Salvation Has Come
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Okay. Let’s get it out of our system before we ever begin. Ready?
Zaccheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the Savior passed that way, he looked up in that tree.
And he said, “Zaccheus! You come down.
For I’m going to your house today. For I’m going to your house today.”
Alight. Out of our system? Who knows? I may have just put into your system.
This morning, we’re looking at Zaccheus and we remember him for his being vertically challenged. He was short! Just a wee little man. But the size of his person was just one issue that he had against him. Amazingly enough, I actually see three such disadvantages. The first was actually the size of his purse. The second was the size of his person. Finally, there was the size of his problems.
The Size of his Purse
The Size of his Person
The Size of his Problems
He entered Jericho and was passing through.
And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”
So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
The Size of his Purse
The Size of his Purse
The first disadvantage that we come across in the text is one that often comes second in our thinking. But in telling the story, Luke gives us a foreshadow of a major issue in Zaccheus’s life that needs to be overcome: the size of his purse. Keep in mind that Luke has little good to say about rich people. His book is written in some ways as a reminder that Jesus loves those on the fringe of society: the hurting, the lame, the blind, the sick, the leper, the poor.
From the very beginning of the gospel account, Luke points out the disadvantage of having a large purse—of being rich. Mary, in what is called the Magnificat, proclaims:
he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
He writes about Jesus’s woe against the rich in
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
He points out that one of the bad soils, the thorny soil, is made up of riches that choke the word out of a person’s life. And he keeps going up until there is a rich young ruler who asks how to inherit eternal life. And when he cannot give up his riches, Jesus said,
For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Most people would agree that money can’t make you happy, but few would say that money doesn’t make things easier. It greases the wheels when business slows down. People get what they want faster and easier if they have the financial resources. But the entire problem with riches is that it so quickly takes our eyes off of God as provider and sustainer, and puts it onto ourselves. We earn the money, we take the money, we spend the money. We become self-sufficient, self-sustaining, self-providing. Our reliance is upon ourselves and so long as we are willing to go that extra mile, do that extra shift, fudge that little bit, or a lot, nothing can stop us.
And to go from being self-sufficient and self-sustaining to giving up controlling interest in Chris Hughes Corp. is terrifying; it’s perplexing (why would anyone do that?). Most people react the way the rich young ruler reacted: with sorrow and distress. Thus Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. The meaning was crystal clear to the disciples:
Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
The rich ruler goes away deeply distressed and saddened because of his wealth. And now we see Zaccheus whose purse-size is also quite large. From the get-go, he’s behind in the count: strike one.
As we think through this text, we need to pause because there can tend to be prejudices that we develop. One such prejudice is to think anyone with any type of opulence is godless or at least hopeless (and we so often think this way especially when it comes to large churches with large budgets; as if, they are are compromising the gospel in some way to gain such grandeur. That may be true, but it is not necessarily and we need to be careful; but this isn’t about churches). There is a reaction that says, they’ll never trust God. And in one sense, that is true. That’s exactly what Jesus said. What is impossible with man is possible with God. If we wanted to broaden that out, we could and should say though that’s true of us all.
Not one of us would ever come to Jesus for salvation, if God had not first called us.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
So, the rich have a particular disadvantage in that they are rich. Money is a strong idol that holds on for dear life, but the rest of us are still born with stone-cold deadened hearts toward God.
But the flip-side is also to say that poor have some great advantage over the rich. But lack of money can drive people away from God just as much as a surplus can.
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
That’s the prayer of Agur and ought to be our prayer as well.
The Size of his Person
The Size of his Person
So the first disadvantage that Zaccheus has is the size of his person. The second is the disadvantage that we all associate with him: the size of his person. He was a wee little man and a wee little man was he!
And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
While the size of his purse was Zaccheus’s own doing; he hustled and worked hard and as we will see later, extorted his way to being rich, the size of his person—his height—was not his own doing. This was the lot he was given in life. It is believed that the average Jewish man during the first century was about 5’5” tall. This means that if Zaccheus was known to be a short man, he had to be considerably shorter; he was probably no taller than 5’. That’s only two inches from those who have drawfism.
The idea that Luke is trying to convey here though is not comical, but disadvantage and desperation. Using the imperfect tense, Luke was telling us that Zaccheus wasn’t simply mildly interested in this Jesus person, but was in a constant state of seeking after him. Last week, we saw that Jesus was approaching Jericho when the blind beggar wanted to see Jesus. Now here was a rich tax-collector wanting to see Jesus as well. Blindness and crowds would not stop the beggar from seeing Jesus. Shortness and crowds would not stop the rich tax-collector from seeing him either.
