I know Christmas was three weeks ago now, but forgive me for
still having it on the brain a little bit. I remember seeing a Christmas play
some years back I really enjoyed. It was really more like a bunch of small
skits and in one of them, four adults pretended to be kids putting on a
Christmas pageant.
The whole thing was super hilarious, but one part of it
sticks out in my mind when I think about today’s story. The girl playing Mary
had to read the beginning of Luke chapter 2. So she says, “In those days Caesar
Augustus issued a decree that the whole world should be…” and then she
scrunched up her whole face and said in her biggest, meanest, most disgusted
voice, “TAXED!”
Some of the older people reading this might feel that way
about taxes. We work hard for our money, but then the government takes some to
help take care of our cities and repave our roads and pay for schools and
stuff. Taxes are important, but no one wants to spend money they don’t have to.
Well, we’re going to be hearing from a guy who collected
taxes back in Bible times. His name was Zacchaeus, and he wasn’t liked very
much… But we’ll get to that in a minute. For now, sit back and relax as we hear
from Zach himself about the day he met Jesus and had his life changed forever!
________________________
Ah, my guests have arrived! Come in, come in, all of you.
Please, warm yourselves in my home. There’s always room for another guest here.
He taught me that. Who’s He? Why, the
Lord Jesus of course! You have heard of Him, haven’t you?
It’s not a bother to tell you about Him. Really, it’s not. I
don’t even mind that it brings up my past. I was a different man before I met
Jesus. A very different man. I wouldn’t have given two hoots for any of you
back then. That’s probably why most people avoided me.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start with who I am.
My name is Zacchaeus, and for many years I was a tax collector here in Jericho.
It was my job to collect money from people in town, bundle it together, and
send it off to people on the other end of the Empire to take care of.
Tax collectors never had the greatest reputation, especially
among my people, the Jews. The Jews never quite accepted that the Romans ruled
over them. God promised us a nation many years ago, and they didn’t like that Rome
has been ruling over us for generations. And they especially didn’t like the
idea of paying taxes. We have to pay money to help pay for Roman roads and
Roman armies and Roman trade? When we should have our own kingdom? Unacceptable!
But while a lot of us Jews didn’t like the Romans, tax
collectors were probably hated even more. Why? Because tax collectors, in my day,
were Jewish people who collected money for the Romans! And not only that, but a
lot of us would… charge a little extra. We didn’t think much of it at the time.
Say a person owed 10 dollars, we would charge them 11. 10 would go to Rome and
1 would stay in our pockets. The Romans knew we were doing this, but they didn’t
make a fuss. So long as they got their money, we could do what we wanted.
What we were doing was wrong. We made it sound professional
and legitimate, but we were just stealing money from people by making them pay
more than they had to. No wonder I didn’t have many friends.
I only say all this because it explains some of what
happened that day. You see, we’d been hearing about Jesus for a while now. We
knew He was this amazing prophet, wandering the countryside and giving a new
message that seemed to fly in the face of what the Pharisees and other Jewish
leaders always talked about. Even a hated tax collector like me couldn’t help
but imagine what Jesus would do if He came here.
I had been out collecting taxes that morning as usual when I
saw people running – literally running – to the other side of town. One of the
guys in line asked someone running by what was happening, and all he yelled
back was “Jesus.” Half the line took off.
I jumped up on my chair and started yelling for them to come
back, but they wouldn’t listen. In fact, before I knew it, the whole line had slipped
away. I wanted to be angry, but I found I couldn’t be. Jesus was in town! The
rest of my people may not have liked me all that much, but I was still excited
to hear that Jesus, this man who was making such a difference, was passing
through.
I locked up the tax money, left my post, and scurried over
to where Jesus was. It wasn’t hard to figure out. There was a huge crowd of
people lining the streets. But that’s when I realized I would have a problem. I
couldn’t see.
You see, I’m not exactly a… tall man. Usually when I want to
see something important, I make sure I’m there early, but I didn’t have the
chance this time. And here I was, this tax collector who could normally make
anyone give me whatever money they had in their pockets, and I didn’t have a
chance in the world of seeing someone walk down the street.
I politely asked if some people would make room, but nobody
budged. I tried to shove my way through, but no luck there other. One guy
almost moved, but when he saw who I was, he just grunted and started standing
on his tiptoes.
I wanted to plough him one, but I controlled my temper. Think, man, I thought to myself, There must be some way you can see Jesus!
I looked up the street a way and that’s when it hit me. The tree!
