Sermon Tone Analysis

Text Luke 19:1-9

Theme: There is personal urgency in accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Zacchaeus walked with God.

It’s one of the more amazing conversion stories in the New Testament.

This is actually the second conversion that has taken place in Jericho on the same day.

At the end of the 18th chapter we find Jesus approaching Jericho when a blind beggar named Bartimaeus hears the commotion of the crowd, is told that Jesus is coming down the road, and begins to cry out at the top of his lungs, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Well, you know the story; Jesus stops and heals the man, who then gets up and joyfully follows Jesus.

Jesus continues his trip through town.

On the other side of town is a man named Zacchaeus who also hears the commotion of the crowd, is told that Jesus is coming down the road, and who wants to see Jesus.

But because he is short of stature — a “wee little man” — he can’t see over the crowd so he climbs a sycamore-fig tree to catch a view of the most famous man in Israel.

Well, you know the story; Jesus stops, calls Zacchaeus down from the tree and invites himself to dinner at the man’s house.

Zacchaeus is saved, and becomes a new creation in Christ as evidenced by his repentance from greed, and his restitution to those he has cheated — which was about everyone who paid taxes.

At the end of the encounter Jesus announces his purpose in coming to the lost sheep of Israel: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.””

(Luke 19:10, NIV84).

Do you see what’s going on here?

Within just minutes Jesus reveals that the gospel is for the down-and-out, as well as the up-and-in, and everyone in between.

Both of these men were sinners, and both needed the redemptive healing of Jesus in their life.

One needed blindness taken from his eyes so that he could see Jesus, and the other needed blindness taken from his soul so that he could see Jesus.

Both needed forgiveness.

Both needed a miracle in their life.

Both needed Jesus to stop and touch their lives.

In the case of Zacchaeus we discover that though you may have everything that our culture says is important, if you ain’t got Jesus, you’re just like Zacchaeus — up a tree and out on a limb.

I. ZACCHAEUS WAS A WEE LITTLE MAN LONGING TO MEET JESUS

1. the story of Zacchaeus appears only in the Gospel of Luke

a. it’s a short account — only ten verses — but in those ten verses we learn much about the life and character of Zacchaeus

A. ZACCHAEUS THE SINNER

“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.”

(Luke 19:1–2, NIV84)

1. vs. 2 tells us almost everything we need to know about Zacchaeus — he is a wealthy Jewish tax collector, which speaks volumes about his life

a. the name Zacchaeus mean Righteous One ... what a name for a tax collector!

1) I’m sure the residents of Jericho saw the irony in that

2) Zacchaeus was considered anything but “righteous” by his fellow Jews

b. the Jewish population of Israel would have certainly considered Zacchaeus a sinner — indeed one of the worse of sinners

2. he was a sinner because he was a Roman collaborator

a. the Romans were the occupying force in Israel, having conquered the nation about 90 year earlier

1) the Romans were, for their day, somewhat enlightened conquerors

a) if you kept the peace and paid your taxes they pretty much let conquered nations run themselves

b. but Israel chaffed under Roman rule, and especially loathed paying taxes to Rome

1) as a tax collector, Zacchaeus ostensibly worked for the Romans, which made him equally loathed as was Rome

2) that animosity is seen in the attitude in the story Jesus told of the Pharisee who went up to the Temple to pray

“The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’”

(Luke 18:11–13, NIV84)

3) what a coincidence that Jesus now meets such a tax collector just a few days later!

3. he was a sinner because to be a tax collector was to be an extortionist

ILLUS.

Jericho was in the province of Judea, and was directly ruled by a Roman govoner.

It was the governor’s responsibility to see that taxes were collected and the appropriate amount forwarded to Rome.

Like any bureaucratic government, Rome hired contractors to do the work of tax collection.

These contractors in Rome sold tax-collecting franchises in the provinces to the highest bidder, and such franchises were a lucrative business.

Zacchaeus is a tax collector who has finagled his way to the top.

As a chief tax collector Zacchaeus may well have had the responsibility for the entire district of Judea where Jericho was located.

He would have, in turn, hired other men to work for him to actually collect the taxes.

Indeed, the Apostle Matthew may have been under Zacchaeus’ employment.

Now, working for the Roman IRS may not necessarily been sinful in and of itself, but the way tax collectors made their living certainly was.

Rome did not pay their tax collectors.

They had a set amount they were required to collect, and whatever they could extort beyond that they were permitted to keep.

Colleting taxes usually involved a lot of intimidation and thuggery.

In Israel there were three major taxes collected.

1) the Head Tax, which was the most hated.

It was the tax Rome assessed all residents for the “privilege” of being under Caesar’s authority, 2) the Income Tax which was about 1%, and 3) the Land Tax which consisted of one-tenth of all grain, and one-fifth of all wine and fruit.

There were also taxes on the transportation of goods, letters, and using roads and bridges.

This did not include the extortion, exploitation and loan-sharking that tax collectors were involved in.

a. it’s easy to understand why tax collectors were hated and considered sinful

4. Zacchaeus would have been deeply involved in all of this

a. as a result, he would have been exceedingly wealthy (he may have been the wealthiest man Jesus ever met)

ILLUS.

He would have been in the 1% of the one-percenters of his era.

His lifestyle would have been extravagant.

b. the trade-off is that Zacchaeus would have been considered unclean in Jewish culture

1) he would have been ostracized from Jewish society

2) he would have been barred him from the local Synagogue and from the Temple in Jerusalem

c. about the only people he could associate with would have been fellow tax collectors,

B. ZACCHAEUS THE SEEKER

“He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.

4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” (Luke 19:3–4, NIV84)

1. Zacchaeus wants to meet Jesus, or at least catch a glimpse of him, but he has a problem!

a. he is too short to see Jesus over the crowds!

ILLUS.

In a day when the typical Jewish male was only 5' 1" tall, that’s saying something.

He certainly was a wee little man.

Considering who he was, my guess is that his Jewish neighbors were none too cooperative, doing their best to keep Zacchaeus to the back of the crowd.

2. to solve the problem, Zacchaeus runs ahead and climbs a Sycamore-fig tree, a short thick-trunked tree with stout limbs

a. it must have been a humiliating moment in his life

b.

for most people, that first and biggest barrier between their hearts and receiving and experiencing Christ’s salvation is their pride and their dignity

c. when Zacchaeus got up in a tree, he left his dignity behind

d. this is an extraordinarily wealthy man, and there were all sorts of things you did or didn’t do that were fitting with dignified social status

1) climbing a tree would not be dignified, but he did it any way

2) virtually all commentators agree that in that culture, Zacchaeus paid an enormous price when he climbed that tree, because that’s something a child would do but an adult did not do

3. it gives us an indication how desperate Zacchaeus is to meet Jesus

ILLUS.

We live in a culture that is becoming ever more secular.

It’s a culture where we’re told, “Mature, intellectual people simply do not believe in the supernatural.”

In other words, in our society, if you want to be a Christian, if you want to believe the Lord of the universe broke into this world and was born in a manger and defeated the powers of evil and death and rose triumphant over the grave … If you believe that, well ... you’re just intellectually stunted.

You’re not considered an enlightened, mature adult.

You’re clinging to your guns and religion.

You’re considered a child.

You’ve climbed a tree.

You look silly.