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Published Friday, March 12, 2010 in Religion

Pastor's Corner: The tale of the tightfisted tax man

By JOHN CROTTS

Faith Bible Church

Zacchaeus would not have been considered a failure by some standards.

In fact, many people would have traded checkbooks with the wee little man â as the song says. Zacchaeus was filthy rich and very powerful. But he was also empty.

In order to get to where he was, Zacchaeus had to pay a high price, literally, but also socially and spiritually. The Roman Empire heavily taxed their conquered peoples to build and maintain their power. Rome would sell tax positions to nationals who would collect the required amounts and then pocket the rest of what they took in with Rome's full support.

The level of greed a Jew would have to reach to buy one of these lucrative tax franchises is hard to imagine. Working for the evil Romans was bad enough, but then using the Roman military to enforce extorting money from fellow Jews was unthinkable.

It was betrayal.

Not only was Zacchaeus guilty of collecting taxes, the Bible describes him as a "chief tax collector." Apparently the little guy was the big cheese. He was stationed in Jericho which falls along a major trade route enabling him and his subordinates to gather piles of cash at the expense of God's people.

Taking an unpopular job in America could have implications for your social life. But, if you then used that position to abuse needy people for your own gain, that would also have implications for your spiritual life. But if you did both of those things in God's own nation of Israel, the social and spiritual implications would be multiplied.

This filthy rich, filthy man apparently had enough heart left to begin to feel his filthiness. I say that because he wanted to see Jesus. He really wanted to see Jesus.

In eastern cultures, matters of honor and shame are huge. It is more important for someone in the east to be respected than to be right. To be put to public shame is one of the greatest of all insults.

Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus enough to shamefully climb a tree.

As Jesus was coming down the road, the crowds packed the roadsides. Because Zacchaeus was short, he couldn't see through the crowds. Because he was so despised, no one would let him squeeze through. He wanted to see Jesus so badly, he ran ahead and did the sycamore tree.

Climbing trees is great for kids, but not so noble for powerful tax collectors.

We don't know what he had heard about Jesus. We don't know exactly what he was hoping to accomplish by seeing Jesus pass by. We do know he was a hated man in Israel. And we know that he was desperate to see Jesus.

Is there any hope for such a man?

After all, his heart had been hard enough to take the tax job. Then, he had ridden the despicable tax truck to the top of the heap to become the chief of the lot. God's very people bitterly hated guys like him. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising if Jesus would spit on such a sinner.

Of course, Jesus didn't spit on this desperate little man. In fact he stopped at the tree which Zacchaeus had climbed. Jesus then called Zacchaeus by name and sort of invited himself over for lunch.

I'm sure Zacchaeus was shocked. The Bible says he hurriedly climbed back down the tree and received Jesus joyfully.

So many tongues began to wag simultaneously, I wonder if you could feel the warm wind along Jericho's main street. The crowds couldn't believe that Jesus would stoop to go to the home of one who had stooped so low morally at their expense -- literally.

Jesus loves desperate sinners. Especially the ones who realize their desperation.

Zacchaeus was there. He needed help and he didn't have too many friends offering help. In fact, I'm guessing the only friends he had were fellow tax collectors, and we've seen what kind of person you'd have to be to do that kind of work in that time.

Jesus changed Zacchaeus's heart that very day. As big of a bust as his life had been to that time, Zacchaeus was getting a fresh start.

Now, lots of people in tough spots claim to start over. The leaf has been turned over again and again. New religious resolutions have been made.

Sadly, many of these claims prove to be empty. As the storm clouds of crisis pass over and a little time goes by, we find that the person is just the same as they used to be.

The kind of change that Jesus brings is not like that. He truly transforms a person from the inside out. He gets to the heart of the problem, by changing the person's heart. There are new motivations and desires. There is a new ability to actually put those godly desires into action.

What had been Zacchaeus's main motivator before he met Jesus? You know it was money. His lust for money was explosive enough to sell out his entire world. "I'd rather have gold in my pocket than God's people as my friends."

The visible proof that Jesus had invisibly changed Zacchaeus was his generosity. He told Jesus and those hostiles within earshot, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold."

This was not a massive effort to buy his way out of God's trash pile. This was the effect of a desperate man who came to Jesus with a filthy heart, finding that Jesus had changed his heart to a clean one.

Jesus is powerful enough to pull off that level of transformation. And Jesus is happy to do it, too.

Most people just don't think of themselves as hopeless enough to seek Jesus for his mighty help. They figure they can fix themselves on their own.

This story is found in Luke 19:1-10 in the Bible. The last sentence of the story summarizes Jesus' attitude about helping those in need. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

If you are lost today, seek out Jesus. You'll find that he is seeking to save people just like you.