Lives of Scripture

Zaccheus was a chief tax collector in Jericho, a position that made him wealthy but also despised, since Jewish tax collectors worked for Rome and routinely enriched themselves by overcharging their own people (Luke 19:1-2). Short in stature and unable to see Jesus over the crowd, Zaccheus ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree along the road (19:3-4). Jesus stopped beneath it, looked up, and called him by name, telling him He intended to stay at his house that day -- an act of public acceptance toward a man everyone else scorned (19:5). Zaccheus "hurried and came down and received Him gladly," while the crowd grumbled that Jesus "had gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner" (19:6-7). Zaccheus's response marks one of Scripture's clearest pictures of repentance evidenced by concrete action: standing before Jesus, he pledged to give half his possessions to the poor and to repay fourfold anyone he had defrauded -- far exceeding the law's usual restitution requirement of adding only a fifth (19:8; compare Leviticus 6:5). Jesus responded, "today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham," and summarized His mission in words that apply to Zaccheus directly: "the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (19:9-10). Zaccheus's story stands as a vivid demonstration that genuine encounter with Jesus produces real, costly, joyful change.