Honestly, I hadn’t climbed a tree in years, not since I was
a boy. But there was this sycamore tree that was perfect. From there, I’d have
a perfect view. So off to the tree I went and shimmied up. And let me tell you,
I was a lot better at climbing trees as a boy! But after a couple of false
starts and some scrapes, I got to the top, looked out, and…
…and there He was. Jesus! I don’t know how to explain it,
but I knew something was special about Him just by looking at Him. Nothing
stood out about Him appearance-wise, but looking at Him made me feel… peaceful.
And a little guilty.
As Jesus came closer, I shied back in the tree a little bit,
trying to hide behind some of the leaves. Climbing a tree was one thing, but
there was no reason He needed to know I was up there. But maybe about 10 feet
before the tree He stopped, looked up, and with a big grin on His face, said,
“Zacchaeus! Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today” (Luke 19:5,
NLT).
My face went pale, my eyes wide. Me? I thought. He wants to
eat with me? At my house? NOBODY eats at my house. But He just stood there,
smiling, waiting.
I didn’t want to keep Him waiting, so I immediately climbed
down the tree. A couple of people helped me down now that I had Jesus’
attention, but they looked as dazed and confused as I felt. But my uncertainty
didn’t last long. Soon I was smiling, laughing. It took everything in me to not
grab Him by the hand and drag Him to my house!
The crowds didn’t just disappear at that point. Many people
followed after us. And though I was happy to have Jesus as my guest, I couldn’t
help but overhear some of them grumbling. “He’s eating with Zacchaeus?” “That
seems an odd choice?” “Do they even know each other?” “Why would Jesus eat with
a guy like Zacchaeus? He’s a sinner! A tax collector!”
The thing is, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, they
were right! I mean, I’m no more a sinner than anyone else – I realize that now
– but I certainly wasn’t a kind or giving person. I didn’t deserve to have
someone like Jesus come and eat with me. I treated a lot of people poorly and
cheated a lot of people out of a lot of money.
Just before we got to my house, I stopped dead in my tracks.
The whole crowd rippled as they were forced to halt too. Jesus simply turned,
looking at me with a hint of a question on His face.
I looked back at the crowd for a moment, nodded, and then
looked right at Jesus. “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord,” I said,
“and if I have cheated people on their taxes,” (and there were lots of people I
had cheated), “I will give them back four times as much!” (Luke 19:8)
That questioning look on Jesus’ face broke into a grin.
“Salvation has come to this home today!” Jesus said, proudly. And I do mean
proudly. I had learned that my money was far less important than how I treat
others or how I treat God. He wants us to be kind, compassionate, and listen to
His instructions. By choosing to give up money and pay people back what I had
stolen from them and more, it was a sign that I wasn’t just going to meet with
Jesus once and forget about Him. Meeting Jesus changed me – giving the money
away was just the result!
For me, the issue was money, but all of us have something
that gets us down. Maybe we like to pick on others, maybe we know we can boss
our siblings around, maybe we even like to take things from people or stores
when nobody’s watching. But when you meet with Jesus... That’s when everything
changes.
I did exactly what I said. I paid those people I had cheated
back, and I sold a bunch of my stuff to help the poor. I never met Jesus face
to face again, but that one meeting changed my life. I knew that His way was
better, and I’ve lived that way the rest of my life.
I hope you will too. It won’t always be easy or fun. Living
the way Jesus wants will test you, and not everybody will understand why you do
it. But take it from me – Meeting Jesus
always changes us for the better! Because I know Him, I’m a better person
for it. And I can never say thank you to Him enough!
________________________
So there you have it! The day Zacchaeus met Jesus. It was a
normal, ordinary day, but it changed everything about him. Who knows? Today
might be that ordinary day for you too! All it takes to be changed by Jesus is
to believe in Him, to ask Him to forgive you, and to thank Him for dying and
rising again so you can be saved! That’s it. At the beginning of this year,
there’s nothing more important you can do than meet Jesus for the first time!
Now for the boring stuff (so you can tune out here if you
want). If you’re a regular reader, you may notice I’ve shifted from the NIrV to
the NLT. Trying something new to start the year – we’ll see how that goes. This
month is also crazy hectic for me, so I probably won’t be getting a new post up
until early February. Not sure what that will be on yet, but probably not a
Second Sunday Switch-Up.
Otherwise, Happy New Year all. Can’t wait to see where else
this adventure in shedding our Sunday School Glasses takes us!
~Brentagious
