Luke 19:1-10

We learn by watching others. We mimic. We copy. We do what others do. We start this almost from day 1. Little infants watch their moms and dads. They laugh when mom and dad are laughing, even though they can’t understand the joke. They watch us walk around, and they figure out how to do exactly the same. They watch our mouths when we speak, how we form the o sound and the s sound, and they learn to speak from us. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, we say.

That works in good ways, like we see the generosity of a person passed down to their children. The sense of humor, the kindness, the gentleness. But, we know, it works in bad ways, too, doesn’t it? We see someone, and we understand how they got to be that way. After all, consider their father. Just look at the mother. That freaks out us parents, doesn’t it? I mean, what are we teaching our kids? How are we affecting them? We want to feel good when someone says that our kids don’t fall far from our tree. We want them to learn our good habits, not our bad characteristics.

But it’s not just parents who affect other people. We affect each other. We create an atmosphere in our community, in our church, by how we talk to each other, by how we talk about each other. When we are treated kindly, gently, generously, when we are given forgiveness easily, then we ourselves treat others kindly, gently, generously, we forgive others easily.

But when we are treated harshly, when we live under the expectations of the people that watch us, and when we fail those expectations, we feel the disapproval, when gentleness is portrayed as weakness, when forgiveness is withheld for a long time, we learn. We copy. We mimic. We buy into those expectations and we pass them on. If we had to live under that weight, then we’ll make someone else live that way, too. If we have not been forgiven, then it actually makes us feel better to not forgive someone else, to pass on that pain. In other words, if we don’t receive grace, then we don’t show grace.

We in our community, in our church, have some of both. We have been shown kindness, and we show kindness. We have been forgiven, and we forgive. And yet, there have been times when grace was not shown and words of criticism and scorn were spoken. And we learned to criticize and we learned to scorn. We learned to live without grace.

Which is one reason why we have spent the last five weeks hearing God’s grace, His shining, beaming face giving us grace and peace, His love not treating us the way our sins deserve, His mercy that forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases. We’ve dwelt in the grace of God so that we too can show that grace. If we’ve known God’s grace, then we mimic, we copy, we show it. We make our community one that is known for it’s grace and kindness and forgiveness.

That wasn’t the community that Zaccheus lived in, and for good reason. Zaccheus was the chief tax collector for the city of Jericho, and Zaccheus was, shall we say, comfortable. Actually, verse 2 says that he was wealthy. He made a lot of money off of taking other people’s money. Maybe many of us know this already, but a chief tax collector ranked right about at the bottom as far as respectful member of society. That was because he basically just stole to get the money. Rome took a certain percentage of the take, and then Zaccheus took the rest. So it was up to him to set the tax rate, and he could set it as high as he wanted. Whatever he could get away with, without being lynched and driven out of town, he would take.

To make matters worse, the government would usually pick a local person, someone from that nationality, to do this dirty work. They figured it helped with public relations for the people to give their taxes to one of their own. It didn’t help. It made it worse. Zacchaeus is a sell-out, making a huge profit by taking taxes for the oppressive government that had conquered their nation.

And the people of Jericho just stewed about this. They weren’t mad enough to drive him out of town, but they were close. There was just this simmering hatred about this guy. Everybody hated Zacchaeus in the town of Jericho.

And then here comes Jesus, verse 1:

Jesus is on a roadtrip. He’s passing through Jericho on His way to Jerusalem. He’s not planning to spend any time here, this is just on the way. At least, that’s what it looks like.

But Jesus, being Him, knows that someone is in need of some grace. Someone is lost, in need of salvation. And when someone is lost, sinning, ripping people off and getting wealthy doing it, that’s exactly the kind of person that Jesus heads toward. That’s just who He is, the God who doesn’t treat people as their sins deserve.

Now, Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus. As Jesus had been coming into town, He had made a man who was blind able to see again. Earlier, in this same region, He had healed ten men of leprosy. This was intriguing, of course, to Zacchaeus, and he just had to get a look. Verse 3:

Now, we kind of focus on the fact that he was short, and the fact that he had to climb a tree in order to see Jesus. It makes an interesting kids song, and we find it a little funny.

But actually, it’s a little sad. Not because of his size, but because of where Zacchaeus finds himself with his fellow towns people. It’s not just that he can’t see over the people. It’s that these people hate him. He has mistreated them, he has done wrong, and they are letting him know exactly what they think. Maybe they don’t tell him with words, but they tell him with actions. They shut him out, they push him back, they don’t make room for him, because they are mad at him. You have no place here, Zacchaeus. You’re not wanted. Go away.

