The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 191


The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 191

Luke 19:1-10 – Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So, he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So, he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham; “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Jesus, the Christ of God/Messiah

Zacchaeus, another of my favorite events in the lives of the people whom Jesus met in His journeys to the cross. It is early spring, and the leaves have not fully developed on the trees. The sycamore tree can grow very large and the older it is, it seems easier to climb since the trunk and branches are large and supportive. Usually, businessmen (I am assuming that Zacchaeus was a businessman) sort of like our ‘auto salesman’ of today. “Well dressed, and honest liars.” Now I am saying that ‘tax collectors of today are any different than the auto salesman’. However, the tax collector differs today in that he is doing business within the law and does not own a tax district, in that the tax burden is dictated by law and not by extracting ones pay in addition to the tax, as in the days of Zacchaeus.

We would be naïve to think that salvation in the days of the ministry of Christ was limited to just the events found in the gospels. Here in the book of Luke, we find the conversion of Zacchaeus and his family, but the event is not found in the other gospels. The point! “Jesus saves” (Acts 4:12)! Zacchaeus came to Jesus, by climbing up in the sycamore tree, he came to Jesus in much the same way as blind man earlier. People, all people who seek Jesus, find Him because of one reason. They seek to be saved. And just as Jesus knew Nathanael (John 1:43-51) Jesus knows those who seek Him, during His ministry on earth (before the cross) Jesus saved thousands of people.

John 21:25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. AMEN! Share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone today.

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