This morning we are going to look at the story of a very short man named Zacchaeus. Most of us have probably at least heard of Zacchaeus before because of a popular childhood song that we learned in church, either in Sunday school or Vacation Bible School. The lyrics of the song start something like this: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.”
I think this song leaves out a lot about Zacchaeus, and because of this “we tend to think very little of him.” We are going to see this morning that “people of Zacchaeus’ stature are in short supply.” Though he was a man who was small in stature, he was by no means small in nature, for he demonstrated a character that many of us need to develop in our own lives.
Zacchaeus Overcame His Obstacle (vv. 1-4)
1 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.
In these verses we read about Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in all of Jericho, and we discover here that he was an extremely wealthy man. He obtained all of his wealth by collecting taxes from his own countrymen.
If we examine the meaning of Zacchaeus’ name in light of the evidence that we just gathered, we can see that he was a walking contradiction. His name means “righteous one.”(1) He collected money from his own friends and neighbors and yet he was called by the name “righteous one.” In this day and time a person’s name – in a way – represented his or her destiny, or future character and personality. It’s likely that he had parents who were devout worshippers of the God of Israel, and they had raised Zacchaeus in the ways of Jehovah God. Zacchaeus’ destiny was to carry on his family’s religious beliefs and to walk in the ways of the Lord and truly be righteous, but he had apparently gone astray.
It must have been painful and difficult for Zacchaeus to live with the knowledge that he was defying his family’s wishes and that he was going against God’s plan for his life. We read here that Zacchaeus “was of short stature,” meaning that he wasn’t tall in height. I believe that the Bible is being literal in stating that Zacchaeus was short, but I also see the reference to his height as being spiritually symbolic.
You see, whenever we are out of God’s will for our life there is a spiritual battle being fought inside and we are being cut down. God may have directed us to walk down the path of righteousness, while we have chosen another path; and then we become torn apart on the inside. Whenever we are out of God’s will for our life we feel very small in spirit. We know that we have sinned against God, and we are so ashamed that we feel like hiding from people’s sight. We feel very short and extremely small inside.
Zacchaeus likely felt what many of us do when we are out of God’s will, which is to feel down in the dumps. Zacchaeus may have been down on the inside; but something, or should I say Someone, caught his attention and distracted him from his spiritual pain. It’s as though he found a new spark of life, for we read in verse 4 that he took off running and climbed up a tree!
Think how he must have appeared to those who knew him. He was probably somewhat somber because of his spiritual turmoil, but when Jesus came along he was up and running and climbing a tree! Warren Wiersbe says, “In the East, it is unusual for a man to run, especially a wealthy government official; yet Zacchaeus ran down the street like a little boy following a parade.”(2) There was just something about Jesus that beckoned him to follow and to gaze upon Him no matter what he had to do in order to see Him. Zacchaeus may have been small in spirit at that moment, but he wasn’t small in character. He may have been small in stature, but he wasn’t small in nature.
Many of us are traveling down the wrong path for our life even though Jesus Christ is calling us to follow Him. Just like Zacchaeus, we are torn apart inside and we feel small and helpless. For many people, when they encounter Jesus, they reason that it’s too hard to change and follow Christ. All they can do is gripe and complain that they can’t reach Jesus for all the obstacles in their path. Many allow other people to hinder them from reaching Christ by holding on to past grudges and harboring bitterness in their heart. Zacchaeus could have chosen to become angry at his parents for giving him the name “righteous one,” refusing to come to Jesus because he felt like religion had been forced on him by his parents all of his life.
There were people who could have hindered Zacchaeus from coming to Jesus, for we read that a large crowd of people, who were much taller than he was, blocked his view. Zacchaeus could have complained and said that there were too many people in his way; however, he didn’t offer up any excuses for either his spiritual condition or physical state. He was both small in height and in spirit, but he mustered the strength to rise above the crowd in order to gaze upon the Savior.
Matthew Henry says, “Those that sincerely desire a sight of Christ will use the proper means for gaining a sight of Him, and will break through a deal of difficulty and opposition, and be willing to take pains to see Him. Those that find themselves little must take all the advantages they can get to raise themselves to a sight of Christ.”(3) Zacchaeus was short in height and in spirit, and there was a large crowd separating him from Jesus, but he had the desire to overcome his obstacles. This tells us that if we have the desire to see Jesus, then we will find Him.
Jesus Is Seeking To Give Us Joy (vv. 5-6)
5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.
From these verses we see that Zacchaeus thought he was seeking Jesus; but on the contrary, Jesus was seeking him!(4) In Romans 3:11 we read that “There is no one who seeks after God.” When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit they hid from God, but He came looking for them and He asked them, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:1-10). The Lord is asking many of us the same question.
In Revelation 3:20 Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Jesus is knocking at the door to our heart for He is seeking a personal and intimate relationship with us; and if we will put forth the effort to rise above the crowd, or to rise above our obstacles in order to see Him, then He will be found. Jesus continued to say, “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20), and that’s exactly what Jesus did when Zacchaeus opened the door to his heart! He went to his house and had dinner with him!
