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.
The Bible says, "he came down immediately." Can't you just see Zacchaeus, scrambling down out of the tree, all dignity gone, brushing his clothes off and trying to straighten them, and all the other people who had crowded around Jesus looking and pointing, even laughing? What do you suppose happened? Did everyone rejoice, and say, "Oh, look, a miracle! Jesus has made Zacchaeus clean, just like he cleansed the lepers!" Oh, no. Not a chance. The people murmured and muttered among themselves, saying, "Jesus has gone to be the guest of a sinner."
What's the difference?
Leprosy was a real disease, a horrible disease. When you have leprosy you can't feel pain, you can break your arm and not notice it. Your fingers and toes and your nose and ears begin to rot and fall off. People were afraid of lepers, because they didn't want to catch it themselves. That's why the Jewish law required lepers to live apart. When Jesus healed lepers, he had them go to the priest to prove that they were indeed cured, and that it was now safe for them to live among ordinary people. Their family and friends could see that the leprosy was gone. They knew that they wouldn't catch leprosy themselves if that person came back into their midst.
But Zacchaeus' uncleanness was different. Zacchaeus was unclean in his soul. And people were not about to believe that they wouldn't get dirty if they associated with him. They believed that if they hung around with people like Zacchaeus that they wouldn't be able to approach God either, because they knew God wanted his people to be holy, to be clean. But it wasn't just that. The people of Jericho weren't only afraid of catching a sort of spiritual virus, but Zacchaeus had hurt them. He had injured them. He had stolen from them, he had betrayed them, he had gotten rich off of their pain. They weren't about to forget that, either. And besides, he might do it again.
Just words weren't going to be enough. They were going to have to see some proof. Zacchaeus would have to behave in a way that would convince them he had changed. Zacchaeus would have to behave in a way that would make them willing to forget what he had done.
What did Zacchaeus do?
Did he say, "If I'm good enough for Jesus, I'm good enough for you"?
Did he say, "If Jesus doesn't care about my sins, you shouldn't either"? Did he say, "As long as I've got Jesus, who cares what you think"?
No. With Jesus standing beside him, he put things right, as best as he could. Zacchaeus stood up and said, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
You see, Jesus doesn't say, "Your sins don't matter." Jesus doesn't say, "I'm ok, you're ok." Jesus doesn't say, "Clean or dirty, it's all one to me." Jesus says, "If you are willing, I will make you clean." Jesus loves you and me too much to leave us where we're at. He knows we can't go right on our own. He knows what we're like, the sins and temptations we struggle against. And he knows what we need. We need to be changed. That's why Zacchaeus needed Jesus. That's why you and I need Jesus. Until God changes us, we cannot be good. And Jesus is the only one who can put us in the right relationship with God, so that God can change us.
I don't know what in your life needs to be made right. Is it something obvious, that everyone can see, like alcohol or ambition or anger, or do you have an invisible wound that leaves you lost and hurting? I don't know what your particular struggle is. But I know mine, and I know that Jesus is the only hope I ever had of being healed on the inside. Do you wonder, what is the point of it all? Do you get depressed? Do you dream of running away and changing your name? Are you at peace with your family and friends? Do you need to ask forgiveness, or do you need to forgive? What do you need to be set free from, what emptiness needs to be filled? All of these needs depend on finding peace with God. And Jesus is the key. Because Jesus came to find us, to bring us back to God, all of these other things become possible.
If you want Jesus' help in making right your broken relationships with God and with your family and friends, welcome Jesus into your life. Jesus has already offered. He says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." [Rev 3:20] But you have to open the door.
