The Little Man With A Big Need

Here are some of them that I recall:

• A man who went out on a limb for Jesus

• The Salvation of Shorty the Racketeer

• The Short Scoundrel that Seriously Sought The Saviour

• Seeking the True Vine By Sitting In A Tall tree

Any of these titles would be appropriate for this sermon, but I have selected “The Little Man With A Big Need”.

As far as the general public was concerned, Zacchaeus was a man that did not have much going for him. In fact, as a tax collector, the people of Jericho were shocked when the Lord went to his house. He was not only a tax collector, he was a chief tax collector which meant he had hired others to collect taxes for him.

Rome's method of collecting taxes was to employ locals who knew who had money and where they kept it.

• The land was divided in tax districts

• And a man could bid for a district, and the amount he bid for the district is what he had to pay the Roman government, the rest he could keep for himself

• The chief tax collector, such as Zacchaeus, owned the contract for his region

Rome collected three principal kinds of taxes:

• A land tax

• A head tax

• A customs tax of 2% to 5% of value on transported goods

A tax office or booth would be located near a city gate or port to collect the custom tax, such as:

• Fishermen exporting dried fish

• Farmers shipping surplus crops to a larger city

Nobody likes to pay taxes, and this is why he was so unpopular. Any time you reach into people’s pockets and extract money, you become disliked. He would have had a hard time winning a popularity contest with the general public. Let’s look at this “Little Man With The Big Need.” We need to look at ...

I. HIS CAREER

When he was a young man, he was probably like most young boys who had childhood dreams of doing certain things. He could have chosen to be a farmer, a potter, or salesman, but he chose to be a tax collector. He probably looked forward to learning some things about life as most young men do. Life can teach us a lot!

Illus: A fellow was born in the desert. His parents raised him in the desert and he did not know a thing about normal living. As a young man in his early 20’s, he decided he would venture out into the world for the first time.

He had never seen a train or the tracks they run on. While standing in the middle of the railroad tracks one day, he hears this whistle –Wheeee! Wheeee!-- but doesn't know what it is.

As he stands on the tracks, he is hit by the train and is thrown to the side of the tracks. It was only a glancing blow, so he was fortunate to receive only some minor internal injuries, a few broken bones, and some bruises.

After weeks in the hospital recovering, he's at his friend's house. While in the kitchen, he suddenly hears the teakettle whistling - Wheeee! Wheeee! He suddenly grabs a baseball bat from the nearby closet and proceeds to batter and bash the teakettle into an unrecognizable lump of metal.

His friend, hearing the ruckus, rushes into the kitchen, sees what has happened and asks him, "Why'd you ruin my good teakettle?"

The desert man replies, "Man, you gotta kill these things when they're small or else they will kill you!"

As young men venture into the world, they begin to learn things they have never learned before. Zacchaeus is no different than any man who has ever lived. He learned fast, and he became a chief tax collector that the general public hated.

Most of us do not have a fondness for the politicians or for the IRS that has been authorized to take our money from us.

• Ask Walter Mondale. He was the first Vice-President to have an office in the White House. In 1984 he won the democratic nomination to run for President. But he lost by a landslide because he got up in the Democratic national convention and said he was going to raise our taxes.

• Ask George Herbert Bush, who said “Read my lips there will be no new taxes in my administration.” He turned around and raised the American people’s taxes and lost the election.

• Ask Alabama Governor Bob Riley, who said he would not raise taxes, and defeated an incumbent governor. Once he was in office he reversed his course and began to advocate a $1.2 billion tax increase. The people of Alabama then went back to the polls and voted 2 to 1 to reject his proposal.