Luke19:1-10

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "

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."

Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."


Read this passage a few times but it never occurred so much to me as when the word was spoken at service today. I mean yes, you can see that definitely this man really had the desire to be close to Jesus. Yes, he acted upon it and he really did get close to Jesus in the end. But it was more than that.

As Bruce shared this passage to the entire service, the thing that struck me the most was this: That when Jesus reached the spot where Zacchaeus (the at-that-moment known to be scum of the earth) was, he looked up at him and said, "Come down immediately. I MUST stay at your house today."

It was mind blowing for me. To me, this was what Jesus said to me: Nothing that you had ever done will EVER make me close myself away from you. Come! I MUST be with you - because I love you. :)