Schoolteacher Dodie Gadient decided to travel across American and see the sights she had taught about for the last 13 yrs. Traveling alone in a truck with a camper in tow, she launched out. One afternoon rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento in rush-hour traffic the water pump blew on her truck. She was tired, exasperated, scared and alone. In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no on seemed interested in helping. Leaning up against the trailer she prayed, Please Lord send me an angel, preferably one with mechanical experience. Within 4 minutes a huge Harley drove up ridden by an enormous man sporting long black hair, a beard and tattooed arms. With an incredible air of confidence, he jumped off and without even glancing at Dodie went to work on the truck. Within another few minutes, he flagged down a larger truck, attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled Chevy and whisked the whole 56-ft rig off the freeway onto a side street where he calmly continued to work on the water pump. The intimidated, schoolteacher was too dumbfounded to talk. Especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of his leather jacket: Hell's Angels. As he finished the task, she finally got up the courage to say Thank you. Noticing her amazement at the whole ordeal, he looked her straight in the eye and said don't judge a book by its cover. With that he smiled, closed the hood of the truck and straddled his Harley. With a wave he was gone as fast as he had appeared.
We all do that don't we - judge books by their covers
We make judgments about people with out really knowing much about them
We look at what they are wearing: hair, skinny, fat, tall, short
What they do for living and where they live
Have you ever been unjustly sized up by another person
Or because what you have done in your past found people unwilling accept you
In Luke we learn of a man who wished for that same thing
Zaccheus was a man who was not well liked or accepted in Jericho
You see he had a bad reputation - a reputation which he had earned - tax collector
Nobody likes paying taxes and we don't like the ones who collect the taxes
Zaccheus was no ordinary tax collector, He was the Head tax collector for that area
Tax collectors were regarded as worst kind of sinners . . .
They were considered the scum of earth, liars and cheats
Unworthy to be called sons of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people
The Jews had some valid reasons for this attitude:
Romans had military control over Israel and used Jews to collect taxes
This solved some of their enforcement problems
To be a tax collector one had to bid for the position
Like you would bid at an auction with the position going to the highest bidder
In order for him to regained his investment he had to inflate the tax
This gained them the reputation for being notoriously unscrupulous
They also became quite wealthy at expense of their fellow countrymen
Tax collectors were collecting taxes for a foreign power
By this activity they were indirectly supporting Israel's occupation
Paying taxes was such a sore spot with the Jews - moral dilemma in Luke 20
Because tax collectors worked with Gentiles they were considered unclean
No religious Jew would associate with them
Tax collectors were deemed traitors to their community
That is the kind of man Zaccheus was, he had chosen way of life that separated . . .
One day a teacher intercepted note it said: Everyone who hates Bob sign here. By now the note which was on its way to Bob had been signed by all the students in his 4th grade. Bob not only had no friends, but he was the object of intense loathing. Bob showed no obvious distress at being disliked. His teacher in an effort to learn something of Bob's deeper feelings asked him how he behaves in a number of hypothetical situations. Bob answered each question with, I don't know; His teacher though that he was merely being uncooperative until she finally asked him to say how he felt when playing with a friend. Bob looked up at her & with tears in his eyes said, I don't know; I don't have any friends.
Despised and hated by men, Zaccheus was looking for a real friend
Just prior to Jesus entering Jericho
He had told his disciples how difficult it was for a rich man to enter heaven
He said that it was easier for camel to go through the eye of needle
Than for rich man to enter the Kingdom God
The people saw Zaccheus' wealth but they did not see his spiritual bankruptcy
He was a man who was rejected by all and he was desperately lonely
He had gotten caught up in the deceptive power of success and wealth
How many people do you know who have everything by the world's standards
Yet don't have real happiness
Many are looking for that inner peace and sincere acceptance
Where who they are, is more important than, what they have or do - So was Zaccheus!
Jesus also was a man who had a reputation - A reputation for being a friend of sinners
Even Matthew one of Jesus' disciples was a former tax collector
Jesus was not well liked by IN CROWD because He didn't follow their customs of conduct
He was more interested in doing the right thing than in doing the thing right, burned them
Jesus' reputation must have perked Zaccheus' curiosity
He must have wondered if the things that he was hearing about Jesus were true
So he decided to find out for himself
As he entered city streets that day he must have wondered
How are the people going to treat me - I wonder what will happen today?
