Sunday Meditation: Zacchaeus

This story demonstrates the power of Jesus to transform anyone.

 

At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.

Now a man there named Zacchaeus,

who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,

was seeking to see who Jesus was;

but he could not see him because of the crowd,

for he was short in stature.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,

who was about to pass that way.

When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,

"Zacchaeus, come down quickly,

for today I must stay at your house."

And he came down quickly and received him with joy.

When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying,

"He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner."

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,

"Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,

and if I have extorted anything from anyone

I shall repay it four times over."

And Jesus said to him,

"Today salvation has come to this house

because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.

For the Son of Man has come to seek

and to save what was lost."

~Lk 19:1-10

 

I love Zacchaeus.  Is it his short stature?  And while this is not a parable, so it really happened, one can get into the psychology of Zacchaeus by understanding his height.  We are never told why he his heart is moved so suddenly.  We are never told why he wants to see Jesus in the first place.  Perhaps his heart is already in the process of moving before he even meets Jesus.  In a world where strength and intimidation rules common life, Zacchaeus has succeeded despite not having the stature to intimidate.  In that stature he understands the weak and perhaps has some compassion that other tax collectors may not have. 

I have never come across Fr. Geoffrey Plant’s videos before until now.  This is quite good at fully explaining the Zacchaeus story in the context of Luke’s Gospel.  It’s a little long but worth the half hour.

 

"Today salvation has come to this house.”  But don’t miss Jesus’ last sentence: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."