"Seen" 3-19-23

Overview

Seen by Jesus: A Reflection on Zacchaeus

When we read the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10, most of us instinctively look for the hero to identify with. But honesty requires us to see ourselves first in the grumbling crowd. We are the disciples following Jesus into Jericho, the ones who whisper, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner" (v. 7). It is this same crowd that earlier tried to keep the blind beggar away from Jesus—a crowd convinced of its own worthiness while resenting that grace would extend to someone like a chief tax collector. Whenever we quietly question who deserves to walk with Jesus, we have stepped right back into that crowd.

But we are also Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector—wealthy by defrauding his own people, in league with Rome, the kind of "sinner of sinners" people loved to despise. He knew exactly who he was. When he climbed the sycamore tree, it was not only because he was short; the branches gave him a hiding place, a safe distance from which to glimpse Jesus without being seen. We do the same. Knowing the darkness of our own thoughts, the words we have spoken, the neighbors we have passed by, we keep Jesus at arm's length. We want to see him, but not be seen by him.

Jesus refuses that distance. He stops at the tree, looks up, and calls Zacchaeus by name: "Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today" (v. 5). Not a suggestion—a must. Standing in the presence of Christ, Zacchaeus is moved beyond what the law required. Where Leviticus 6:1-5 demanded restitution plus a fifth, Zacchaeus pledges half his possessions to the poor and fourfold repayment to anyone he has wronged. This is not law-driven shame; it is grace-driven freedom. Jesus does not call him down to humiliate him, but to redeem him. "Today salvation has come to this house... for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (vv. 9-10).

This is the quest that carried Jesus all the way to the cross—seeking the lost, bearing the weight of both Zacchaeus's sin and the crowd's arrogance. Whether we identify with the crowd or with Zacchaeus, the answer is the same: Christ sees us, calls us by name, and counts us worthy through his blood. As we walk through this season toward the cross and the empty tomb, consider who in your own life Christ may be calling down from the tree—someone you have been tempted to grumble about, someone he has placed on your heart to receive his good news. You are seen. Not for who you are in your sin, but as the Father sees his beloved Son—redeemed, righteous, and clothed in the perfection of Christ.

Transcript

If you would please open your Bibles to Luke the 19th chapter, we're in the Gospel of Luke 3s

the 19th chapter. 10s

We had a small group recently on the book The Highting Place and one of the questions that 13s

came up towards the end of the study was which character do you identify with the most? 19s

Who in this story do you identify with? 28s

Most, and this is a really common. 33s

When you think about any time we hear a story, we read a story, we identify with one of the 35s

people whether it is fiction or non-fiction is in the case of the hiding place or in the 43s

case of scripture. 48s

We identify with someone within the story. 50s

And most of us in the small group, we identified with one of the heroes or heroines 55s

within the story. 64s

Not a single one of us in the small group identified with the Nazi guard or with the person 66s

who had turned in the family for saving or helping the Jewish people. 73s

And that's really where we find ourselves usually identifying with the hero or the heroine 80s

of the story, the good person in the story or the one with the life changing happening or 88s

event. 97s

We bring that same need of identifying into scripture. 99s

And when we hear a story of scripture, we want to identify with someone within the 104s

scripture. 113s

So who are we? 115s

Who are we in this story of the Kies? 116s

I'd like to propose one possible, very likely character or person or persons that we are 122s

identifying with in this scripture. 132s

Please look with me at verse 7. 137s

All who saw it began to grumble and said he has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. 141s

Who are we? 153s

We're here. 155s

We're followers of Jesus. 157s

We're disciples of Jesus. 159s

That means that in this story that we hear from Luke today, we are the crowd that is 164s

following Jesus, which means that we are the grumblers. 175s

We are the ones who are grumbling at what's taking place. 183s

Well, what exactly are they grumbling about? 190s

They're grumbling about this man's Ekias. 194s

Let's look back at the first couple of verses. 196s

When Jesus enters into Jericho, he's passing through it. 199s

A man was there named Zikias. 203s

He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 205s

Let's jump down to verse 5 where it says that I'm sorry. 211s

I can't see here. 223s

I'm sorry. 225s

We're going to stick with those two. 226s

Sorry about that. 227s

So Zikias was a chief tax collector. 229s

Now the tax collectors, that is synonymous with sinners. 232s

Tax collectors and prostitutes. 236s

Those are these sinners of the Bible. 238s

A tax collector was one who defrauded his own people. 242s

He was skimming off the top. 247s

He was making sure that he was getting extra money. 250s

He was in cohorts with Rome. 254s

He was a bad guy, a bad dude. 258s

And here this is the guy that Zikias or that Jesus is calling down. 264s

This is the guy that Jesus is saying I want to go to your house. 271s

Not only do I want to go, but I must go to your house. 276s

So this crowd, this group of Jesus followers, of disciples of Jesus, they're the ones 281s

that are worthy to be with Jesus. 293s

They're the ones that are worthy to be noticed by Jesus to have Jesus in their midst. 297s

