"He entered Jericho & was passing through.
2And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus ; he was a chief tax collector & he was rich.
3Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was & was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
4So he ran on ahead & climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
5When Jesus came to the place, He looked up & said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry & come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
6And he hurried & came down & received Him gladly.
7When they saw it, they all
began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
8Zaccheus stopped & said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor & if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”
9And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
10“For the Son of Man has come to seek & to save that which was lost.”
When one examines the Scripture concerning the story of Zaccheus, one will not understand it unless the Lord opens your mind to understand it & recognize that the Scripture harmonizes its teaching, looking at Scripture as a whole.
When we look at the actual full text, what do we observe or see?
*This story is only found in the gospel of Luke, not in the other gospel accounts.
*Jesus was presently passing through the town of Jericho on His way to Jerusalem for the Passover & to be arrested, suffer & die on the cross. This was at the end of His ministry.
*A large crowd had been following Jesus as He entered & was passing through Jericho. (See the prior context in chapter 17 & 18 of Luke & Mark 10 & Matt 19 & 20, where Jesus was passing between Galilee & Samaria & the land beyond Jordan, going south following the Jordan River, going on the road toward Jerusalem until He arrives at Jericho, directly east of Jerusalem)
*Present among this crowd was a man named Zaccheus (means 'pure').
*Scripture says he was a chief tax collector & he was rich.
*Scripture says he was trying to see who Jesus was. Apparently he had not seen Jesus before or met Him & desired to see this Man that everybody had been talking about.
*Scripture says as he was moving with the large crowd, he was unable to see Jesus because of the crowd was pressing all around Jesus & because he was short & not very tall. In other words, he was prevented from seeing who Jesus was.
*Scripture says for this reason, he ran ahead of the crowd, knowing the way that Jesus was walking as he was going through Jericho & climbed up into a sycamore tree (sycamore fig tree) along that way, which would give him a chance to see who Jesus was, since He was passing that way.
*Scripture says as Jesus passed that spot, He looked up into the tree, seeing Zaccheus above Him. He called him specifically by his name, though they had never met.
*He asked Zaccheus by name to hurry & come down because He was doing to stay at his house as a guest.
*Scripture says Zaccheus obeyed Jesus & came hurriedly down.
*Scripture says Zaccheus received Jesus gladly as his guest.
*Scripture says the crowd, when they witnessed this, all began to grumble among themselves. They were saying, 'He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.'
*Scripture says that with this grumbling going on, that Zaccheus then stopped & stood there in front of Jesus.
*Scripture specifically says that Zaccheus specifically spoke to THE LORD.
*And when he spoke directly to the Lord, he specifically called Jesus LORD.
*He then said Him: 'Half of my possessions I will give to the poor & if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.'
*Scripture then says, while they were stopped, in the midst of the crowd, that Jesus said, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.'
Scripture also says that Jesus then additionally gives further comment, starting it using the word 'for', which is a conjunction that assigns a reason for something.
Scripture shows then the reason for what just happened & why Jesus said what He said just prior to this: 'FOR the Son of Man has come to seek & to save that which was lost.'
Scripture then says: 'While THEY were listening to THESE things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem & they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.'
So what can we learn & conclude from these observations of what Scripture actually said?
*A crowd had been following Jesus as He was traveling toward Jerusalem, going south on the main road that left Galilee, skirting around Samaria & they came with Jesus as He was entering Jericho.
*Somewhere in the midst of this, Zaccheus had joined this crowd, who had told others that the person they were following was Jesus of Nazareth. This much talked about rabbi & miracle worker had now come to Zaccheus' home town & he wanted to see who Jesus was.
*Because he was very short, Zaccheus couldn't see who Jesus was, as he traveled along with the crowd.
*So he ran ahead of the crowd, along the route that Jesus was going on & found a sycamore tree & climbed up into it to get high enough to see who Jesus was.
This image is of a sycamore fig tree in Jericho that some think is the very tree Zaccheus climbed up into.
*When Jesus comes to the tree & sees him up in the tree, he directly addresses him by name & tells him to hurry down as it is necessary that He will stay (abide) at his house today as his guest. Zaccheus has never seen Jesus before but Jesus knew who he was. (see also John 1:45-51)
*When Jesus said He was going to stay at Zaccheus' house, of all houses to abide in, when passing through Jericho, immediately those in the crowd began to start murmuring that Jesus was going to be a guest in the house of a man that was a sinner.
*Rather than myself going through all the issues of why the Jews hated tax collectors & called them sinners & why Jesus sought to save them, please read the excellent article here:
Why does the Bible speak so negatively about tax collectors?
*Before they even get to Zaccheus' house, he stops & stands in the middle of the crowd & says to the Lord, proclaiming it publically: ' Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor & if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore
him fourfold.'
*One notices that Zaccheus makes this confession openly & directly to Jesus as his Lord. (see also Romans 10:9,10) He admits his sin & changes his mind & behavior to right his wrongs & make restitution beyond what the Law required. (see also Leviticus 5:16)
*One also notices that Jesus responds to this confession, saying directly to Zaccheus, 'This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.'
*Jesus announces that Zaccheus has found salvation & affirms that he is not a traitor of Judaism but he is also a child of Abraham like all those surrounding them & that is how they should now view him.
*Jesus confirms the purpose & reason for His ministry: 'the Son of man is come to seek & to save that which was lost.' And Zaccheus is such an example of this before them all.
Was Zaccheus lost? Yes. Did Zaccheus confess Jesus as Lord? Yes. Did Zaccheus repent & change his mind & would continue to change his behavior, to make things right, even beyond the requirements of the Law? Yes.
Many more things could be said here but I will stop, simply noting that in reality it was Jesus seeking out Zaccheus because He knew his heart & recognized his repentance & faith, rather than just Zaccheus seeking out Jesus. Of all those in the crowd, Jesus found a son of Abraham that was lost & brought salvation to his house.
Other things could be said to answer the questions about where the power comes to continue to walk with Jesus as Lord & continue to walk in His righteousness & grace by the Holy Spirit, but that will be for another time.