Now, we don’t know why Bartimaeus was blind. It may have been a freak accident or he may have been born that way. We do know that Zaccheus’s condition was no fault of his own. He was short. He was certainly born that way. There’s not a lot that one can do about DNA.
Zaccheus had dealt with this shortness his entire life and he seems to have figured out how to function in spite of the disadvantage. He looks to be a pretty innovative guy. It’s probably what made him so rich in the first-place: finding answers to problems. He was an overcomer and it had gotten him far. So despite the fact that he was short and the crowd wasn’t letting him through to see Jesus, he figured out a way to see him anyway. He runs ahead and climbs up into a sycamore tree. He’s like a kid standing in a tree as the Fourth of July parade passes by. He’s got the best view.
And there is Jesus passing by. And once again, just like with the blind beggar, Jesus stops. And when Jesus stops; everyone stops. And he turned and looked right at Zaccheus.
Before we go on, we need to understand something. People often get caught up in the cards they have been dealt and can’t get past them. Through no fault of their own, they have distinct natural disadvantages. In Zaccheus’s case, it’s his height. Bartimaeus, his eyes. For some it might be something else: intelligence, weight, talents, muscle tone, a disability, or it could even be something that has to do with attraction to others. I’m not saying there is a “gay gene” but we do know a lot about how attraction works and the chemicals that come into play. There’s a chemical component that happens in utero that affects one’s attraction. It’s called aromitization, and what happens is that testosterone in the male body is converted into estrogen within the brain and it actually causes the “male” brain to develop so that it is attracted to females later in life. If this is inhibited or lessened in some way, there is a problem with attraction. At the same time, estrogen while in utero is restricted from entering the female brain, lest it develop more in male-ness.
But when it comes to following Jesus, one is not bound by physical disadvantages unless they bind themselves. I’m not saying that same-sex attraction and being short are the same obstacles to overcome. They are unique. But what I am saying is that Zaccheus shows us the way. His focus was not on himself. It wasn’t on his disadvantage. He understood the disadvantage. And he knew that it was keeping him from what he really wanted and needed to see: Jesus. So, he did what had to be done. However undignified it was for a man to run in first century Judea; however uncouth is was for a grown man to climb a tree, it did not matter. The size of his person would not keep him from seeing Jesus.
What most people say is: this is who I am. I can’t help who I am. I must embrace and come to terms with who I am. And we do need to be honest about our physical disadvantages, our emotional disadvantages, our mental disadvantages. We need to be honest about those things. But then we need to remember that constantly redirecting our eyes to Jesus. And sometimes that may look strange to everyone else. But when Jesus becomes the focus of our lives, most people will see us to be strange anyway.
The Size of his Problems
The Size of his Problems
But this takes us to the next disadvantage. We first saw the size of his purse was a disadvantage. Just being rich makes it difficult to follow Jesus. But then we saw the size of his person was a disadvantage. His physical stature hindered him from even seeing Jesus and needed to be overcome. But now we see that there is one last disadvantage: the size of his problems. He’s got a lot of them; and who doesn’t? But I see two big problems that are mentioned, but I also see that there is a problem behind the problems. Let’s deal with the two given problems.
The first is that the people despise him.
And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
Zaccheus was famous, or rather infamous. When they saw that Jesus went to his house, they were not happy because they understood the gravity of Zaccheus’s sin. It’s hard to change your life when people don’t like you. When people grumble against Jesus befriending you, you know you’ve got a problem on your hands. Here was a man who was short and could not see because of the crowd. The crowd blocked him from seeing. No support, no community, no help, that makes any life difficult; but the Christian life can easily wither immediately and rapidly without others. So he has a problem with the people.
But he also has a problem with his practice. There’s a reason the people don’t like him. There’s a reason they call him a sinner. It is not simply that he is a tax-collector. But he’s an extortioner.
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
The word defrauded is to extort. It can mean to blackmail, cheat, shakedown, that kind of thing. So, what we have is Zaccheus admitting that there is actually good reason that the people don’t like him. He, before Jesus, he confesses his sin. Don’t let the “if” get in the way of seeing the confession. This is what is known in Greek as a “first class conditional sentence.” It isn’t actually to cause doubt, but to reassure us of the thing that happened. If you’re here today, you’re listening to a sermon about Zaccheus. There’s no doubt that’s what is going on.
So the problems are that that Zaccheus’ practice of extortion have led to the people’s absolute despising of him. And that takes a bit more into the speculation realm. This is not straight from the text, but I think we can see a connection. If you disagree with me, that’s fine. But I see Zaccheus’s problems snowballing.
