Repentant Zacchaeus and the Self-Righteous Crowd

By -
The fact that the final week of Lent or Holy Week is coming next week means another opportunity to talk about salvation and self-righteousness. I really remembered how often back when I was still a Roman Catholic - I never understood why Jesus died for sin and I was told that salvation was still by works. Galatians 2:21 says that if the righteousness came by the Law then Christ is dead in vain. A good topic that would be worth bringing up is about Zacchaeus. His conversion brings in two types of people - repentant sinners and the so-called "righteous saints" who never saw themselves as sinners.

Now let's read the familiar passage of the story of the tax collector who met Jesus:
And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. 4 And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. 
5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. 6 And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. 
8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: 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. 
9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Now it's time to do some explanation. We do know how the publicans were looked down with disdain. It was a franchise from Rome. I remembered reading Dr. John F. MacArthur's "The Gospel According to Jesus" where he discussed about how this was a lucrative franchise that Matthew left behind after following Jesus. Publicans were well hated for this reason - they were unfair extortioners. Today, you have dishonest revenue officers who take advantage of people. Who wouldn't hate a dishonest revenue officer?

Zacchaeus himself was well-hated but he wanted to see Jesus. He was seeking Jesus possibly because he was fed up with his sin. But he was of short stature. I don't think anyone would want to make way for him - not especially if it were a self-righteous crowd. They probably thought Jesus came to affirm their self-righteousness. Zacchaeus probably asked his servant to help him climb the tree. You have to admire the persistence of Zacchaeus in looking for Jesus. Jesus saw Zacchaeus and did what the crowd thought unthinkable.

The reaction of the crowd was, "This man Jesus is the guest of the house of a sinner!" This was the problem with Israel and why they still continue to reject the Messiah. Today, Israel is still taking for granted the protection granted unto them. God is doing everything to protect it such as leveling down its enemies yet many of the Jews still take it for granted. The members of the crowd that murmured must have felt something like, "Why isn't He going to my house instead?" Jesus instead went to the house of a well-hated person.

We see the whole picture of Zacchaeus as the repentant sinner. Perhaps he has made too many enemies in his life and saw that his wrongdoing was there. He probably had too much money and saw it never gave him peace. He saw Jesus and sought Him. Jesus being both God and man (though He did voluntarily suspend some of His attributes and truly learned things at this point) had seen the repentant heart of the dirty publican. The transaction was over and Zacchaeus received Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The whole result came in. Revelation 3:20 has the Lord Jesus mentioning that He stands at the door and knock. There's fellowship. Zacchaeus had the privilege to dine with Jesus in His human form. The Son of God was under His roof. He then had a life-changing experience. I remembered I was told, "If you are still bad you will still go to Hell even if you receive Jesus." or "Who is better between a decent Buddhist and a rapist Christian?" The truth is that nobody can say that they are a Christian and never have any change at all. A rapist Christian is a contradictory statement because a rapist who gets saved will abandon such a sinful lifestyle. Maybe the question of the rapist "Christian" was relating to Roman Catholics who are in no way Christians. Zacchaeus decided to restore fourfold to all whom he had cheated just as Matthew left the publican dirty business to follow Jesus.

The message of Jesus is clear yet hard to understand and believe. It's because of the selfish, self-righteous heart. The message is that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. It's to call sinners unto repentance. Yet many people think that they can be good enough for Heaven without God. The sad tragedy is that many people today are still in that self-righteous crowd who would rather condemn the repentant sinner than repent of their sins. Worse, many of the self-righteous crowd today also have members who are very wicked yet think that they are so righteous.

See also: