zacchaeus, Jesus demonstrates several ministry principles that we can take and apply in our day-to-day lives as we minister to others. We’ll focus on just three of those principles today.
Ministry principles:
Jesus’ ministry was intentional
This event occurred a little over a week before Jesus would give His life on a Roman cross. So Jesus probably had a lot on His mind. And yet, He takes time from His busy schedule to seek out one person from the large crowds that followed Him. We don’t know from this account exactly why Jesus chose to single out Zacchaeus that day. But for some reason, as Jesus surveyed the throngs around Him, He understood that this vertically challenged tax collector who had climbed up into a tree so that he could see Jesus as He walked by had some needs He could meet.
At first glance, Jesus’ public ministry, which only lasted about three years, seems to be a bit haphazard. He spends some time around his hometown in Nazareth. He journeys to Jerusalem for the observance of the Jewish feasts. On eat least one of those occasions He defies Jewish tradition and goes right through Samaria. He heads north to the area around Tyre and Sidon for a while. He heads east over the Jordan River and ministers in Perea for a while. And here He goes through Jericho on His way to Jerusalem.
But when we look closer at the events that take place in each of those locations, we find that Jesus was never in any of those places by accident. In each case there was a particular person or group of people to whom He ministered. Jesus makes it really clear here that He had come to Jericho for the express purpose of ministering to Zacchaeus. Notice He says that He “must” go to Zacchaeus’ house. That was His divine appointment for that day.
It’s instructive to note that Jesus didn’t wait for Zacchaeus to come to Him. He went to where Zacchaeus was and took the very bold step of inviting Himself over to Zacchaeus’ house. And Zacchaeus was so excited that Jesus had even noticed him that he didn’t hesitate for a second. He didn’t tell Jesus to wait a second so that he could call Martha so she could come over and clean up the house and fix a meal before Jesus came over.
And in this passage we find the key that allowed Jesus to be so intentional in His ministry. He had a single-minded focus on the mission that had been entrusted to Him by his Father. He had come to seek and to save the lost. And that particular day, the lost person that needed to be saved was Zacchaeus.
As His followers, Jesus has entrusted all of us with the responsibility of carrying on that same mission until we either die and go to be with Him or until He returns. Before He ascended to His Father, Jesus left His followers with this familiar command:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)
If we’re going to be intentional in our ministry then we, too, need to have a single minded focus on the mission that Jesus has entrusted to us. When we begin to see the people around us as people that Jesus wants to love through us so that they can experience the joy of being His disciples, then it will no longer be acceptable for us to just live life haphazardly, ministering here and there whenever it is convenient for us. Instead, we will begin to see those people as divine appointments to whom we must minister. And when we begin to see the people around us from that perspective, it will free us to be much more intentional in the way we minister to people.
As I contemplated this principle this week, it reminded me of a commitment that I made earlier this year that I haven’t followed through on very well yet. I feel like I need to do a much better job of being intentional in the way that I minister to all of you who are members of this body. So I would like to spend some time personally with each of you so that I can better understand what I can do and what our church can do to help you to develop your relationship with Jesus. And this morning I stand before you and commit to completing that task before the end of this year.
Now there are two ways that can occur. The first is that you can invite me to come over to your house or to meet you for a cup of coffee. The second is that I’ll follow the example of Jesus and just call you up some day and say “I must come to your house today” and invite myself over. But one way or another, to the best of my ability I’m going to be more intentional in my ministry here within the body.
And little by little, God is equipping me to do the very same thing with those people He brings into my life that are not part of this body. More and more He is allowing me to see those people as divine appointments and helping me to see how I can be more intentional in my efforts to minister in their lives. I pray that you’ll join me in that effort with those who God brings into your lives as well.
Jesus’ ministry was unconditional
We’ve already seen this principle demonstrated by Jesus and it’s one we’ll see again as we continue this series. There are two main components of this aspect of the way Jesus ministered to people. We’ll take a few moments to look at each of them briefly:
• He didn’t just minister to those who were “deserving”
Out of all the people in the crowd that day, Jesus chose to minister to someone that most people would have considered to be one of the worst sinners around – someone who was getting rich by taking advantage of his own people. But Jesus never limited His ministry to those that would have been deserving in the eyes of most people.
