[Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:1-10) Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see…did you just sing those sentences in your head? If you grew up in the church, you likely grew up singing the Zacchaeus song in Sunday school, and most of the time we focus on Zacchaeus in this section of Scripture, but today we’re going to focus on the crowd. Since Zacchaeus was a tax collector, the crowd did not like him. Jews in those days considered other Jews who worked for Rome as tax collectors to be traitors and all around awful human beings. But what’s interesting is how they responded to Jesus telling Zacchaeus that He must stay at his house and seeing Zacchaeus come down and receive Jesus joyfully – they all grumbled. Jesus only did what He heard from the Father, so we know that it was the Father’s will that Jesus go to Jericho and have a divinely appointed engagement with Zacchaeus. And did no one at all wonder at the fact that Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ name as He called him to come down from that tree? Jesus had literally called him by name and invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house and the people grumbled over it because of their view of Zacchaeus as a sinner. Who is a Sinner Jesus very well knew this man was a sinner. As the Son of Man who came to seek and save the lost, it was people like Zacchaeus whom He was seeking. So why didn’t the crowd see it this way? The people failed to see two very important things: one, they failed to see how Jesus viewed Zacchaeus – a man who was lost that He was seeking to save; and two, they also failed to see how Jesus viewed them – people who were also lost, therefore sinners, of whom He came to seek and save. If they hadn’t failed to see themselves as sinners, they may not have failed to see how Jesus saw Zacchaeus and may have even rejoiced that Jesus had called him and come into his home to bring salvation there. But what about in today’s world where Jesus isn’t here in person? As ambassadors for Christ, we should have a heart for people the way God does. But if we fail to see ourselves in the proper light, we’ll fail to see others the way God sees them. They All Grumbled Even with failing to see how Jesus viewed Zacchaeus and how Jesus viewed them, why would they grumble at what Jesus did? They were all there to see Jesus and it was only Zacchaeus whom Jesus called out to in that moment. It would seem as though the real reason for grumbling wasn’t all based on the fact that Zacchaeus was a sinner, but the fact that they weren’t called upon to host Jesus that day. Jealousy, or at its foundation – covetousness, can cause a lot of grumbling in a heart who isn’t happy with where its at, because it causes a person to look outward for the inward satisfaction. Jealousy or covetousness can poison the well of contentedness with desire or longing for what other people have, even to the point of justifying to ourselves that the other person is somehow a worse sinner than we are. But that isn’t what Jesus desires for us. And as Zacchaeus heard theses grumblings of the crowd, he turns to Jesus with his changed heart and explains that he is going to give away goods to the poor and restore whatever he’s defrauded with interest. It makes me wonder if the crowd heard this and continued in their grumbling, maybe even doubting Zacchaeus’ motives or thinking he was just trying to justify himself as a sinner. And it didn’t actually matter what the crowd thought or grumbled about, because Jesus knew the truth. The Responses Jesus responded, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus addressed the grumbling and the very hearts of the crowd in His response. It was up to the individuals in the crowd and how they decided to respond to Him. And we don’t know how the people responded to Jesus because Scripture doesn’t tell us, but we are all ...
