Zacchaeus

This is Jesus’ Heart

“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’ ” – Luke 19:5-7 Jesus had an eating ministry. The heart of Christ is reconciliation, grace, forgiveness, and mercy, and particularly, He likes to do this with food. You might have heard me say this every Sunday back in the day. We used to serve communion and before I would invite people to take part, I would say, “Jesus has an eating ministry and He’s continuing it now in communion.” So much of Jesus’ ministry was inviting sinners — or people who were not supposed to associate with righteous people, to His table. The Bible speaks of a

May 27, 2022 1 Comment

Acceptance Before Repentance

“All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’” – Luke 19:7,8 Yesterday, we saw how radical it was that Jesus embraced Zacchaeus, despite the fact that he was a short, crooked tax collector. Even knowing these things, the Lord saw fit to invite Himself over to his house that very day. By extending a hand that said, “I want to get to know you,” He offered a marginalized man a place of belonging, and everything changed. This is because acceptance always precedes repentance. Knowing that he was finally loved for who he was, Zacchaeus’ natural response was to change

May 28, 2021 1 Comment

Careless Toward Convention

“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.’” – Luke 19:5,6 Yesterday, we learned about a stubby tax collector named Zacchaeus and how he went to great lengths to see Jesus. Today, I want to examine the Lord’s unconventional response to his effort. Though he was a member of a hated and immoral profession and was held in low esteem because of his short stature, Jesus stopped right under the tree into which he had climbed. Rather than reprimand or judge him, He instructed him to come down, because He was going over to his house that very day! This was shocking not only because of who he was, but also because Jews typically didn’t invite themselves to the home of another, especially one who

May 27, 2021 No Comments

The Desire to See God

“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” – Luke 19:1-4 How desperately do we want to see God? That is the question the story of Zacchaeus prompts us to ask. The Bible says this man from Jericho was a chief tax collector and that he was rich. Since we learned previously that Jewish tax collectors were thieves and crooks working for the Roman Empire, he was an unlikely subject to be chasing after the Lord…but something about Jesus intrigued him. His quest, however, was made challenging by the fact that he was short. Since the

May 26, 2021 No Comments

This is Jesus’ Heart

Acceptance Before Repentance

Careless Toward Convention

The Desire to See God

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