What has jumped out at me the most vividly in this story, and perhaps it’s the influence of the song, is how childlike Zacchaeus is…not child ish, but childLIKE. How do we get to that point? How do we get from a man ironically named Zacchaeus to a man aptly named Zacchaeus? There re so many possible directions to take this sermon, and we only have time for one, so I really do encourage you to ponder and interpret this text for yourselves this week and see what the Holy Spirit reveals to your heart. On second thought, perhaps we’d see at as foreshadowing…and perhaps it IS foreshadowing, because at the end of this story, Jesus declares that salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ household.
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That’s like if in a Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens had named his famous miserly character “charity” instead of “Scrooge”. Ironically, Zacchaeus’ name means “pure” or “innocent”. You remember Kent’s sermon last week where we learned that collecting taxes was a forbidden profession for observant Jews at the time? It was considered ritually impure, and immoral. This was like a multilevel marketing scheme- Zacchaeus paid the taxes to the empire and then was reimbursed through the actual collection, hopefully at a profit.Īs Tax collector, chief tax collector, Zacchaeus was essentially working for the empire, at the literal expense of his own people. We also know that Jesus was chief tax collector. So short that when Jesus came by, he had to climb a tree to see him better. We don’t know much about Zacchaues, but the story (and song) make sure we know that he was short.
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![call little man call little man](https://www.creehanphotography.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/TCbirthphotographerboy.jpg)
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he, he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see…Īnyone here know this song? I only learned it this week but I love it.