Luke 18 vs 1 through 10  

Tell Me A Story of Jesus: Zaccheus Was a Wee Little Man

The context of this message is a suburban congregation in a blue collar city in the Midwest of the United States.

Materials for this message come from my meditations on the story and from a sermon by EK Bailey in Preaching Today

It goes back in my mind a long way, all the way to the time when I was just a little boy and I don’t think I was in school yet, but I was going to Sunday school. And we learned a song which I know I sang again and again. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he, he climbed up in a Sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the savior passed that way and so on ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkd-QFD7vMA )

Not long ago I heard a question posed by a preacher who asked what drove Zaccheus up that tree anyway? What would get a wealthy, self absorbed man, with a reputation for being hard nosed and difficult, with a reputation for being a Sinner, a scoundrel, and a collaborator with the Romans, what would get him up that tree? What could possibly get him to climb a big tree just to see Jesus?

   You see he reminds me of a man I got to know somewhat in a big city. This guy was a lawyer, a very successful lawyer, and he lived in a big house in a fine area of the city. He had a wife and two kids. He had fancy cars, fancy vacations, and fancy clothes. He’d grown up in the church, but as he grew older, he had decided he didn’t need God anymore. He had everything he wanted. Why should he need God? God was for people who needed a promise of pie in the sky by and by, he said. And so, he turned his back on his church and asked them to please stop bothering him with this God stuff.

Now I say Zaccheus reminds me of that guy since he too was successful, and if he was a tax collector, he wasn’t in need of the churches of his day’s approval for what he was doing. He had decided he would cooperate with the Pagan Romans and not be a resistor of their influence. Zacchaeus was a man who felt comfortable with dealing with the authorities as they determined the amount of taxes that would be required of his area. And then Zaccheus would go out and get those taxes from the people.

But one day this man is up in a tree, he’s out on a limb and he’s looking for Jesus. He’s looking to see this man who was walking his way through his town. But why? What would have driven a well dressed man up a tree and out on a limb? What would have so prompted his curiosity that he would risk his high and mighty reputation to be seen sitting on the boughs of a tree in downtown Jericho?

To try to answer this I invite you along on a fanciful little trip. This trip is based on something I found written by Ek Bailey. This isn’t just the way it happened, but the news of each of these stories could easily have reached the ears of Zaccheus and he would have been thinking about them. But let’s make use of some poetic license for a bit here this morning and let’s ask what could have driven Zaccheus up that tree?

As we take our little trip we go back in time about 2000 years, we travel to a dusty backwater of the Roman Empire. As we travel on, we find ourselves coming to the city called Jericho. If you are familiar with the scriptures then you know that Jericho is a town near the Jordan river and you recall that Jesus told a story about people on their way down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now Jericho was a nice place to live. It was a place where a tax collector could make a very comfortable living as he worked the pleasant neighborhoods of the area.

Well, on this particular morning, Zaccheus is up and at ‘em rather early. It was his habit to be out of bed on time each morning, and he checked his schedule to see where he was supposed to go today to put the clamps on people who weren’t paying up the way they were supposed to. It seemed like his subordinates always gave him the hard cases. And today was no different.

The first place he went was to a decrepit old house. When he knocked on the door a blind man named Bartimaeus answered the door. Who is there, the blind man asked? This is Zaccheus I’m here to collect what you owe to the Romans in taxes. The blind man answered him in return, I have no way to pay my taxes just now. I have no family, I have no pension. But if you will just give me 30 more days Mr. Zaccheus I’ll pay you everything I owe. I don’t know how, but I will.

Well old Zaccheus doesn’t know if he should give him some time, he’s drawn between money and mercy. And not knowing just why, he gave the man another 30 days.

The next stop on his schedule was a couple who lived out in the country a bit.  He had to walk a mile out of his way to find this house. When he got there, he knocked and a woman, pale and looking rather haggard answered the door. Zaccheus reminded her the family obligation to pay the taxes to the Romans, but before he could get all of his spiel out, he heard a blood curdling scream behind him. He turned to see a naked man running through the cemetery tombs nearby. That’s my husband she told him. He cannot work or hold any sort of a job. He calls himself Legion now. He says the demons have taken hold of him and he no longer has control of himself. And no man can tame him. Believe me, they’ve tried. Give us just another 30 days Zaccheus, and we’ll have the money once again Zaccheus is torn between tenderness and taxes and he said I’ll be back in 30 days.

The 3rd house on his list for the day was one where a woman lived whom he knew had been sick for years. But that didn’t stop him from collecting from her. He made his way to the house and when the woman came to the door, she looked more pale and frail than ever before. He demanded that she pay her taxes or else. She begged him for mercy and said, Zacchaeus if you will come back in 30 days I will have the money for you. But right now, I haven’t got a thing. My husband has left me, I cannot work, I’ve spent all I have on doctor bills, but I promise you that if you will return in 30 days, I will pay you then.

The day was not going well for old Zaccheus was it? The last house on his list of delinquent payers was the home of a widow. When he approached, he saw the telltale sign of grief on the door of the house, a bit of cloth hung there meant that a person had died of a disease in the house. He knocked on the door anyway, no reason to separate death and taxes now, he told himself. He was met by a woman dressed in mourning clothes who said, I knew you would be coming soon. I had saved up enough money for you. But I needed it to pay the undertaker to bury my son, my only son. If you come back some other day, I’ll try to find the money to pay. I’ll give you 30 days said Zaccheus and he turned and left.

