Luke 19:5-10 - Man comes down from tree

19:5,6

Jesus spotted him, in fact it is even as if Jesus knew He would meet Zacchaeus. Jesus then invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house. Zacchaeus was delighted with this. Now let’s consider what people thought of Zacchaeus, what he did, and what was going on in his heart. People hated him, he extorted money from them, acting for a hated oppressor. He was very rich, and they would despise him for that. Zacchaeus did act wrongly, he would have planned on how to get as much money as possible. He did evil. Yet there was something inside of him looking for release, looking to be different. We need to recognise that evil and a desire to be different can exist at the same time within a person. We are all sinners, and we are all victims. It isn’t one or the other, it is both. We are guilty, we are responsible, we are evildoers.  We are also under the oppression of sin, we are slaves to sin. We need to appreciate the two-sided effects of sin, or the nature of sin and the sinner. Usually we focus only on one aspect. Only Jesus can set us free.

19:7

The people were offended by this. why should Jesus go to the house of a sinner? Notice that the people are reacting in much the same way as the Pharisees and other religious leaders reacted. At heart the common people were no different from the religious leaders. To put this in a modern context, we all like to criticise our politicians, and there is much to be criticised. But we are no better than them, all he character flaws that lead them to act the way they often do exist in us as well.

19:8-10

Now see the reaction of Zacchaeus, he repents. He demonstrates his repentance by giving money to the poor, and more than compensating those he has cheated. So we see Jesus reaching out to the lost and the despised, and we see repentance. I have been banging on about this point for a while now, and I do so because it is important. So often we say “Jesus welcomes anyone”, but the truth, the gospel, is that Jesus welcomes anyone who comes in faith and repentance. We like to forget about repentance and we end up having no gospel at all.

Jesus declares that Zacchaeus is a “son of Abraham”, and that His very purpose was to seek and save the lost.