Sermon: "Lessons From a Wee Little Man"
What does it take to be happy? Where do we find happiness?
Today, October 7th, is my anniversary. As it happens, it is also my wife Debbie’s anniversary as well. I think that’s a pretty neat coincidence!
In light of this special day and our opening question on happiness, I’d like you to hear one comedian’s idea of what constitutes happiness. Here is Christian comedian Jeff Allen with a few thoughts on how a man can find contentment in life:
(VIDEO SEGMENT PLAYS HERE)
“Happy Wife, Happy Life.” I don’t know about you, but I think there’s some deep wisdom in what Mr. Allen has to say!
I don’t know if the man in the Scripture account we’ll be looking at this morning was a married man or not. I do believe that, like all of us, he was searching for happiness, for contentment, for satisfaction in his life. And I believe that, like many of us, he had gone about that search in the wrong way.
We’re going to look at the story of Zacchaeus. You may remember Zacchaeus as being a short man who climbed a tree to see Jesus. Whenever I hear his name, I think of that children’s song that many learned in Sunday school: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he…” I have this tendency to get that song confused with another children’s song, so for me it always comes out: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl, and he called for his fiddlers three!” I get the Zacchaeus song mixed up with the Old King Cole song!
It actually goes like this: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord to see.” This morning, we have some lessons about life that we can learn from this “wee little man.”
Zacchaeus was a man who was searching. He was looking for something and the life he was living wasn’t it. Zacchaeus’ short-sightedness wasn’t just in reference to his stature. He wasn’t looking in the right place. For most of his life, he really wasn’t looking for Jesus. But, as we’ll see, Jesus was indeed looking for Zacchaeus!
I. An Empty Life
In Luke 17, we learn that Jesus is leaving the region of Galilee in the north and is making His way southward to Jerusalem. It is in the next chapter that Jesus explains to His disciples His purpose for going…
LUKE 18:31-34 – Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. 33On the third day he will rise again."
34The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
“We are going up to Jerusalem…” It was this dire prophecy of what was about to happen to Him that Jesus gave as the reason for their journey to Jerusalem.
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus and His disciples came to the town of Jericho. Jericho was about 12 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Jericho is still inhabited today and is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. We know of Jericho because of the Old Testament account of its walls collapsing as Israel under Joshua surrounded the city. Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of those fallen walls.
But today we will look at the New Testament Jericho where a man allowed some walls, some barriers in his life, to collapse so Jesus could move in and conquer his heart.
Luke 19 opens with the story of Zacchaeus…
LUKE 19:1-10 – Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.'"
8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
9Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Who is Zacchaeus? Well, we learn something about him from verse 2…
LUKE 19:2 – A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
We learn that Zacchaeus was a tax collector. In fact, he was a chief tax collector. It was his job to oversee the collection of taxes that the Roman occupiers levied against the people of Palestine.
The local and regional tax collectors were employed by the occupying Romans. Because of the Jewish hatred of their Roman conquerors, anyone who was a tax collector was considered to be a traitor to his own people. Tax collectors, or “publicans” as they were called, were viewed as social outcasts by the Jewish population.
It didn’t help matters that Rome imposed heavy taxation. Had the money been used to benefit the local Jewish community in some fashion, that might have been better, but the taxation was not really aiding local Jewish causes. It was supporting a Gentile system.
There is an ancient record that survives of a conversation between two Jewish rabbis about Roman work projects: One rabbi says,
“How fine are the works of these people! They have made streets, they have made bridges, and they have erected baths.”
The other rabbi replies,
“All that they have made they have made for themselves; they have built market places to put harlots in, baths to rejuvenate themselves, bridges to levy tolls for them.”
(Egypt, Greece, and Rome, p. 502)
Fueling the fires of animosity against the tax collectors even more was the manner in which the taxes were collected. The system of tax collection was a tiered structure, allowing for a series of middlemen to extract their cut. The Romans would take bids on tax collecting jobs in a region. Wealthy people would bid on those jobs and anything they could collect above what Rome required they got to keep. The regional collectors would often hire managers, or chief tax collectors like Zacchaeus, to collect from various districts. Again, those men could keep anything they could collect above what the regional collectors required. And the managers would often employ collectors in local communities who also could abuse the system to their advantage. It was simple extortion.
And that is why Luke writes that Zacchaeus was wealthy. He was an extortionist. His wealth consisted of ill-gotten gains. He knew it and the people of the region knew it. But he lived with the protection of the Roman forces that occupied the land. It would be an understatement to say that Zacchaeus was not popular. No doubt he was very much hated by everyone.
II. Looking for Jesus
Perhaps for a time, Zacchaeus was able to live with himself. Somehow he had made what must have been an uneasy peace with his conscience. Maybe, like many today, he justified his wrongdoing to provide himself some comfort:
- “Other people do it, so it can’t be that bad!”
- “A man’s got to make a living somehow! You take whatever opportunities you can get.”
- “After all, you only go around once in life. You might as well get all you can while the getting’s good!”
- “Besides, who cares what these people think of me? What have they ever done for me anyway? I don’t owe them anything!”