Well, the 30 days have elapsed and in his scheduler Zaccheus sees he needs to go back to the four houses he’d been to a month ago. Once again he sets out early. He comes to the first house and knocks on the door. A man with bright shining eyes comes to the door and asks, what can I do for you? I’m Zacchaeus the tax man, Zaccheus  answers. I’m looking for the man of the house, the blind guy. OH that’s me the man replies. I was that man just a month ago. But then Jesus came to town one day. And I was sitting by the roadside begging, and when I heard that Jesus was coming near, I just called out Jesus son of David have mercy on me and he gave me my sight back! here is your tax money by the way. I was holding it for you until you would come today. I knew you’d be back. Zaccheus do you have a minute, I’d like to tell you a story and he began, Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a Wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.

As Zaccheus walked away he said to himself, this is some day. a man who was blind but now can see. And it was the Jesus I’ve heard so much about that gave him his sight. I hope I will meet Jesus someday.

He came to the second house and when he knocked at the door, a woman answered. She looked bright and beautiful. She said ohh Zaccheus I knew you’d be by today. I’ve got your tax money here. And as she turned to get it, a fine looking young man came to the door. And Zaccheus thought, I’m glad she found herself a new husband. That naked demon possessed man was no good for her. She should have kicked him to the curb long ago. The woman returned and said, ohh I see you’ve met my husband. I told you no one could tame him, but that was before Jesus came along. For, once Jesus came to town, the demons left. And I’m so glad to have my husband back healed and well.

And the man said Zaccheus do you have a minute you’ve gotta sit down and hear my story. Jesus told me to tell everybody I could. If you don’t mind, I want to tell you what Jesus did for me.

As he left that house Zaccheus was wondering to himself that if he met Jesus, might he be able to set Zacchaeus free as well? For Zacchaeus always felt like he had something dogging him at his heels too.

As he approached the 3rd house, old Zaccheus was beginning to wonder what he might find here. He was met by a woman who wasn’t pale, who looked like she had a zest for life that couldn’t be contained. He said, I’m looking for the woman of the house. That’s me she said. I knew you’d be back here today Zaccheus you don’t miss a day when it comes to collecting those taxes, do you? Well I’ve got it for you. But 30 days ago you look like death warmed over, he said. Ohh yes, she replied. In fact, I asked for 30 days because I thought I’d be dead by now. But that was before Jesus came to town. I heard he was coming and I mustered all the courage I could and I elbowed my way through the crowd and I told myself if I can just touch him, and I reached out my hand and the moment I touched him, I could tell that the blood that had flowed for 12 years stopped up, but not only was my body healed, my soul was healed as well.

Well, as he approached the 4th house on his list for the day, Zacchaeus was feeling rather strange. What had happened here what had transpired to make the town so different? It had been Jesus. If only I could meet this Jesus too. But first I have to stop by this widow’s house. When he knocked at the door he was greeted by a 12 year old boy. When he saw him, Zaccheus said, ohh I’m sorry I have the wrong house. The house I’m going to has no little boy living in it. In fact just 30 days ago, the woman who lived in the house I’m looking for was going out to bury her only son.

Ohh you must be Mr. Zaccheus. My mom’s been looking for you all day. She said you’d be here today. But wait a minute, the now flustered Zaccheus said, the house I’m looking for has no little boy. The boy is dead.

To which the little boy said that’s me Zaccheus. That boy was me. I died. My momma’s worst fear had come true. The disease that killed my father also infected me and I died. My mom had to use the tax money to pay for my funeral. But just as the funeral was going out of our little town, Jesus came in from the country. The procession of death met the procession of Jesus. And Jesus and death don’t fit together. Every time Jesus goes to a funeral he turns it into a celebration of life. Jesus laid his hand on me and something pretty wonderful happened. I came back to life. The undertaker got so scared he pushed me right out of the casket and gave my mom her money back. She’s been saving it for this day when you would come back.

That’s when his mom came to the door. She smiled and said good morning Mr. Zaccheus. I’d love to tell you about how I have come to have the money for my taxes. you got a minute?

And she began, great is thy faithfulness oh God my father and so on

As he was walking back toward his office, a friend shouted out, Zaccheus have you heard the news? Well, I think I’ve heard about as much as I can handle for one day. Well, his friend said, I hear Jesus is coming to town this afternoon and that was when Zaccheus decided he just had to see this person who could change lives so radically.

The crowd was moving down the street toward him, but being a short guy, he couldn’t see Jesus on account of the crowd. So, he ran on ahead to get a good spot and that was when he saw the tree. And he went right up that tree with no thought of how it might look to have the chief tax collector up a tree to see a poor itinerant preacher.

And when Jesus passed under that tree, Jesus stopped and called for Zacchaeus to come down. And then told him he was going to spend that day at his house. And Zacchaeus could hardly climb down fast enough. For Jesus was coming to his house. And since he had done such wonderful things for others, Zacchaeus was sure that he would do something wonderful for him. By the time the evening meal was over, Zaccheus had become a changed man. He had found the fulfillment for his life. He had been found by God. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Zaccheus shows us that Jesus will use all sorts of means to get to you. Even to the point of getting you to climb a tree to see him. He will do whatever it takes to find you and to love you and to have you take him home with you. For it is at home that you are really are yourself. Zaccheus took Jesus home and it changed everything for him. Why don’t you do the same today?