By now large crowd had gathered to meet Jesus - Would anyone even notice him?
Zaccheus was a short man - It was not his fault he could not see over the crowd
So he attempted squeeze through
I'm sure as he approached some in the crowd saw him coming and told the others about it
Here comes that tax collector Zaccheus, don't let him in
Many would take this opportunity to nudge or kick or push the little tax collector
But he was not going to let people keep him away from finding a new life
The language used in v.3 implies continuous effort on Zaccheus's part
To get through the crowd, to see Jesus; He was determined
In desperation he runs ahead of the crowd, climbs a tree that would allow him to see Jesus
Zaccheus was truly looking for something to fill the emptiness in his life
By now the crowd was asking at whose house will Jesus spend the night
Which one of our leading citizens will be honored?
Notice what happens - Jesus walks pass the religious leaders
Pass the leading citizens of the community and up to little man in a tree
Jesus could have very easily pretended that he didn't see Zaccheus and walked by
Or he could have just crossed the street and avoided the situation altogether
Though Zaccheus was a renegade in eyes of his people
He was precious lost sinner in the eyes of Jesus
Jesus looked at Zaccheus in the tree and he loved him, just the way he was
Now in very cordial tone as though they had been friends for years Jesus says
Come down, I must stay at your house today
A man who was rejected by all, found acceptance in Christ
Notice how people responded: they began to mutter and complain
He has gone to be the guest of a sinner
Pharisees had a saying: There is joy before God when those who provoke him perish from the world
They had no time for sinners
The Bible says that Jesus has a different attitude toward sinners
In Mark 2 Jesus says he has not come to call the righteous but sinners
Jesus is actively looking for those who need him most
Luke 15 relates 3 parables that Jesus used to convey his feelings about mankind
The parable of the Lost sheep - Lost Coin - Lost Son
All parables have one thing in common: Rejoicing in what was once lost is now found
Lost in this text does not mean damned or doomed, But in the wrong place
A thing is lost when it has gotten out of its own place and into the wrong place
When we find such a thing, we return it to the place it ought to be
A person is lost when he has wandered away from God
Jesus is not on search & destroy mission - His mission is to seek & to save that which is lost
God rejoices like a parent finding missing child, when we return to his waiting arms
One evening a woman was driving home when she noticed a huge truck behind her that was driving uncomfortably close. She stepped on the gas to gain some distance from the truck, but when she sped up the truck did too. The faster she drove the faster the truck did. Now scared she exited the freeway, but the truck was still pursuing her. The woman then turned up a main street hoping to lose her pursuer in traffic, but the truck ran a red light and continued the chase. Reaching the point of panic the woman whipped her car into a service station and ran from her car screaming for help. The trucker sprang from his truck and ran to her car. Yanking the back door open the driver pulled out a man hidden in the back seat. The woman was running from the wrong person. From his high vantage point the truck driver had spotted a would-be-attacker in the woman's car. The chase was not his effort to harm her but to save her even at the risk of his own safety.
Jesus eagerly seeks us He desires to rescue us from the hidden dangers of sin
Jesus disciples were amazed when He called Zaccheus a son of Abraham
A title honor and acceptance - Especially when they recalled his comments to them earlier
On how difficult it was for rich man enter heaven
They had forgotten what Jesus said - What is impossible with men is possible with God
God loves you, more than we can comprehend or ever understand
God's love is like a mother's love for her child
About 6am on a Wed morning James Lawson of Running Springs, CA left home to apply for a new job. An hour later his 36 yr old wife, Pasty left for her 5th grade teaching job down the mountain with her 2 children, 5 yr old Susan and 2 yr old Jerry. Unfortunately they never got that far. 81/2 hours later Jim found his wife and daughter dead in their wreaked car upside down in a cold mountain stream. His 2 yr old son was just barely alive in the 48 degree water. When he scrambled down the cliff to answer the cries of what he believed were dying wife, he found her locked in death, holding her beloved son afloat & finally died, her body almost frozen in death in a position of self-giving love, holding her baby up to breathe. She died that another might live.
That is the essence of God's love - He willing died on the cross that we might live
Don't let anyone keep you from experiencing God His complete and his total acceptance
How will you respond to Christ's command to come
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost - Has Jesus found YOU?