- “I’ve got to watch out for myself. That’s all I have to do. I’ve got to do what makes me happy!”
Now, I know that none of you have ever had cause to use any of the above excuses for your actions. After all, we live in a culture that is much more enlightened! In our modern day, we don’t fall prey to such self-centeredness as this. Do we?
I just wanted you to get a feel for how first-century people were thinking…
The thing is, I don’t believe that Zacchaeus had ever found happiness! I don’t think his wealth and position were very satisfying. I don’t think his material gain – the excellent stock portfolio with the great retirement plan, the personal “hot tub” as opposed to the public baths everyone else used, the summer home at Caesarea, the three-camel garage – really was doing anything to fill the emptiness of his life. (Remember, this is a first-century man we’re talking about, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that any of this applies to us in any fashion!)
Why do I suspect that he wasn’t happy? Because Luke 19:3 says…
LUKE 19:3 – He wanted to see who Jesus was…
Somehow, this tax collector of Jericho had heard about Jesus. By this time, Jesus had been in public ministry for over three years. All kinds of accounts had no doubt been circulated of what Jesus had done for others. No doubt many were talking about the things that Jesus had taught. Jesus had a reputation that was different somehow.
In fact, Jesus was known as the Friend of tax collectors and other “sinners.” For example, there was the story of a tax collector known as Levi, or Matthew…
MATTHEW 9:9-13 – As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Jesus had fellowship with the hated and the outcasts. He ate with tax collectors and other “sinners.” In fact, Matthew, who was one of Jesus’ disciples, was a local tax collector. And Jesus had dinner at Matthew’s house! This was unheard of, a Jewish teacher having dinner with a tax collector. And other tax collectors came to the meal!
Some Bible teachers have speculated that Matthew had in fact had worked under Zacchaeus. Remember that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, a regional manager of sorts. Matthew as a local tax man could well have been under Zacchaeus’ jurisdiction. If this were so, then certainly Matthew would have had to come to Zacchaeus to explain why he could no longer collect taxes. Now he was the disciple of an amazing Teacher by the name of Jesus. And perhaps this was how Zacchaeus became interested in Jesus in the first place.
And now Jesus was on His way into Jericho! It had been at least three years since Zacchaeus had first head of Jesus. And now He was here!
“I have wealth that really gives me nothing. I have no friends except for other poor wretches like myself who only band together to commiserate! Misery loves company and that’s the only company I keep! But look at this Man! This Jesus is the friend of outcasts like me! I’ve got to see who He is!”
III. Jesus Looked for Him
Zacchaeus was a wee little man. Small in stature, yes. But also small in the eyes of others. He was hated and despised. But now he came to the crowd who had gathered to greet Jesus as He entered Jericho.
Because of the crowd, Zacchaeus couldn’t see. So he ran ahead to a tree that he knew about that would elevate his view above the crowd so he could see Jesus.
The walls around Zacchaeus’ heart were falling. His wealth was not enough. It never would be, no matter how much he gained materially. Life was more than just the almighty dollar. Excuse me, I should have said “the almighty denarius,” since we’re really addressing a first-century problem here! Aren’t we?
As the passage reads, here was what was happening…
LUKE 19:4-6 – So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
Zacchaeus was in the tree and now he could see Jesus. But Jesus also saw him! And Jesus called him out by name!
“Zacchaeus! Come!”
I believe at that it was at this very moment that Zacchaeus’ heart was changed. He knew that he was looking for Jesus. But he never even suspected that Jesus was also looking for him!
In that moment, Zacchaeus learned that Jesus knew him by name. And I believe that made all the difference in Zacchaeus’ life. Jesus wanted to come to his house that day! No, not just “wanted.” Jesus had said,
“I must stay at your house today!”
And Zacchaeus came down and welcomed Jesus gladly! Joy and happiness were his!
We see something of Zacchaeus’ local reputation as a tax collector in verse 7…
LUKE 19:7 – All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.'"
It was the same thing that had been said when Jesus ate at Matthew’s house. And in response Jesus had said…
“I have come to call sinners!”
And on this day, Jesus had come to call Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus repented from his wrong doing. He realized that all he had been working, all the wealth he had gained through his extortion, was nothing. So he turned from his sin and set about to make things right:
LUKE 19:8 – But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
CONCLUSION
Jesus had come to Zacchaeus home. He had impacted Zacchaeus’ life so much that Zacchaeus was a changed man.
LUKE 19:9,10 – Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Zacchaeus was searching for something in life. He looked for Jesus. At the same time, Jesus was seeking him. He had come to seek and to save that which was lost.
You see, what had caused the emptiness in Zacchaeus’ life – the emptiness that none of his material gain could fill – was the loss of fellowship with God. And it was on His way to the cross that Jesus found Zacchaeus. On the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem, Jesus would offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world – the sin that separated each of us from the Creator-God.
In a few moments, we’re going to remember what Jesus did to save us. But let me leave you with a challenge…
Where are you looking for happiness in life? What are you doing to try to achieve personal fulfillment? Where are you looking for contentment?
It doesn’t matter who you are – the real answer is found in Jesus. Look to Him. And know that Jesus has been looking for you!