The Time Jesus Thrilled an All-Around Bad Guy

Jericho. A crowd lines the road, three and four deep, waiting for the teacher everyone is talking about.

And halfway along, a grown man is climbing a tree.

Not a boy. A man of standing, in the robes of a man of standing, hauling himself up into the branches of a sycamore because he is too short to see over the shoulders in front of him and nobody is stepping aside (Luke 19:1–4).

Nobody in Jericho is doing Zacchaeus any favours, and he has given them every reason.

Not the Misunderstood Kind

Jesus enjoyed hanging out with those society labelled “sinners”. And that’s a nice sentiment we often appreciate. We all know what it means to be misunderstood. And we can easily sympathise with the outcast Samaritan woman that Jesus met at Jacob’s well (John 4:1-42), for instance. We like that Jesus liked the unliked.

However, not all the sinners He hung out with were the struggling, misunderstood kind. Many of them were loathsome, unsavoury individuals. And none were more notorious than the tax collectors, who cosied up to Rome for the express purpose of defrauding their own people. These are the guys who’d sell out their own mothers for a fast buck.

And if you thought your average rank-and-file tax collector was repugnant and repulsive, then a chief tax collector was the indisputable supervillain.

That is the man in the tree. Not some grubby little collector on a street corner. A man who ran the operation, with other collectors under him, taking a cut of everything they squeezed. The crowd he cannot see past is a crowd he has spent his working life bleeding.

Small-man syndrome is probably one reason he clutched for a position of power in the first place—make yourself big by making others small. And now here he is in the branches, with his robes hitched, because whatever his money has bought him, it has not touched the ache that has him up a tree.

Salvation Coming

Jesus spotted him hanging off a branch of a sycamore tree and called him out. But rather than condemn the man, Jesus invited himself over for the night much to the tax collector’s delight and the horror of those who thought they’d finally worked Jesus out.

We’re not told too much about what goes down, but we get the headline: Zacchaeus does a full one-eighty. In contrast to the rich ruler in Luke 18, Zacchaeus defected from the system he had profited from, saying,

Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”

(Luke 19:8)

Jesus obviously considered the man’s repentance and restitution valid. He declared:

Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

(Luke 19:9–10, italics added)

Firstly, notice that the issue is not about quantity. Unlike the rich ruler, in Zacchaeus’ case, half of his goods were enough. The issue is about renouncing the systems from which we profit, and choosing instead to use the privileges we’re afforded for the good of others. A recurring theme in Jesus’ message.

Secondly, notice the strength of the phrase “Today salvation has come to this house” allied to Jesus’ statement of intent: “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost”.

Saved From What?

The question is, salvation from what?

Of course, we might presume that Zacchaeus “got saved”, reducing it to an after-death transaction as we like to do. However, that is an assumption we read into the passage. We’re actually not told this; in fact, it’s not the point of the passage.

What? Zacchaeus’ eternal salvation is not the point?

No, it’s not the point of the account. To both ancient Israel and Jesus’ audience, salvation wasn’t about eternal salvation; it wasn’t about “getting saved and going to heaven”.

The Hebrew and Greek words used for “salvation” mean to deliver, to heal, to forgive, to help, to rescue, to preserve, to protect, to secure and even to prosper and judge. They are rich, beautiful words that refer to God’s deliverance, His victory and His intervention.

Importantly, they speak of God intervening in human affairs to defend, protect or rescue His people. Jesus was, of course, the ultimate God-intervention. He is the “Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14), restoring us to the Father and inviting us to partner with Him in appropriating His intervention project.

So, Who Got Saved?

If we take the passage at face value, Jesus made this incredible declaration of salvation for one reason: the man defected from a system that he had profited from at the expense of others. The man once corrupted by his alliance to the Empire was now delivered from its snare.

But Jesus’ declaration didn’t stop there … because salvation is not just about one man cleaning up his act.

Zacchaeus’ defection not only saved him personally from the vices of greed, cruelty and fraud, but just as importantly, if not more so, it saved numerous others from being exploited by him. We’re talking about those he defrauded in the past, those he was swindling in the present, and those who would have been harassed by him in the future. Zacchaeus’ newfound generosity and commitment to restitution would prosper past and present victims, and his new heart would prevent future victims.

The one-time rascal who had, by his own admission, abused his position of authority to falsely accuse and defraud others, was now the means God used to bring justice and restoration to those once defrauded.

Without answering an altar call or saying the sinner’s prayer, one man stopped taking, and a whole town stopped losing. God intervened!

In that real, raw, glorious moment, the Kingdom of God had come.