Zacchaeus - Luke 19:1-10

Coming through Jericho, “there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans and he was rich.” We have talked about publicans before and how it’s such a difficult position to be in. The Romans had to tax their people, otherwise how could they afford their extensive operations, so this brought up the dilemma, who should do the taxing? I remember talking about who the Jewish people would prefer to collect their taxes, and I speculated that they would prefer to give the money to one of their own, instead of having Roman soldiers kick down their door and take as much as they could. At least with their own people collecting the taxes, there would be some sort of social control that the Romans didn’t have to live with. So if they would prefer their own people to collect the taxes instead of Roman soldiers, then it would make sense that they would work together and be able to live together socially. But that is incorrect, there was very much a “you thief, you’re taking my money!” “I could send the Romans over to do it, would that be better for you?” “No, shut up! You’re dead to me.” I would imagine even the most moral and sympathetic publican would find their predicament a no-win scenario.

We know that publicans earn their living by taking more taxes from the people than the Romans require, and that’s fair, the publicans have families to feed too. But the problem becomes when the publicans take more than the Romans require and more than they need to live, and use that extra money to enrich themselves. With that reasoning, we can deduce that a middle or lower class publican probably has some scruples about his job, whereas a rich publican can easily be viewed as a robber barren. JTC notes that Zacchaeus “must have been particularly obnoxious to his people on account of his advanced status among the publicans, all of whom were in Roman employ.”

There is another aspect to Zacchaeus that plays a part as well, and that is that “he was little of stature.” I’m a surveyor of people, and I’m not very tall either but I’m a woman so socially, it’s more acceptable . Men who are smaller than average are known for “little man syndrome” or the “Napoleon complex.” I’m the first to say that this is not a blanket indictment of short men, one of the best guys I know is only a little bit bigger than me, and I love him. Wikipedia defines “Napoleon complex” as “a theorized condition occurring in people of short stature. It is characterized by overly-aggressive or domineering social behavior, and carried the implication that such behavior is compensatory for the subject’s stature. The term is also used more generally to describe people who are driven by a perceived handicap to overcompensate in other aspects of their lives.”  

The only reason that I bring this is up is because Luke goes out of his way to mention that Zacchaeus couldn’t see Jesus through the throng of people “because he was little of stature” and had to climb a tree to get a view. If Luke was aware of his height enough, it’s probable that this guy has dealt with a lot of flak from other people probably for his entire life because of his size. Maybe it’s because I’m not very tall, but I think it would matter more about crowd size than height, anyway, what I’m saying is there is this guy who’s short and hated by society because he is an especially giant douche, and he climbs a tree to see Jesus.

Climbing the tree to see Jesus begs the question, why? Why does he even care about who Jesus is at all? If he really is as rich as he’s purported to be then he would be walking around like he’s the king, not interested in this carpenter from Nazareth. The answer lies in the second description of who he is, despised. People are not meant to be alone, they are meant to be together in units with love and respect and admiration for each other. We are social creatures and need love and acceptance, it’s vital to our happiness. We have seen countless examples of what people will do to feel accepted. Cults that manipulate their members into giving them all their money, and living basically as slaves of the leader, people do that because they feel accepted by the leader and the group. Kids join gangs, people get into relationships with others who are toxic, people stay in abusive relationships all because they feel accepted in those situations. Is it that extraordinary to think that someone who is rich, but alone would sacrifice anything in order to feel accepted?

JTC speculates that Zacchaeus had heard that Matthew, one of Jesus’ apostles was a former publican, and that Jesus regularly associated with those who were considered “sinners” by general society. So Zacchaeus is sitting in a tree watching Jesus approach, and Jesus “looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.” Everyone is all about Jesus, until he goes to have lunch with the most despised tax collector they know, then they start to murmur about who Jesus is and what he’s doing. Zacchaeus, however, is excited, and “made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.” He felt accepted, and for so many people, that’s all it takes, we can do so much better.

Jesus’ visit to his house is enough to become converted. We have seen Jesus have dinner with many different kinds of people, and we’ve seen, probably more often then not, those who higher up on the social ladder are not convinced of anything by Jesus’ presence, in fact, they usually become more hostile to him afterward. Zacchaeus might have had his issues, but he was ready, he had been prepared to receive the Son of God, and it’s likely that his adverse circumstances greatly influenced that preparedness. The way Luke recounts the story makes it difficult to tell the significance of Zacchaeus’ next statement, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.”

Maybe it’s because of the present tense terms that he uses, but I read this as Zacchaeus telling Jesus what he already does as an explanation for why he’s so anxious about his circumstances. I read it like he was saying, “I do all these good things and the people still hate me,” to which Jesus’ response of “This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.” This would make sense in a “the world hates you, but it’s ok because it hated me first,” sense, and it very well could have been Zacchaeus telling Jesus why he was still being persecuted despite doing good things. This could be a comfort to us, who are trying to do the best we can in adverse circumstances and still being met with resistance and contempt.

JTC had another, more logical, explanation for what Zacchaeus meant, saying, “But having seen and conversed with Jesus, this chief among the publicans believed and was converted. As proof of his change of heart Zacchaeus then and there voluntarily vowed unto the Lord to make amends and restitution if it were found that he owed such… these works were meet for repentance. The man realized that he could not change his past; but he knew he could in part at least atone for some of his misdeeds. His pledge to restore in fourfold measure whatever he had wrongfully acquired was in line with the Mosiac law as to restitution, but far in excess of the recompense required. Jesus accepted the man’s profession of repentance.”

Personally, I think that Jesus would have accepted an “I’m sorry and I’ll try to do better,” but this is an instance when the Spirit spoke to someone and told them exactly what they needed to do in order to repent, in order to turn away from their lifestyle that contributed to making the wrong choices. If Zacchaeus would have simply stopped collecting taxes corruptly, then he still would have had all that money that he received deceptively, ill gotten gains. If he simply gave half of the money away to the poor, regardless of whether or not he changed his ways, it could be seen as him buying his way out of his sins, and he could feel that way about it too, “I’ll get tons of money and then give half away to the poor and I’ll be fine.” We know that that’s not how repentance works. Jesus rejoices in Zacchaeus’ conversion “for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”