Earlier in His ministry, Jesus went to eat at the house of another tax collector name Matthew. And the religious leaders had the same reaction to Jesus then that the crowds did when Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house. But Jesus explained very clearly why He didn’t limit His ministry to those who appeared to be most deserving:
And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:30-32 (ESV)
This is a beautiful picture of pure grace – the same kind of grace that Jesus extended to each of us when we were totally undeserving. Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t require any of us to get our lives “cleaned up” before we could trust in Him and receive the gift of eternal life that He offers?
The fact is that most of the people who God brings into our lives are probably not deserving of our ministry. But Jesus calls us to follow His example and serve them anyway as an act of grace. As we saw more clearly last week, that doesn’t mean that we don’t eventually need to be honest and direct with people about their sin and their need for a Savior. But it also means that we don’t refuse to serve them until they “get their act together.”
• He didn’t just minister to those who could “give back”
Jesus clearly didn’t chose to minister to Zacchaeus because he had something that he could offer back to Jesus. In fact, just the fact that Jesus went to his house probably did more to damage the ministry of Jesus, at least in the short run, than it did to promote it.
Certainly in today’s culture, no one would ask Jesus to write a book on how to build a business or a ministry and certainly not on how to develop a mega-church. Today the so called “experts” would certainly focus on the importance of developing contacts and relationships with those who have influence and riches, because those are the people that have something to offer.
Most of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day subscribed to those kinds of practices as well because their main concern was to build and protect their place of power and influence and increase their material wealth. It’s no wonder that when James wrote his epistle to Jewish Christians he had to warn them about showing favoritism to the wealthy when they visited their churches.
But Jesus almost always took exactly the opposite approach. He chose to minister to the poor, the sick and the despised. Those people, like Zacchaeus, really had nothing to offer to Jesus. They were not going to help Him get rich or famous.
I really don’t think that most of us set out to minister to others with the idea that they are going to help us get rich or famous or provide us with some material benefit. But there is a much more subtle way in which we are often tempted to serve people with the wrong motives.
A couple of years ago, a man that I knew from the gym found out that I was a pastor and around Christmas time He asked if I was aware of anywhere that he and his girlfriend could go serve the needs of others. Of course, he let me know right up front that he was not a Christian nor did he ever intend to become one, but that he wanted to serve others that time of year because it made him feel good. To his credit, he did come down and join us at the Gospel Rescue Mission Christmas banquet that year and he did serve wholeheartedly and joyfully.
Unfortunately, however, his primary motive for serving people that day was actually pretty self-serving. He served because it would make him feel good about himself. And even as we serve others in the name of Jesus it is easy for us to fall into that same kind of trap.
But if we want to minister like Jesus, then our motivation must always be what is good for the other person, not on what we’re going to get out of it. And the ironic thing is that when we serve like that, Jesus does allow us to have great joy in our service as a result of serving others for their benefit.
Jesus’ ministry was relational
Before we explore this principle some more, let’s take a brief quiz. Let’s see how many of you can answer these six questions:
1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world;
2. Name the last five Heisman Trophy winners
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress
6. Name the last 10 World Series winners
How did you do? I sure know I had a failing score. Now let me give you another brief quiz:
1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile
4. Name a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special
5. Name five people you enjoy spending time with
6. Name five people who have helped you develop your relationship with Jesus.
The point here is pretty clear isn’t it? The people who have made a difference in our lives are not the ones with the most money or the best credentials or those who have won the most awards. They are the people who have taken the time to get involved in our lives.
That’s exactly what Jesus did as He ministered to others. When we read this account of Jesus with Zacchaeus, since it only covers a few verses of Scripture it’s easy to think that this was only a brief encounter. But when Jesus tells Zacchaeus that His is going to stay at his house, the implication here is that Jesus probably spent the night there. At a minimum, Jesus spent the good part of a day there.
