What He Said About Being Despised. Series

Series: What He Said

Title: What He Said About Being Despised

Text: Luke 19:1-10

Thesis: People can change!

Introduction

As Good as It Gets is a 1997 comedy about three very different people whose lives become entangled. The threesome includes an obsessive-compulsive author, an out-of-work artist, and a struggling waitress. Jack Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, the crude, obsessive-compulsive author. He offends everyone he meets...

But Melvin becomes enamored with Carol Connelly, a waitress played by Helen Hunt. She has seen him at his worst, but she reluctantly agrees to meet Melvin at a fancy restaurant for a date. Carol arrives at the restaurant, and is obviously ill at ease as waiters follow her about and wait on her hand and foot. While the other patrons of the restaurant are impeccably dressed, Carol wears a simple red dress.

Melvin sees Carol at the bar and waves her over to his table. When she approaches, Melvin hits an all-time low. "This restaurant!" he says, "They make me buy a new outfit and let you in wearing a house dress." Carol is stunned and hurt. Yet, she doesn't leave.

Carol looks Melvin in the eye and says, "Pay me a compliment, Melvin. I need one now."

Melvin responds, "I've got a great compliment." What could he possibly say to undo the thoughtless comment he had just delivered?

Melvin then delivers one of the most romantic lines in big-screen history. This deeply flawed man, his own worst enemy, looks at Carol with all the kindness and sincerity his shriveled heart can muster and says, "Carol, you make me want to be a better man."

We like to believe there is something within all of us that wishes us to be and wants to make us be better people than we are. Despite all appearances we want to be willing to change if that change will result in our being better persons.

Our text today is about a man named Zacchaeus. If there ever was a candidate for radical change it was Zacchaeus. He was a despised and despicable human being. In Luke 18, after Jesus had spoken of how it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get in to heaven, Peter asked, “Then who in the world can be saved?” And Jesus said, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

Zacchaeus is a perfect example of what is possible when God works in the heart of even the most despised and despicable of us. It is possible for us to become better persons.

Our story takes place in the city of Jericho. Jericho was a city of distinction, as was our main character.

I. Zacchaeus was a distinguished person

Commentator William Barclay said Jericho was a very important town. Jericho lay in the Jordan River Valley and served as the approach to Jerusalem. Just east of Jericho were the great palm forests and world famous balsam groves which perfumed the air for miles around. Her rose gardens were known far and wide and Jericho was known as the City of Palms. All this and more made Jericho a rich taxation center and Zacchaeus was the Chief Tax-Collector in the area and as such skimmed the cream off the top and had become very rich.

The text makes three specific references that distinguish Zacchaeus.

A. He was distinguished by his wealth

There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the Chief Tax-Collector of the region and he had become very rich. Luke 19:2

Being wealthy today generally means they roll out the red carpet for you. It doesn’t matter how corrupt you are… if you are wealthy you are generally afforded a great deal of privilege.

Zacchaeus was probably no Jeff Bezos of Amazon wealth or a Bill Gates of Microsoft wealth or a Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway wealth or a Mark Zauckerberg of Facebook wealth of a Larry Page of Google wealth but he was the Chief Tax-Collector of the region there in Jericho and he was known to be a man of wealth and as such enjoyed the perks of being a man of ease.

While the man on the street probably had some debt, Zacchaeus had no debt. While the man on the street worked hard for his money, Zacchaeus came by his pretty easy. While the man on the street dreamed of being rich, Zacchaeus lived a life of luxury.

Zacchaeus was distinguished as a wealthy man but not necessarily in a good way. Without a military guard Zacchaeus was not going to get any preferential crowd treatment in Jericho that day. Rather it was more likely that he would be jostled about in a hostile crowd.

The second distinction made of Zacchaeus is about his appearance… his height.