Luke 19:1-10
To Seek and Save What is Lost
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 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.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Jesus tells and teaches us that He came to seek and save the lost...Many were gathered to see a Man so many others were talking about...On this day and He passed through Jericho, the crowd was so large that a diminutive man would be unable to see Him standing behind the large crowd...A man was looking for Jesus, but was having a hard time seeing Him because of this crowd in Jericho...And when we think about crowds and the nature of crowds and our faith, especially large crowds, rarely do they lead one specific person to faith...It maybe that faith is better suited for smaller groups or one individual talking one on one is better in helping us find faith than a large crowd in general...Faith is a personal thing, so I think it can be hard to have a large group influence something so personal...That being said, One Specific Person can lead an entire crowd to faith, and He did it regularly when He was out talking to people and crowds...He had this innate divine authority and an ability that indwelt in His very personality, that people were being drawn to Him and a to have faith in Him...And His Father is that way...We often come to faith in God individually by subtle ways and revelations by God Himself through nature, creation, an individual, or other people, the Holy Spirit, or His Presence...God can do all things...
We can see and read that Jesus is seeking a specific tax collector this day, who was a man small in height...Many of us are lost and maybe we do not even know it...Zacchaeus seems like one of us who is lost and does not know it...But Jesus knew he was lost...That is why He is seeking Him...And something in Zacchaeus' heart wanted to see Jesus..He wanted to see this Jesus Fellow and who He was...His heart felt something for this Man before he even had seen Him...And Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was wealthy...And even though he wanted to see who Jesus was, he was so short he could not see over the large standing crowd...So Zacchaeus ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore-fig tree so he could see Him, since he knew that Jesus was coming that way...A chief tax collector in a sycamore tree would be a sight to see....He really wanted to see Jesus...It took effort from Zacchaeus to see Jesus, and maybe a little embarrassment, by sitting is a tree...But let us do what we must do to see the One can change lives...If they would have had telephone cameras in that day, I am sure that would have been something that would have gone viral and viewed many times, a chief tax collector in a sycamore tree...And many around Him, would point out that Jesus would be going to eat with a sinner...And that was true...Let us gain strength in this, and see this as hope...
There is One who comes for us, and we hopefully are ready for Him when He comes...He comes even at the oddest of times and places and situations...On this day Jesus sought out Zacchaeus and we see He is ready for us, because He is always there and ready for us...And as Jesus walked by the sycamore tree, He looked up in the tree and invited Himself to Zacchaeus' house that day...He had been ask by the World's Greatest Man, to be a Dinner Guest at his house...And invitation from our Creator to one sitting up oddly in a sycamore-fig tree...A man who was looking for something -looking to find his faith...Jesus was there coming to seek and save someone who was lost, and He still does this even today...