I Must Stay At Your House Today

Luke 19:1-10

Who is Zacchaeus?

• Chief tax collector: he is smart, trilingual, and dealt with the money

• Rich

• Not tall

• He ran fast and climb on sycamore tree: physically strong

• He was seeking to see who Jesus was: not just curiosity, he has a strong desire to know Jesus more and better.

In a deeper note:

1. He has his own personal weakness that he can’t change about himself:
   Short in height. It was not his choice to be short but this is his inborn weakness
   We all have personal weakness/difficulty, it is not our fault or choice (physical, or emotional weaknesses)

2. He has circumstantial difficulty:
   He couldn’t see/get close to Jesus due to the crowd so he had to climb up the tree: this is not his fault that there were many people, it happened that everyone wanted to see Jesus at the same time.
   We hall have circumstantial difficulty that is not our choice, life happens

3. He has relational difficulty:
   His name, Zacchaeus, means righteousness. His parents hoped that Zacchaeus would become a righteous person, in real life he became a tax collector (traitor to the country), he brought shame to his family, and his relationships with everyone were ruined. People around him don’t want to have relationships with him due to his job.
   We have that too.

Verse 5: What Jesus said to him: ” I must stay at your house today” why did Jesus want to stay in his house? Not because Zacchaeus was rich or had a big house or resolved all difficulties in his life. Although he has Jesus in his house, nothing changed. This is a misunderstanding that if we overcome every difficulty, Jesus will come to us. Verse 10: Jesus wanted to stay at his house because Jesus wants to tell everyone that He came to save everyone and Zachaeus is one of them, he was lost.

The lost means someone who doesn’t have a relationship with God. In this context, Zacchaeus being lost means he doesn’t have a relationship with God’s family.

Pharisees and Sadducees think Zacchaeus is a sinner because he is a tax collector, they think they are more righteous than Zacchaeus. In verse 8: English translation uses the future tense: because Jesus came to his house, he ‘will’ repay and give back. If Zacchaeus will do this from now on then the Pharisees were right, he was not righteous. However, In Greek, it is the present tense, suggesting that Zacchaeus has been already doing this for many years, then others’ judgment on him wasn’t right.

Why did Zacchaeus repay 4 times more?
Leviticus 6:4-6: restore in full and add 20%. Pharisees followed all the law, but Zachaeus decided to repay 400% more.

Where did he get this idea? When did he start doing this?

Luke 3:7-13: John the Baptist was preparing the way for Jesus’ coming (repent and repay 4 times more). Many tax collectors came to John the Baptist to listen and to be baptized and restored their relationship with God.

We can’t see the name of Zacchaeus here, but we can assume he was there based on the way he lived his life according to the teaching of John the Baptist.

In chapter 3, his relationship with God has been restored but not his relationship with God’s family because people still exclude him from the society (chapter 19) due to his reputation as a tax collector.

Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham, meaning he is included in the family. However, he was excluded in God’s family because they judged him, and think they are better than Zacchaeus, and they didn’t know Zachaeus repent and paid everything. When Jesus came to his house, Zachaeus received Salvation. Salvation is not only personal but communal.

If Jesus comes and tells us ‘I must stay at your house,’ what will we do?

1. We need to clean our hearts.
   Zacchaeus has his own difficulties but he didn’t give up, he kept trying to overcome his own weaknesses and difficulties. We must also try our best and not give up.

2. We need to bear the fruits of repentance
   What others think about him is not important, what Jesus thinks about him is more important. That’s why Zacchaeus didn’t tell anyone that he repent or things he has been doing, but he cares about what Jesus thinks of him. We must also repent.

3. Invite Jesus to our house and receive him joyfully
   Jesus said to the lost, to the ones who are misjudged by others, to the ones who have circumstantial difficulty: ‘I must stay at your house’ this could be us. We can be Zachaeus. Zachaeus invited Jesus and received him joyfully, we must do that also.

Reflection Questions:

1. Which room/what areas in your heart did you work on?

2. What is your take away from the message?

3. Who could be Zacchaeus around you who does not have a relationship with God or with God’s family?