And here’s the saddest part of all. The people thinking they’re doing right. After all, they don’t want to condone what Zacchaeus is doing. They want to send the message that he’d better clean up his act. But by sending this message in this way, by criticizing and condemning and pushing him back, they keep him from seeing Jesus. I want to say that again. For all their good intentions, they are keeping him from seeing Jesus.

But that doesn’t stop Zacchaeus. There is something inside him that is driving him to at least see this Man, this Jesus, this Healer. Something about how Jesus treats broken people, something about how Jesus says what He says. You know what that something is? Yeah. You got it. It’s His grace. It’s His kindness, a kindness that draws people to repent and turn over their lives. Zacchaeus doesn’t have a full understanding of all this yet, but there’s enough to get him interested.

At least, interested enough to climb a tree. Verse 4:

That’s the craving for grace of someone who is starved for grace. Granted, he got himself into his own mess, and he’s paying the price. But he wants something more. He needs something more. He needs grace.

And he’s about to get it. Verse 5:

Remember, Jesus was just passing through. It’s not that He needed a place to stay and hey, there’s a guy in a tree. I think I’ll ask him if I can come over.

No, Jesus knows. He sees this poor, wealthy man, this man who has been pushed out, this starving rich man, and Jesus recognizes him. He knows that this man is exactly who He came for. This man is lost. This man needs saving. This man needs grace.

And Jesus says, "I MUST stay at your house today. Literally, it is necessary for me to stay at your house." Do you hear the eagerness in Jesus’ words? You can picture His face beaming toward this sinner, right? Like you can see His face beaming at us, sinners? Jesus knows full well what Zacchaeus has done and who he’s done it to. And He must, He simply must stay at his house.

And with that touch of grace, Zacchaeus leaps at the chance. Verse 6:

Someone wants to come to his house! He had all the stuff he would ever need, his bank account was full, he had the house to prove it. But that was about it. Lots of things, and no one to share it with. And now, Someone actually talked to him, and didn’t use any bad words and didn’t call him any nasty names. Someone actually is eager to spend time with him, to eat with him.

Which doesn’t make the crowd very happy. Here they were, doing they’re job, pushing him out, teaching him his lesson, criticizing and condemning, and then Jesus comes along and actually goes to his house for supper. And, verse 7:

But for all their criticizing and condemning, Zacchaeus hadn’t changed. They had pushed him out, avoided him, talked about him, even hated him, and he hadn’t stopped sinning.

But when Jesus says, "I know what you’ve done, I know who you are, I’m not saying that what you’ve done is okay, but I’m coming to your house anyway," then look at what happens. Verse 8:

Did we hear any words of condemnation or judgment? Did Jesus at all avoid Zacchaeus? Did Jesus teach him a lesson with His anger and criticism? Not a bit.

And in response to that grace and kindness, Zacchaeus repents. It’s a real life of example of God’s kindness leading someone to repentance, from Romans 2:4. It’s the proof that grace works better than condemning, that mercy triumphs over judgment, from James 2:13. Coming into contact with our gracious God changed a hardened, calloused thief into a humble, generous disciple. As Zacchaeus received grace, he himself showed grace to others.

And, verse 9:

It seems natural for us to scold those who do wrong things, who throw their lives away, who don’t do things they way we would want them to. This come very naturally to us, not just in our community, but humans in general. We want to pick. We want to judge. We want to criticize.

Very likely, we do this because we have been picked at and judged and criticized. We’ve learned it well. We haven’t fallen far from the tree. And then we pass it on to other who pass it on to others who pass it on.

Until Jesus comes, and beams His face at us and comes to us in our sin, in our failures, our regrets, and shows us His grace, His unconditional love, the love that put Him on a cross with nails in His hands and feet, the love of dying while we were still hating Him.

And when we have seen that kind of grace, when we’ve gotten lost in the awe of His forgiveness, when we are standing on His grace, being loved by Him, that’s when we start to settle down about each other. We are overwhelmed by His forgiveness, and we then forgive. We have seen His beaming, kind, understanding face, and we our faces start to beam and be kind and show that we understand.

Verse 10:

To seek and to save and to show grace. And if that’s Jesus purpose, then it’s ours, too. We don’t condemn each other, even when someone has sinned. We don’t talk about them in scorn. We don’t roll our eyes or go out of our way to avoid them. We don’t try to teach them a lesson with our anger or our criticism.

We just do what Jesus did. We go to their house. We have supper with them. We look at them with the same kind of eyes that Jesus looked at us. Maybe they won’t respond with repentance. Not everyone does. But they might. Just like Zacchaeus, when they see you, showing grace, they’ll be seeing Jesus, and they’ll be changed. They’ll have been shined on by God’s gracious face, and they won’t be the same.

We have been affected by those around us, and at times we have been hurt. But we have also been affected by the loving kindness of our savior, and that means more. We have seen His grace. Now, we show it to each other.