In verse 5, Jesus said, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down.” When Jesus seeks us, He calls us by our name as he did Zacchaeus, for He knows His chosen ones by name.(5) Jesus said in John 10:3 that His “sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.” If you hear Jesus calling your name this morning, then He is knocking on the door to your heart and telling you that He wants you to become one of His own beloved children. He calls you by name because He loves you.
In verses 5 and 6 we see that when “Jesus invited Himself into Zacchaeus’ house . . . [that] Zaccheus received Him joyfully. Joy is one of the key themes in the Gospel of Luke, and the word is found over twenty times in one form or another.”(6) When Jesus calls us by name and invites us to become one of His own beloved and chosen, He desires to bring joy into our dull and painful life. Joy is something we receive from an eternal God, and it too is something that endures and lasts for all eternity. Joy is something that remains with us even in times of great difficulty.
Happiness, on the other hand, is something that is comparative to a person’s life situation, and it varies based on external forces.(7) One individual (Joyce Meyer) says that happiness is something we have when things are “happening” the way we like, but joy is not based on what is “happening” around us. Joy is something that is stable in an unstable world, and Jesus sought to bring stability to Zacchaeus’ unstable life. He sought to bring him joy, and He wants to give each of us joy as well.
Feeling Small, But Walking Tall (vv. 7-10)
7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” 8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Right here, the crowd complained that Zacchaeus, who was a tax collector, was a sinner. They were placing a stereotype on him, and they likely thought that tax collectors were unable to be saved.
There was a very tall man who was tired of people assuming he played basketball. His resentment finally hit the boiling point when a rather short man said, “Because you’re so tall I bet you play basketball.” The unimpressed giant shot back, “And because you’re so short I bet you play miniature golf!”(8)
None of us like to be judged and stereotyped; and all too often when people judge us we tend to believe what they say about us, and we let it hold us back from achieving success. Many times we won’t come to Jesus and accept Him as our Lord and Savior because we worry too much about what people think. Someone might say to us, “That’ll be the day when a scoundrel like you gets saved!” Then, we let that person’s judgment control our decisions and our life’s direction.
Zacchaeus didn’t let his short height or smallness of spirit hinder him from becoming large in spirit through Jesus Christ. He had the character to persevere in the face of obstacles and criticism, and he aimed straight for Jesus. Warren Wiersbe says,
It was not Zacchaeus’ fault that he was “little of stature” and could not see over the crowd. He did what he could to overcome his handicap by putting aside his dignity and climbing a tree. In a spiritual sense, all of us are “little of stature,” for [Romans 6:23 says] “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” No one measures up to God's high standards; we are all “too little” to enter into heaven . . .
The tragedy is, many [of the lost] think they are “big.” They measure themselves by man’s standards - money, position, authority, and popularity - things that are an “abomination in the sight of God.” They think they have everything when they really have nothing.(9)
Zacchaeus may have felt small in height and in spirit, but after he sought hard after Jesus Christ he was walking tall!
In verses 8-9, we read that Zacchaeus gave half of his riches to the poor and then Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house.” I want to point out that “Zacchaeus was not saved because he promised to do good works. He was saved because he responded by faith to Christ’s gracious word to him. Having trusted the Savior, he then gave evidence of his faith by promising to make restitution to those he had wronged.”(10) We cannot obtain God’s favor and mercy by attempting to earn it, for it is something that is freely given to us and we must freely receive it (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Back in verse 6 we read that Zacchaeus “made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.” If we want to receive Jesus into our heart then we must run and make haste to open the door to our heart so that Jesus can come in. We don’t need to sit around and think to ourselves, and say things like, “Well, I can’t come to Jesus until I do this or that in my life. I guess I will never come to Him, because my life is such a mess and I can’t straighten it out.”
If we focus on our spiritual disabilities, then we will never run to receive the joy of salvation found in Jesus Christ. We need to realize that we can’t solve our own problems. We can’t make ourselves spiritually taller on our own. Jesus Christ is the only one who can; therefore, we must forget about our problems and try to get to Him anyway we know how, whether it be to climb a tree or climb over the pews!
Time of Reflection
What we have seen this morning is that Zacchaeus felt very small spiritually, but he overcame his obstacles in order to run after Christ. If you feel small inside, and if you feel like God has been calling you to follow and serve Him and you have knowingly gone the opposite direction, then do not just sit there focussing on your problems and saying there is no hope. Get up! Overcome your spiritual handicap; overcome people’s judgments about you and run to Jesus today! Open the door to your heart and accept the joy that He has been longing to give you. Allow Jesus to come in and have dinner with you and be your closest friend.
NOTES
(1) Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 1996) taken from Libronix/Logos Scholar's Edition on CD-ROM.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997), taken from Logos 2.1 on CD-ROM.
(4) Wiersbe.
(5) Henry.
(6) Wiersbe.
(7) Noah Webster, 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2002).
(8) John Morgan, “Withholding the Blessing,” Sagemont Church, November 24, 1996.
(9) Wiersbe.
(10) Ibid.
