Zacchaeus (10/29/2017)

Luke 19:1 … Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

In Luke 9:51 (NLT), we read, “As the time drew near for Him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” A movement begins as Jesus leaves Caesarea Philippi and heads to Jerusalem and the cross.

Our Lord moved out of that area, through Galilee and Samaria; then He crossed the Jordan and continued down the east side until He was over against Jericho.

The movement here is through Jericho. He entered and passed through. He never spent a night in Jericho, for it was a cursed city. This was the first city that God had given to the people of Israel when they returned to enter the promised land after 40 years in the wilderness. It was the city from which nothing personal was to be salvaged, and a curse was placed on any person who would attempt to rebuild it. (Joshua 6:26)

Jericho: A Cursed City

In 1stKings 16:34, we read the following – It was during his reign that Hiel, a man from Bethel, rebuilt Jericho. When he laid its foundations, it cost him the life of his oldest son, Abiram. And when he completed it and set up its gates, it cost him the life of his youngest son, Segub. This all happened according to the message from the LORD concerning Jericho spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

Though eventually the city was rebuilt, it remained a cursed city. It was a city where there was great sin, a place where “gangsters” resorted. Our Lord, on the way to the cross, did not bypass Jericho, but purposely went through it because there was a sinner there who needed Him, a tax collector name Zacchaeus. This is why Jesus came to earth – for sinner such as you and I.

Jesus entered and passed through. What a picture it is of His entire mission and ministry to this world summed up in John 16:28 – “Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I leave the world and return to the Father.”

He came from Heaven’s glory to this sin-cursed earth, not to just a cursed city, but to a world on which the curse of sin rests. Anywhere you look today on this earth you can see the evidences and ravages of sin. He left Heaven’s glory, and He came to this earth for the same reason that He entered and passed through Jericho. He came not to get only one sinner, but to get any sinner would trust Him. At the time of this incident, Jesus was on His way to the cross to die for Zacchaeus and to die for a world of sinners. Such is the movement here.

In verse 2, we are given Zacchaeus’ entire biography with just 3 things. These facts … his name, job, and financial status – tell his story, and what a story it is!

His Name

The name is from “zaccai” and means – pure. That is not a name for a tax collector to have! It is like saying “black snow” or “white coal” or “cold fire” – the two terms are contradictory, an oxy-moron. Zacchaeus – a tax collector!

But, after all, it was his parents who gave him this name. When they looked down in the crib and saw the little guy, they said, – He is so sweet and pure there is only one name that fits – Zacchaeus – so they named him “Pure.”

Believe me, that was some name for a man to carry around, especially after he became a tax collector. You can well imagine what delight some people, and perhaps the other tax collectors, had in calling this man, who was an obvious sinner, Pure! He was anything but that.

His Occupation – Chief Tax Collector

Throughout the Gospels there is the grouping together of tax collectors and sinners, and the interesting thing is that the tax collectors are always mentioned first. This is because tax collectors were considered the worst kind of sinners – a traitor; and Zacchaeus was chief among the tax collectors.

The Romans had a system where they turned over the dirty business of collecting taxes to the natives of the countries they had captured.

Instead of using roughhouse methods of collecting taxes from a captive people, they found a traitor, someone who was willing to betray his nation for a price – a good price. A tax collector could buy a certain territory at a certain rate; then he could go in and collect taxes at whatever rate he chose.

Being a tax collector meant that at one time in his life he had been faced with a decision. A similar decision comes to every man and woman. Each of us must decide if we will be honest or dishonest in business – will we be pure or impure. There is no alternative. Every person is faced with that decision in this life.