Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker C: And today on reading the gospel, we.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Are studying the event Zacchaeus.
This is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19. And we're going to read from verse one to verse ten. Follow along with us.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass by that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: And when they saw it, they all grumbled, he has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone, anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham, for the son of man has come to seek and save the lost.
This is one of those stories that.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: We learn if we're raised in a christian home.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: We learn very early on there's songs.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: About Zacchaeus climbing up in a tree.
But here we have someone who, he's excited to see Jesus.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: He's looking forward to. He wants to meet Jesus and ready to see him.
That, to me, shows foreknowledge, like, he.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: Must have known about Jesus somehow, right?
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Heard about him in the past.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: I like to connect to the previous story of Bartimaeus, the blind man. So that man also heard something about Jesus Christ. And the faith in Jesus has been building over time until he realized that Jesus can solve his problem.
By contrast, Zacchaeus is a rich person.
It seems that he doesn't have any need, at least expressing in this passage. It is just a spiritual need, a desire to meet Jesus Christ.
And on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus is ready to answer anyone's problem, anyone searching for him, even if those people have an immediate need or just a deep, spiritual, empty space they want to fill with the presence of God.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: So Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector. He was a chief tax collector. He wasn't popular in town.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: In fact, it was an expression in those days, tax collectors and sinners and the tax collectors were ahead of the regular sinners because on one side, they sold their souls to the roman empire to charge their brothers and sisters the tax. And in addition to that, according to jewish historians, they had to bribe someone for this job to pay a huge amount of money, and to. To repay the loan, they have to charge some extra. So they are double sinners more than regular sinners.
[00:04:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Growing up in Maryland, almost everyone works for the government.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: I can't say I knew anyone who worked for the IR's.
Even today, though, tax collectors have a.
[00:04:30] Speaker C: Stigma of people that we don't want.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: To be around.
[00:04:36] Speaker C: Because, yeah, we don't want them.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: We just don't want to be in their presence.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: But here, Zacchaeus, while he came from this tax collector life, there's evidence that he's growing, that there's spiritualness in his life, that there's a draw towards Jesus.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Jericho is the same place where John the Baptist used to preach. And in one of his sermons, he refers to tax collectors that they should not charge more than they are required by the roman empire.
That means maybe Ezacchaeus has heard that sermon, or someone told him about that sermon, and maybe he started to align his life with the word of God.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: He probably heard about it every time.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: He went to take taxes, go to collect taxes. You know, John said, you shouldn't take more.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: You might be very aware of that message.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: Jesus looks up in this tree. Do you think Jesus knew already as.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: He entered Jericho that he was going.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: To have this encounter?
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Personally? I think so, because I see Jesus Christ spending considerable time with his father in prayer, you know, the night before.
And one of the things they're talking about was the next days plan.
And the fact that Jesus Christ was able to see through the foliage of a sycamore, that means Jesus Christ knew about that, had a previous knowledge.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
Let me ask you a question.
When you've done something wrong, do you.
[00:06:27] Speaker C: Want to be around the person you've wronged?
We want to kind of avoid them, right?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Generally speaking, yes. There are some exceptions, very, you know, rude criminals sometimes to go back to.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: But for the most part, we. It's uncomfortable.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Yes, it is.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: Zacchaeus is a sinner, but when Jesus.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Comes, he receives him joyfully.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: It's not this, you know, he's wrong, Jesus, but he's still excited to be in his presence.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: It was Jesus initiative in verse five. Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. And the response in verse six. So he heard and came down. The response is proportional to the invitation. Do it quickly, right away, immediately, as the gospel of Mark would say, yeah.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: So we're not given all the exchange.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: You know, when everything was said, at what point? But Zacchaeus agrees or makes us pledge to God.
He says, behold, lord, half of my.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Goods I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
What's the fourfold like? Why?
[00:07:52] Speaker C: Why fourfold?
[00:07:54] Speaker B: In the old testament, in the law of Moses, you have different categories of robbers.
When they are caught, the restitution should be done at different levels, and the lowest level is to give back four times more than what you robbed.
So practically, when you say the lowest level, the worst, the worst sinners, right? Yeah, yeah. So I see Zacchaeus kind of placing himself in that category.
I don't know because that was projected at him or because that came from inside as a, from a transformation that has started before.
What is very interesting is Jesus Christ invites himself to go to his house, and as a result, people start grumbling.
And as a response to that grumbling, I see Zacchaeus saying, look, you say that I'm a sinner, but it seems that the reality might be slightly different. Look, I give half of my wealth to the poor.
