Salvation Comes to this House

He entered Jericho and was passing through. There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.”

So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.”

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.”

“Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:1-10 (CSB)

This story has always touched me, even from a young age. And I’ve written about it before. Perhaps it’s that he was physically unable to see the Lord pass through because of his stature, and so had to debase himself by climbing a tree. Some have said that by hiding in a sycamore he was trying to see privately, and yet the Lord looks right at him and calls him out anyway. 

He sees Zacchaeus, like he sees us. We cannot hide.

A part of me is deeply humbled by a man who was so desperate, he didn’t care about looking stupid by doing something men shouldn’t do. Men were dignified. They didn’t run, and they didn’t climb. Boys do that. And yet this rich chief tax collector climbs a tree.

Zacchaeus was already ashamed, and cut off, and was hungry for home. Hungry for relationship. While Rome was certainly one of the bloodiest empires in history, it lured far more people with its cultural carrot than with its military stick. Come and be like us, you’ll be happy. See our culture? See our money? See our power? See our status? This is what you want. 

The promise of empires.

Zacchaeus bought in, and it cost him, deeply. The promise proved to be false. And he wanted help, but found none in the community who shamed him for being a traitor.

There was no grace there, until Jesus looks at him.

At this moment, with get the proto-gospel. Jesus looks at him, and offers Zacchaeus what he truly wants. Not power, status, or money, but forgiveness and redemption. Mercy and Grace. To once again belong to the story of God. And Zacchaeus eats it up, as everyone who encounters Jesus does. It only takes a look, the conscience speaking to the heart, with both mercy and truth, for Zacchaeus to offer it all back several times over. Half of what he has to the poor, and four times to anyone he has stolen from, the very value required in the law (Exodus 22:1). He wants to do what is right, and Jesus enables it. It’s what Jesus does, when His Spirit touches ours. 

Grace is fire. Purifying fire. 

Salvation came, Jesus says. Notice, it’s not a promise of life in the sky after he dies. That’s not the salvation Jesus is talking about (although life forever with him is certainly true). But rather, it’s once again to be a child of Abraham. Heaven has come to rest once again in the life of Zacchaeus. The promise is born again.

It’s a proto-gospel because it’s a shadow of the fullness offered to us. Not just return to community, but life fully reconciled to God, with the living Holy Spirit as down payment.

When we’re honest and quiet, and allow the conscience, that great Aboriginal Vicar of Jesus Christ within us to speak to us, we may find the same invitation from our Lord. To come home. To once again belong to the story of God, should we desire it. And when we hear that, with joy, we respond abundantly. 

Grace brings us back to life and saves us.