And they're grumbling because they're not the ones that Jesus is addressing. 307s

We think that we rejoice or we want to rejoice with the lost sinner who has been redeemed. 315s

We think that we want to have everyone know Jesus. 328s

But when the sinner comes to know Jesus, 337s

when Jesus calls the sinner to himself, 341s

we are right back with this crowd. 346s

And we grumble because who are they? 351s

Who are they to receive Jesus? 359s

Who are they to walk with Jesus? 365s

This is the same crowd that as they walked with Jesus into Jericho and passed by that blind 374s

beggar. This is the same crowd that tried to keep the beggar away from Jesus. 383s

This is the same crowd saying we are worthy to walk with Jesus, but part of Mayus is not. 392s

We are worthy to walk with this man, but the sinner's Achius is not. 405s

We are like the crowd. 417s

We say to ourselves, we are worthy to walk with Jesus. 421s

What makes you any more worthy than the next sinner? 434s

What makes you any more worthy than any other sinner? 447s

The Chius was a bad dude. He was a chief tax collector. 461s

He would shake people down for their money. 468s

He was in cohorts with Rome. He was rich, but he was rich off the backs of everyone else around him. 471s

And he was in charge of other tax collectors. So he was a doubly bad wicked dude. 484s

That's his new this. He knew where he stood. He knew where he stood. 496s

Let's turn to verse 3. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, 505s

he could not because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sicker 512s

tree to see him because he was going to pass that way. 518s

So we don't know exactly what led to the key as being a chief tax collector. 526s

We don't know what happened in his life to lead him down the path of taking advantage of or 533s

others. Because as people we like to know the backstory, we like to know what led to this downfall, 548s

what led to this sinner being such a sinner. But we don't get that. We don't get that scripture 557s

doesn't tell us which means that it's not important. How Zacchaeus came to be a chief tax collector, 566s

a chief of the sinners, we don't know and we do not need to know. What we know is that Zacchaeus 577s

was who he was and he knew who he was and he just wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus. The crowd 586s

wasn't going to let him through. He was too short to be able to see over them and so he does the next 597s

thing and he runs to a tall tree and he scurries right up. Now this in and of itself was crazy, 603s

absolutely unexpected because he was a grown man and grown men did not climb trees that was 612s

something that a child would do. Not only was that something that a child would do but he was a man 621s

of authority. He was a man of position. People gave him their money, not because they wanted to, 628s

but because of who he was and the position that he held and here he is climbing a tree just to get 637s

a glimpse of Jesus. Just to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Do you think part of it also was because 650s

he wanted a distance? He wasn't trying to get to Jesus. We read in scripture that he wanted to see 663s

who Jesus was. He wanted to see Jesus. He couldn't do that physically because of his short 672s

stature so he climbed the tree but the tree also gave him some covering. It gave him a little bit 681s

of a hiding place and there was some safety in the distance of being in the tree and looking 690s

from afar. See Zikius knew that he was despised by everyone around him and he knew that he wasn't 698s

worthy of being with the crowd. He knew that he wasn't worthy of walking with Jesus but he just wanted 709s

to catch a glimpse. Catch a glimpse of this man. Surely he could just look upon Jesus. Right? 722s

Could anyone fault him for that? So he scrambled up this tree. We continue in verse 5. And when 730s

Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zikius, hurry and come down. For I must 740s

stay at your house today. Zikius may have thought that he would go unnoticed. Zikius may have 748s

thought that he had some safety in the distance of being in the tree and he may have even preferred 759s

that distance or that safety. But Jesus stopped. Right at the tree and he looked up and he called 768s

Zikius by name. He called Zikius by name and he says, with some urgency, come down. I must stay 787s

in your house. He doesn't ask Zikius. He doesn't make a friendly suggestion. He says, come down. 802s

I must stay at your house. Now Zikius himself knows that that he is beyond redemption. He knows 816s

that he is the sinner of all sinners that he is unworthy of being seen by Jesus. Let alone having 828s

Jesus come to his home. But Jesus sees him in our sin, in our sin we try to climb that tree. 838s

We try to keep that safe distance. Not getting too close. Still wanting to see Jesus. 858s

Maybe hear about Jesus. Catch him from afar. Catch a glimpse of him. 867s

But we know that we need to keep our safe distance from Jesus because it's safer. 873s