Zaccheus’s name means pure or innocent, but that is not how he acts. That’s not his character. He’s a shyster. A short-shyster. And maybe that started it all. Typically in life, we tend to believe that if we are disadvantaged in one area, we have to compensate for it in another. If he is disadvantaged in his person, then he’ll make up for it with his purse. Which leads him to defrauding others and living in the lap of luxury while the poor are all around him. One feeling or false belief, led to choice, which led to a choice, which led to a choice, and the those choices grabbed onto one another and suddenly instead of having a manageable snowball for some afternoon fun, the snowball got away from him and was rolling down him, picking up snow, and nearly destroyed his life and the lives of those around him.
How did he get here? Bad choices.
And we tend to look at people who make bad choices as getting what they deserve. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it. And it may be true. They get what they deserve. But Jesus is a man of mercy and called us to be people of mercy. We don’t excuse the choices, but we realize—as we saw last week—that we too have made tons of sinful choices and yet we have received grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy.
The Size of his Savior
The Size of his Savior
But that takes us to a fourth point—the most important point. Because no matter what our disadvantages, the size of our Savior is greater and can and does overcome them all. NO MATTER WHAT OUR DISADVANTAGES, THE SIZE OF OUR SAVIOR IS GREATER AND CAN AND DOES OVERCOME THEM ALL!
Let’s go back and talk about that crowd, shall we? It seems like Luke has a one-track mind here. Because once again, they kept the one guy who understood his need for Jesus from getting to him. The babies, the blind beggar, and now the bad guy. And all three times, Jesus stopped everyone in their tracks and did the exact opposite of what they were doing. Instead of shooing the parents away, he held and blessed the little children. Instead of high-tailing it out of there leaving Bartimaeus in darkness, he made those who hindered him to bring him before him to be healed. And here he stopped, looked up to look Zaccheus in the eyes, and invited himself into his life. In fact, Jesus said, “I must.” It was a necessary thing for Jesus to do. This is equivalent to the whole traveling through Samaria in John 4. “He must needs to through Samaria,” as the KJV so eloquently put it. In this case, it was a divine appointment with Zaccheus.
The word “stay” is the word that most times refers to lodging overnight. In fact, it very much means to live. It is the word “abide.” Abide in me and I will abide in you. It is one of John the Apostle’s favorite words but only because it is one of Jesus’s favorite words. There is nothing like having Jesus invite himself over to abide with you.
Jesus left the crowd, for this one man. Sounds a lot like that good shepherd who left the ninety-nine to go after the one sheep who’d gone astray.
And we see how Zaccheus responded. For the first time in a long-time, if ever, Zaccheus would live up to his name. And you need to understand; this is critical. DO NOT MISS THIS: Nothing changed in Zaccheus’s life until he met Jesus. He did not become the person he was meant to be until Jesus abided with and in him. Could he have made superficial changes yes. But could he be the pure/innocent person he was called to be, never. Not without Jesus. He’d give half his possessions to the poor. With the other half, he would pay all whom he defrauded back fourfold. In one moment of time with Jesus, everything changed. We have no idea what Jesus and Zaccheus talked about. We don’t know how Jesus confronted him, or even if he confronted him, but just being in the presence of the holy Son of God was enough. What we know is that Zaccheus was forever changed.
You may ask, how do we know that? He’s only mentioned here in the Bible. That’s true. But we do have church records from Clement of Alexandria (not the same Clement of the Bible; but about 100 years later) that Zaccheus, this short, wee little man had become the Bishop of Caesarea.
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
A man who was a traitor to his country and people, who had made his living by defrauding his own countrymen, hated by everyone, was loved by Jesus. He called him a son of Abraham. This lost sheep of Israel had been received back into the fold. Because that’s what Jesus does. He came to seek and to save the lost. And he has called us to do the same.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We’ve seen a lot of disadvantages this morning: the purse, the person, the problems of people and practice. But over and above them all is the size of our Savior. John wrote
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
But it is not faith for faith sake, but faith in the person of Jesus Christ. The very next verse says
Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
So many problems in the world. So many problems in our world: the world of Chris Hughes that need to be overcome. So many issues that want to pull me away from God; they want to hinder me from seeing him. We talked about money, we’ve talked about physical, emotional, mental disadvantages, we’ve talked about those on the outside who make things even more difficult for us. But those are not all the disadvantages; they aren’t all the hardships and pulls of this world. They are but three examples with which Zaccheus had to deal. But John guarantees us, and Luke and Paul, Peter, and the rest show us by example, that no problem is too big for Jesus. No issue can get in the way if our faith is on Christ.
What or who is in your life, that seeks to keep you from seeing Jesus? How long will you stay behind it? When will be your time to run ahead and climb the tree so that you too may see Jesus as he passes by. Because he will not simply pass you by, he will abide.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.