4.11

Come down from that tree (Luke 19:1-10)

There lived at the time of Jesus a man named Zaccheus who worked for the Roman government as a tax collector of his fellow Jews. In those days, tax collectors were in the habit of taking much more than the government required and keeping the extra for themselves. Zaccheus was apparently so good at extorting large sums of money from his neighbors that he was chief among them, and rich. People in this line of work were considered the lowest of the morally low, the scum of the earth who took advantage of their own people in the name of their people’s occupiers, all for their greed’s sake. They were despised as traitors, lacking any sense of right or good, irredeemable before God. Zaccheus, a chief tax collector, was a pariah to his people

One day, Zaccheus heard that Jesus would be passing through his neighborhood of Jericho, so he ran ahead of His coming to find a place where he could get a good look at Jesus walking by. Zaccheus was a short man and he could not see over the large crowd that had already gathered along the path Jesus was walking, so he decided to climb up a tree to get an unobstructed view of Him. To the great shock of the crowd, Jesus stopped right in front of Zaccheus’ tree and said to him, “Hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house”

What was Jesus thinking? Didn’t He know this was a chief tax collector, which is tantamount to a chief sinner? Didn’t He know to stay away from such morally degraded and spiritually defiled people so He wouldn’t catch their filth? Judgments most likely murmured in the crowd against both Zaccheus and Jesus, against the man who was despised and the One who dared to associate with someone so despised. But when he heard Jesus calling him, Zaccheus quickly climbed down the tree and stood before Him, face to face. That this Man would talk to him as a man and want to visit with him, was more than Zaccheus or anyone there could fathom. What Zaccheus did know was such an abundance welling up inside that he blurted out to Jesus, “Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” In the time it took for Jesus to call him and for Zaccheus to climb down that tree, his life had made an about face, from a gnawing hunger for more and more riches to a satisfaction that overflowed far beyond what he could contain on his own. Zaccheus’ abundance as he stood before Jesus had to pour out to others

The Bible does not explain in any detail what happened to Zaccheus that so dramatically changed him except for these few words Jesus said: “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.” Salvation from the crowds’ grumblings and judgments. Salvation from his own heart that was blind to God’s good to him. Salvation from all other moments that fettered Zaccheus with preconceptions defining himself and others and God. Salvation from despair in his world and all it contained, because nothing in it could change him as he needed to be changed. God’s salvation had come to make him whole. In the presence of Jesus, Zaccheus was freed from the constraints of his old and dying life for a new one. He saw in Jesus the unique holiness of God that is humble, kind, and inviting. God’s holiness in His Son exalts God to the heavens, from where He commands the closest intimacy

Jesus did not preach the law to Zaccheus but their encounter enabled him to do far more than the law demands. He promised to return four times as much to those he defrauded, much more than the law requires (Leviticus 6:5). It was not the law but God’s presence that transformed Zaccheus. As God freed Israel from 430 years of slavery in a night, and freed Isaiah from his blindness in a revelation, so too did He free Zaccheus from his hopeless state when he saw Jesus. He was no longer compelled to steal from others to satisfy his hunger. However much or little Zaccheus understood of the One he was beholding, the presence of Jesus was transforming him into His holy and good likeness. It is in God’s presence that He makes in His image. It is the presence of His transforming grace that makes us whole by reflecting His beauty, God’s good intentions for us. The nature of God’s work that sanctifies is the nature of His holy rest that prepares us for His transforming work. Zaccheus did not see the law in Jesus. The law could only condemn him before God. What he saw was the face of God knowing and receiving him just as he is