It's better. It's easier. Because you see Jesus, Jesus already has people who belong with him. 884s

Here he has people who follow him, who should be with him. But us, we know our sin. 894s

We know the depth of the darkness that resides within our soul. We know the thoughts that we 905s

have on a daily basis. We know when we've defrauded someone. We know the words that we've 915s

thought that we've said. We know when we've passed by the neighbor in need and turned and went 927s

the other way because we just didn't want to deal with it. We know that we're not worthy of walking 936s

with Jesus. We know that in our sin we are beyond redemption just as the keyous was beyond 944s

redemption. And we try to keep our safe distance. But Jesus does not let us keep a safe distance 959s

from him. Jesus does not let us try to hide in the branches. Hide from him. Our sin. 972s

He looks into the very core of our being, into the very soul of who we are. And he lays us bare 985s

and knowing the very depth of our sin, he looks into our soul and he calls us by name. 996s

And he says, I must stay in your house. I must stay in your house. 1007s

Jesus didn't force the keyous to come down in order to shame him or embarrass him or make him 1024s

profess this public confession. Jesus didn't force the keyous to do anything but come down. 1034s

The keyous scurried down and he made a men's for all that he had done. 1051s

If we turn to verse 6, we read that he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. That is the keyous 1062s

hurried down and was happy to welcome Jesus. And standing before Christ, he is moved to do what is right. 1071s

In verse 8 it says, the key is stood there and said to the Lord, look, half of my possessions 1080s

Lord, I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much. 1086s

In Levitical Law, Leviticus chapter 6, it tells exactly what the defrauder is to do. And that is 1095s

that one who defrauds another is to pay what has been taken and add a fifth to that. 1104s

The keyous goes beyond that and says, I will give half of what I have to the poor and I will pay 1115s

back four times as much as what I have defrauded anyone. And it's not because Jesus says, come down here 1123s

and I'm going to tell you exactly what you must do. It's because when Jesus or when Zikir's 1133s

descends from the tree and is in the very presence of Jesus, He is moved. He is moved by the 1142s

name to make a men's and to go beyond what the law demands, but to live and lean into what grace 1163s

offers and the freedom of operating in and from grace. It is no longer the law that Zikir 1176s

stands under, but it's the very presence of grace itself in Jesus Christ that Zikir stands. 1193s

And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because He too is a son of Abraham 1209s

for the Son of man came to seek out and to save the lost. Jesus seeks out the lost, 1219s

the sinner, the unredeemable, the unworthy and He seeks the lost out in order to save the lost. 1231s

In order to redeem the lost. Jesus was always on a quest to seek the lost. It is this very 1244s

quest seeking the lost that leads him directly to the cross on Calvary. It is the very quest 1258s

of seeking and saving the lost that keeps him on the tree that is the cross. That keeps him 1268s

hanging there in the agony under the weight of our sin, under the weight of the sin of Zikir's, 1282s

under the weight of the arrogance of the crowd. It is the quest that leads him to the battle. It is the 1293s

empty. My brothers and sisters, it doesn't matter if we identify with the crowd because we are the crowd. 1323s

It doesn't matter if we identify with Zikir's because we are Zikir's. 1336s

Because we were born into humanity, we were born into the human nature of sin. We were born 1344s

under grace into grace. That the law that condemns us, the law that tells us over and over and over again 1376s

that we are the crowd, that we are Zikir, that we don't deserve, we don't belong, we don't get to be forgiven. 1387s

That law has been put to death upon the cross. We rise through our baptism with Jesus in his 1398s

resurrection and we rise in the power and the grace of God. We know that we are seen. We are seen, 1410s

not for who we are, but we are seen for who we are through the blood of Jesus Christ. 1425s

God, the Father sees you. God, the Father sees you as He sees His only beloved Son. He sees you as 1438s

He sees you as redeemed and He sees you as cloaked in the perfection of Christ. 1450s

This week, this week that we have been studying in this sermon series just before this week 1463s

that leads up to that final battle and victory of Christ. This week where we wonder why 1471s

this week where we wonder who this week as we seek out what happened in those days before. I want you to think 1494s

about who Christ is calling. Think about who in your life Christ is seeing is calling down 1508s

from the tree. Who is it that Christ has put upon our hearts to share upon our lips. His good news, 1519s

His word of grace. My brothers and sisters, we are worthy. We are worthy to walk with Jesus. 1530s

We are worthy to be counted righteous. We are worthy to be seen by the Father because 1543s

Jesus Christ has deemed every single one of us right and worthy through and by His blood. 1553s

You today and always have been will be and always will be seen by our Lord. Jesus Christ. 1570s