And now compare this with the rich young ruler who didn't even consider giving a part of his wealth to the poor. And here we have a sinner who makes a very interesting pledge in front of the people of being around those who he might have defrauded.
[00:09:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I think of when Nathan the.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Prophet comes to David and gives him the parable of the sheep.
[00:09:37] Speaker C: In the end, the rich man has.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: To restore fourfold back.
[00:09:45] Speaker C: And so we have this restoration. And Zacchaeus, yeah, like you said, it seems that he's come to a place.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Where God is more important to him.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: Than his riches, where following what he.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Knows is right is most important. And Jesus responds with that beautiful statement today, salvation has come to this house.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: He, since he also is a son.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Of Abraham, for the Son of man, came to seek and save the lost.
Salvation comes to our house today.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: Like, we can experience the joys of salvation right now. It's not just when Jesus comes back. Right? So we might be like Zacchaeus.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: We might have had sins in our.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: Lives, we might have done wrong, but.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: We can experience the salvation from sin today.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: So we have this tension. We like to know something about God. We like to see his hand in our lives, but at the same time, we are hiding from other people, sometimes even from ourselves, is that tension between getting closer to God, but at the same time staying away from him? And it is God who takes that initiative in different ways.
It is the Lord that knocks at the door. According to revelation 320, it was God, the Lord in the garden of Eden, who searched for Adam and Eve after they have broken their relationship with God.
I like how God is the initiator of our salvation, and this is why Jesus says salvation has come to this house, and Jesus Christ is our salvation.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: So we have this message, what are we going to do about it? How is it speaking to us today?
[00:11:41] Speaker C: And what are we going to do about it?
[00:11:43] Speaker B: Verse ten for me is a statement of mission that has echoed through centuries. For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost.
And if we follow Jesus Christ, and if we exchange our burden with his, that will become our mission statement too.
We are called by God to seek and save the lost. As God takes initiative, so we should do. Yeah.
[00:12:16] Speaker C: And it's nothing us who are saving.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: The lost, it is God working through us.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Of course, the commandment is great. Commission. Go and preach the gospel. And those who believe would be baptized and made them disciples and train them everything that I commanded you.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
So for me, the way this speaks to me is, have I made right.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: The wrongs I've committed? Because it's easy to ask for forgiveness.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Sometimes it's not, but it's easier to just ask for forgiveness and have God.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Say you're forgiven than to go and.
[00:12:56] Speaker C: Try to make things right. You know, if you get angry at.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Someone and say something you shouldn't do, if you mess up in a way that someone doesn't even know you messed.
[00:13:07] Speaker C: Up, it's easy to ask God for forgiveness and to move on to, than.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: To go and let the person know that you erred, that you wronged them in some way.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Sometimes a professional face is easier to be done than the changing of a behavior or restoring when money are involved. Yeah.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: And so restore, I think of that.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: I was actually thinking of that verse coming in today.
I just love David. Restore unto me the joy of your.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: Salvation, that sometimes we can lose it.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: We might have enjoyed it, we might have been on fire for it in.
[00:13:45] Speaker C: The past, but then we get caught up and it slips away.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: You reminded me about one of the biographies of George Muller, one of the greatest giants of faith.
He lived in the United Kingdom in the early 18 hundreds, and at the climax of his ministry, he was able to feed 10,000 orphan kids, providing them shelter and clothing and food and christian education without asking and receiving any money from the government.
And in one of his biographies, the last part are stories about how people donated money or resources to his ministry as a result of being convicted by the Holy Spirit to do some restoration.
One man said, I was convicted by the Holy Spirit that when I was a young man, I always jumped into my neighbor's garden and took a lot of strawberries for ourselves and to sell them. And I did that year after year, and I wanted to restore the damage I produced. But those people died and the descendants moved away. And I asked, Lord, how should I do it? And I was impressed by God to send the restoration money to the ministry of George Muller.
Very interesting. This is just a practical example how to restore.
The Lord will give us ideas and show us the way how to do the restoration. But that has to happen. It is a thermometer that spiritual restoration has started in the heart.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Amen. Let's pray.
Father, if we have wronged anyone, if there is restoration we need to make.
[00:15:45] Speaker C: In our lives, I pray that we will do more than just ask for forgiveness.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: But that we will seek to make things right. I thank you, Father, that you have forgiven us.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: We lay our sins before you and we ask that you change us, that you restore a new spirit in us.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: That your holy spirit gives us the fruit of the spirit.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: May we be like Zacchaeus.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
