The Seeking Grace & the Grace Seeker (2)
Luke 19:1-10
There was a fitness center that
was offering $1000 to the person who could demonstrate that he/she was stronger
than the owner. The owner would squeeze a lemon until
all the juice ran into a glass. Anyone who could squeeze more juice from the
same lemon would win the game.
Many came including
construction workers, professional wrestlers, but nobody could do it.
A little man, short and skinny, challenged the owner of the
fitness club. This little man took the already squeezed lemon, squeezed it
harder, and six drops of lemon juice dropped. He won. Everyone was surprised.
The owner gave him the check and asked him what he did for a living.
The short man said, “I
work for the IRS.”
This morning we are talking
about a man who knew how to squeeze the “juice out of the lemon”. Zacchaeus, a
short tax collector, hated by everyone.
I mentioned in the Armenian sermon, that Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. He was ready to do the unusual
act of climbing a tree just to see Jesus. And we said
he did this because he heard something about Jesus. He heard how Jesus accepted
the outcast of the society.
The second part of the story
is learning from Jesus. How did Jesus approach this man?
There is a verse in 1 Samuel (16:7). I love it and we lately
discussed it in the men’s bible study. But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do
not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD
does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance,
but the LORD looks at the heart."
I love this verse. Let us see how Jesus approached Zacchaeus.
He stopped walking. He realized that there was a man on the tree. A man that everyone hated. The Bible does not tell us how Jesus
found that this man was on the tree. How did he even know his name?
Jesus stopped his journey. In
fact, he was on his way to
So, if you ask me, although Zacchaeus
was seeking Jesus, in fact, Jesus was seeking Zacchaeus. “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I
must stay at your house today."”(5)
You see Jesus is on his way
to the cross. He wants to take time to be with a man who is seeking. A man who
knows he is a sinner in need of repentance and a complete change.
It is interesting that
this story is unique. In any of the four gospels, we do not see Jesus
inviting himself to anyone’s home.
Here he invites himself to this man’s home. I don’t
know why. Well, you know we look at the appearance God looks at the
heart. I think Jesus knew that this man is
seeking. this man is seeking for meaning in life. This
man is genuine in his approach to see Jesus. Therefore, Jesus calls him by his
name, “Zacchaeus, come down. I want to enter to your home;
I want to enter to your life, your family.”
In our society, we evaluate
people in four stages:
1. We judge by appearance.
“How do I look?”
2. We judge by achievements.
“What did I accomplish?”
3. We judge by approval of
the society. “Do they approve what I am doing?”
4. We judge by our material worth.
“Do I have enough money?”
You know what the problem of
these categories is. They are not stable criteria; they can be changed. One can lose everything
overnight.
There is nothing wrong if one
likes to accomplish things. Having the desire to achieve things is wonderful.
We need to be careful though. Learn from Zacchaeus,
his heart was empty. He was going to host Jesus at his house. Perhaps he did
not have any company for a while. Perhaps all his guests were people who came
because of his wealth. Only this time he would have a guest that is come with
true compassion, love and concern.
The third part of the
story is a result of this transformation.
What happened to this man?
6So he came down at once and
welcomed him gladly.
8… 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."
He was ready to give half
of his possessions to the poor and for the other half, he had another plan
that was more generous than the law. Remember he was a Jew.
In the OT, there are laws for
those who stole money or goods. If the stolen goods were not restorable,
double of that amount would be repaid (Exodus
22:1).
If voluntary confession was made, the value of the original
goods would be paid plus one-fifth of the value. (Leviticus 6:5;
Numbers 5:7)
Zacchaeus went much beyond that. I think he
was touched by the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ. His repentance
transformed his life so much, that nothing was important for him except Jesus.
There was a real change in the tax collector’s life, who once
was collecting money now he was in the business of giving it away. He was in the business of sharing. As we were
discussing in 1 Corinthians, once he was a child, he
was thinking like a child reasoning like a child, now he moved to maturity.
We close the last part of
the story with the words of Jesus:
Jesus
said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man,
too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to
save what was lost."
The lost is
found. Lost means it is simply in the wrong place. A thing is lost means
that that thing moved from its original place into a wrong place. Finding means
going back to its original place.
Humanity
is lost when we are away from God. It means we have lost the original intention of our
creation: to be with God. Zacchaeus found
his place with God and he found his place in his society- he is son of
Abraham. His family found him also. He and his family were transformed to a new life.
Do you know we all need the
same experience?
Some of you found it. Others
are searching.
Let me
illustrate this with a video called: “An Unspoken Plea.” The video describes a
person who is not in the church, and is seeking grace among the people of the
church.