Jesus Speaks to Zacchaeus. Are We Listening?

Zacchaeus is a Biblical character who has his own little song. Perhaps you learned it in Sunday School. Zacchaeus was a wee little man,
a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree,
for the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the Savior passed that way,
he looked up in the tree,
and he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down,
for I’m going to your house today,
for I’m going to your house today.”

You won’t be surprised to learn the Biblical text is more complicated and more interesting than the song.¹

He [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 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 down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “he has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Luke 19:1-10 NRSVue

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem- to his crucifixion, death, and resurrection- and he stopped in Jericho. Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector, he was a chief tax collector. Scholars don’t know exactly what that means but likely he was in charge of other tax collectors. Tax collectors were considered collaborators for the Empire. They were often dishonest. They often overcharged people. They were often rich and well connected. Most people did not have a good opinion of tax collectors. A tax collector’s allegiance was not to their family, nation, and religion but to the occupying Empire.²

Luke’s gospel typically portrays tax collectors sympathetically as sinners who repent. However in Jesus’ time and for Luke’s original audience, while tax collectors were indeed considered sinners, repentance was not expected. As someone who has intentionally aligned themselves with the occupying Empire and separated themselves from their community, they were considered unlikely candidates for repentance and reconciliation. As modern readers we have been trained to hear this story expecting Zacchaeus the tax collector to repent. The original audience would not. More likely they would have been surprised or unsettled by the idea.

Zacchaeus couldn’t see Jesus because he was short. Also it appears the crowd would not let him move to the front where he could see Jesus. We can imagine a crowd that spontaneously decided to keep the unpopular Zacchaeus to the back and where he couldn’t see. So Zacchaeus finds an alternate way to get what he wants. He climbed a tree, which in ancient or modern times is an unusual and unexpected thing for a grown man of wealth to do. Jesus saw Zacchaeus and invited himself to his house. We might wonder at the language Jesus uses, “I must stay at your house today.” Why do you think it is so important that Jesus “must” stay at Zacchaeus’ house “today”?

Is Jesus, by staying with Zacchaeus, restoring him into the community that likely shunned a tax collector? Is Jesus showing that table fellowship in the Kingdom of God is expansive, and includes unexpected people? Does Jesus invitation to fellowship cause Zacchaeus to change his life? Does Jesus never pass by an opportunity to extend reconciliation and salvation?

Throughout the gospel, Jesus has been dining with disreputable and inappropriate people. In this story Jesus continues to redefine who is accepted in table fellowship in the Kingdom of God. The NRSV says Zacchaeus was “happy” to welcome Jesus. A better translation would be that Zacchaeus welcomes Jesus with joy. Joy typically is part of the good news of God’s presence and saving acts. Zacchaeus joyfully joined the table fellowship of Jesus.

People, not unexpectedly, grumble about this. Then Zacchaeus said something odd. He talked about business and money. The Greek text is in the present tense, as in, “half my possessions , Lord, I give to the poor…and I pay back…”. Many English translations use the future tense, “I will give… and I will pay back…” Translators are not playing fast and loose here, the Greek present tense can be legitimately translated as the future tense. But this also raises a question. Was Zacchaeus objecting to the crowds grumbling and their faulty assumption that he was a sinner by explaining his regular practice? Was he saying, “I’m not a sinner, because I give half to the poor….” Or was this repentance? Did he now realize the injustice of his actions and now promised to do better? Either way, Zacchaeus’s intention was in alignment with the most stringent interpretation of Torah, it was not a casual or trivial gesture. Whichever interpretation is accurate, Zacchaeus was not who the crowds thought he was.

Jesus response to Zacchaeus was to say, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” In Luke’s gospel, being a child of Abraham is not a genealogical status, it has to do with a person’s values and behaviors. We may also wish to ponder the “today” in Jesus statement. Salvation for Zacchaeus was not a future event. Salvation didn’t wait until Zacchaeus died. Salvation, for Zacchaeus, started right then and there.

All this raises a question for us. In what ways are we like the crowd? What are our assumptions about people? Who, in our world do we treat like Zacchaeus? Who do we shun? Who are the ones we assume to be beyond salvation? ICE agents? Border Patrol? People who drive the buses or fly the planes that transport detained people? Politicians who accuse SNAP recipients and Medicaid recipients of being lazy or malingerers? Those who would deny trans people access to medical care and legal rights? People who ban books? Those who enable voter suppression? MAGA voters?

If we’re honest, we all have our list of people, and like the Pharisee in last week’s gospel, it’s not hard to think, “I thank you that I’m not like…”. And like the crowds around Zacchaeus, if we ignore and shun them, we may not feel badly. We may even feel good about it.

We should also ask ourselves, in what ways are we like Zacchaeus? When and how have we compromised and collaborated with an Empire that oppresses God’s beloved people? Tax collectors in the first century might have explained their actions by pointing out that they needed to make a living. Perhaps they excused their actions by noting that they did not create the system everyone lived in. Maybe they told others and themselves that they simply minded their own business, and that they weren’t responsible for the behaviors and situations of other people. We humans are adept at rationalizing our actions.

These are challenging questions. As much as we may want it to, the world does not neatly divide into good and bad people. Our worst mistakes are not the summation of who we are. And neither are we as good as our best actions. I’m not trying to excuse poor behavior. But people are complicated. We all have a variety of motives and reasons for what we do. Some reflection on why people do what they do can be helpful, particularly if we want them and us to live more faithfully.

By raising these questions, I don’t mean that actions or behaviors shouldn’t have consequences. There are people that should be held accountable for what they have done. People who mistreat other humans must be held accountable for those actions. People who voted for policies that harm people need to be held accountable by the electorate.

And yet, Jesus doesn’t write Zacchaeus off. For Jesus no one is beyond redemption and reconciliation. That’s why he spent time with sinners. It’s not a foolproof process, even for Jesus. Sometimes people respond to Jesus as Zacchaeus did. Sometimes people respond like the rich ruler did and walk away from Jesus.³

Who are the Zacchaeus people in our communities? Are they among the people we live next door to? Or the people we see in the grocery store? Or who we work with? Or the people in our church or our family? Or are they us? Who do we need to set aside our preconceived ideas about and share a meal with? And if not a meal, a conversation? Who could be moved to change their mind and their actions if they are listened to and invited into relationship and community?

We need to be wise and thoughtful about this. We don’t want to cause further harm to already marginalized people. We don’t want to sacrifice our commitment and solidarity with the poor, the migrant, or the marginalized through careless acts of shallow or false reconciliation. We don’t want to enable meaningless repentance or empty gestures.

Nevertheless the kingdom of God is a surprising place, filled with unlikely people.

1. One could spend time considering how the story of Zacchaeus intersects with the story of the rich ruler, Luke 18:18-30 and the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Luke 18:9-14. ↩︎
2. This discussion of the tex is indebted to Amy Jill Levine’s book, Short Stories By Jesus, (HarperOne:2014) chapter 6. As well as “The Gospel of Luke” by R. Alan CulApepper in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX, (Abingdon Press: 1995, pages 356-360 and The Gospel of Luke, Joel B. Green, (Eerdmans:1997) pages 666-673. ↩︎
3. Luke 18:18-27 and Matthew 19:16-22 ↩︎