And while we don’t know exactly what was discussed during that time, we certainly see that Jesus took the time to really get to know Zacchaeus and to let Zacchaeus get to know Him. And as result Jesus was able to develop a relationship that allowed Him to then deal with the deep spiritual issues that Zacchaeus needed to address.
Now obviously there are times when we have opportunities to minister to people where we don’t have the luxury of taking time to build a relationship with them. For instance, a couple months ago some of us put together “blessing bags” that contain some food and personal care items that we can keep in our cars to give to homeless people when we come across them. Or when we serve at the Thanksgiving or Christmas banquets at the Gospel Rescue Mission we’re probably not going to be able to establish a deep relationship with the people we serve. But even in those cases we can take the time to listen to people and get to know them the best we can in the time we have.
Jesus didn’t just call His followers to go and make converts – He called us to go and make disciples. And making disciples is a long, often slow, process that requires us to invest our lives in the lives of others so that we can develop relationships.
As we’ve done each week during this series, so far we’ve primarily focused on Jesus and how He ministered to Zacchaeus – intentionally, unconditionally and relationally. But there is also a critical implication for us that we can draw from what Zacchaeus does here.
Personal implication:
Salvation is by faith, not by works
It would be real easy here to take verse 9 where Jesus proclaims that salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house and conclude that his salvation was somehow a result of the proclamation Zacchaeus had made in verse 8 regarding giving half his good to the poor and making restitution to anyone he had defrauded. But a closer examination of this passage as well as what we know from the rest of Scripture shows that is certainly not the case.
First, let’s look at what Zacchaeus says in verse 8:
Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
The Greek grammar here is a bit ambiguous so there are really two possible ways to take what Zacchaeus says here:
• Since Zacchaeus uses present tense verbs here, it is possible that Zacchaeus is merely defending himself by proclaiming that he already gives half of what he makes to the poor and by paying back fourfold anyone he has defrauded.
• The more like interpretation, in my opinion, is that Zacchaeus is promising to take these actions from this point forward. In Greek, it is certainly possible to use present tense verbs to refer to something that will take place in the future and there are quite a few places in the gospel accounts where present tense verbs are used that way. It is also quite unlikely that Zacchaeus would be rich if he had been employing these practices in the past. Finally the word “stood” is a word that means to “take a stand”. It is the same verb used in Ephesians 6 when Paul exhorts us to put on the armor of God so that we can take a stand against the evil one.
But regardless of which way we take the words of Zacchaeus there are a couple of things in the passage that make it clear that his salvation is not a result of his works:
• Zacchaeus acknowledges Jesus as Lord
When Zacchaeus addresses Jesus as Lord, he is not merely acknowledging that Jesus is a good teacher. Although He certainly doesn’t understand everything yet since the crucifixion and resurrection are still several days away, Zacchaeus does recognize the deity of Jesus and His sovereignty. He is doing exactly what Paul would later describe as what is required for salvation:
…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 (ESV)
Obviously Zacchaeus couldn’t yet believe that God raised Jesus from the death, but I believe he did have that same hope and faith in the coming of the Messiah that was credited as righteousness to Abraham and the other Old Testament saints.
• Jesus calls Zacchaeus a “son of Abraham”
Zacchaeus is not merely a son of Abraham because of his heritage as a Jew, but rather as a result of His faith in Jesus. Earlier in His ministry, Jesus was speaking to a group of Jews who claimed to be the children of Abraham and He made it quite clear that being a son of Abraham was not merely a matter of heritage, but rather a matter of faith, when He rebuked them with these words:
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires…
John 8:44 (ESV)
When Paul wrote his letter to the church at Rome, he confirmed that being a true son of Abraham is a matter of the heart:
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
Romans 2:28-29 (ESV)
Zacchaeus’ promise to give to the poor and make restitution clearly is not the means to his salvation, but rather a natural outflow of the change in heart that he experienced as a result of his encounter with Jesus.
Do you want to minister like Jesus? Then you’ll need to be intentional, unconditional and relational as you serve others in His name.
