There are few things that scandalize people, and it doesn’t matter if they’re believers in Christ or not, as much as when someone who committed a terrible crime claims that they subsequently came to a deeper faith in God.
For example, in August of 2018, Chris Watt murdered his wife and two young daughters in Colorado. In November of that year, he pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. In February of the following year, he had another interview with investigators in which he revealed details about the murders that he had not admitted to before. He said his reason for doing that was due to remorse he felt because of a newfound relationship with God.
We don’t know if Chris Watt’s faith in God is sincere or not, only God does. Because we don’t know what the truth in these cases is, we tend to be skeptical, thinking maybe they did it to somehow manipulate people or maybe get some kind of benefits while in prison.
But underneath our skepticism is something far more serious—perhaps we could even say scandalous—and that is the question of whether God would actually forgive someone who committed a crime as terrible as murdering their wife and young daughters.
Our skepticism reveals that we have a double standard. We tend to believe that God can forgive the ordinary sins that each of us commit every day, but the terrible sins that others commit are, we think, beyond what God would forgive.
This line of thinking is a problem for two reasons. First, when we think this way, we are underestimating the debt we with God for our sin. God is infinitely pure and holy and so it doesn’t matter the degree of sin—all sin is an affront to God.
The second reason why it is a problem for us to think that God grades sin on a curve like we humans do is that we underestimate the graciousness of God. What can happen when we think this way is we can be burdened by sins which God has already forgiven. In other words, it prevents us from receiving the forgiveness and grace that God has for us.
So then, the question that I’m asking you to think about is this: How deep are the depths of God’s grace? And to help us as we’re thinking about that question, we’re going to continue our series on the Gospel of Luke in the book of Acts called Setting the Prisoners Free and today we will dig into Luke 19:1-10. If you have a Bible or a Bible app nearby, you might want to turn to that passage now and follow along.
The Shame of Zacchaeus
As you do that, here is some background that will help you to better understand this passage. By this time in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is nearing the end of his journey to Jerusalem. He’s coming up to Jericho, the last major town before he turns and heads towards Jerusalem. As he approaches Jericho, there’s a blind man along the side of the road who calls out to Jesus, and Jesus heals him. There was a huge crowd of people around Jesus at the time, because so many people have heard about him, his teaching and the miracles that he’s done. And when they witnessed this incredible healing, they were supportive of Jesus and praised God for the healing.
Another piece of information that is helpful for you to know is that one of the worst jobs you could have in the Holy Land at that time was to be a tax collector. The land was occupied by the Romans, and they wanted to extract the maximum amount of taxes they could out of the local population. To accomplish that, they invited local people to bid on being a tax collector for them. This was a smart strategy for the Romans because a local person would be better at knowing how has money, how much, and where they are hiding it. The Romans required a specific amount of taxes from each area which the tax collector had to gather and give to Rome. But whatever the tax collector gathered over and above that was theirs to keep. You can see how this would incentivize tax collectors to overcharge people on their taxes.
And these tax collectors were absolutely hated by their own people because they were seen as traitors for collaborating with the occupying forces against their own people to enrich themselves. So, they were treated like sinners and social outcasts.
Zacchaeus was not only a tax collector, but he was also a chief tax collector, who likely supervise other tax collectors in the region. This would bring him an extra measure of disgust from the surrounding community. In their eyes, he was lost because of his role as a tax collector. Luke also tells us that he was rich, which indicates that he was also lost in God’s eyes, not because of his business, but because money was the most important thing in his life, above everything else.
Zacchaeus didn’t seem to care about his lostness or his shame, but he wanted to see Jesus, and because of his short height and the crowd, he couldn’t. So he climbed up in a tree and, by doing so, he brought even more shame upon himself. In that culture, older men never climbed a tree. They wore robes instead of pants and if you went up in a tree, you could potentially expose yourself to the people below. Because of the shame, no older man ever did anything like that. But Zacchaeus did.
The Transformation of Zacchaeus
When Jesus reached the spot where Zacchaeus was, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed Jesus gladly.
Now here’s some questions for you to think about.
- Why was it necessary for Jesus to stay at Zacchaeus’ house that day? There were lots of houses in Jericho where Jesus could have stayed, and they would have been owned and occupied by people who were far less shame-filled than Zacchaeus was.
- Didn’t Jesus know that by going to the house of an unclean person like Zacchaeus, he would make himself unclean?
- Didn’t he know that back in that culture, when you ate with someone, you were indicating to them—and to all who were around—that you had a close personal friendship with them?
- Why would Jesus do something like that when he knew that the whole surrounding community treated Zacchaeus like a pariah?
Luke tells us that the crowd reacted very negatively to what Jesus did. Earlier, when Jesus healed the blind man, the crowd was supportive of Jesus, and they praised God for what he did. But this time, when Jesus said that he was going to go to Zacchaeus’ house, the crowd began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
Why is all this happening?
We find a clue earlier in Luke during an interaction that Jesus had with the Pharisees. Jesus told a story to teach his listeners about the importance of using what God has given you to grow his kingdom. Jesus concludes by saying, “You can’t serve both God and money.”
The Pharisees, who loved money, scoffed at Jesus’ words. Jesus then said, “What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”
You see, Jesus didn’t value social standards or what other people thought of him. What he valued was Zacchaeus—the most shamed and despised person in Jericho. And so, Jesus willingly blew up his reputation and brought shame on himself so that he could proclaim freedom to the captive Zacchaeus.
Can you imagine what this was like for Zacchaeus? Nobody will hang out with you. Nobody will come to your house and eat with you. Everybody crosses over to the other side of the street when they see you coming. But this famous prophet who heals the blind and raises the dead and forgives sins says to you through his words and actions, ‘I am coming to your house today. I don’t see your guilt and your shame and your brokenness. What I see is you—and I love you, and I’m with you, and I forgive you, and I heal you.’
Zacchaeus’ heart was transformed as resul. Luke tells us that he stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
Jesus then declares that Zacchaeus has been restored to harmony with his Creator: Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
Jesus is not saying that Zacchaeus was part of the family of God because of his physical heritage. He is saying that Zacchaeus is part of the family of God because of his faith. It’s like what we read in Genesis 15, Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ.
Then Jesus declares the central point of all Luke’s Gospel—maybe the entire Bible—when he says, The Son of Man came to seek and to save all that is lost.
You see, by going to Zacchaeus’ house, Jesus was foreshadowing what he would do in a little while in Jerusalem, when he would again bring shame upon himself, this time, by willingly going to a cross wearing our sins, not his. There he would suffer and die for those sins to pay the full cost of our forgiveness. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. But on the third day, he rose from the dead to give us resurrection life. In Jesus, we have a new, eternal life that begins now and will last forever.
What Does All This Mean for Us?
What we do in our outer world reflects what’s going on in our inner world. Therefore, it is good for us to pause from time to time and ask ourselves, What do my actions in my outer world indicate is going on inside of me?
We could ask ourselves: Are we using our possessions to protect a fear-filled heart? That’s what was going on with the Pharisees. They were afraid that Jesus would tear down the system that had built up and take away their positions of influence and authority. They were also afraid of being persecuted if they were to confess that Jesus really was the Messiah. So they used their possessions to try to protect themselves and build themselves up in the eyes of others.
Or are we using our money to cover our shame or as a substitute for love?
That’s what Zacchaeus was doing. He set about gathering as much money as he could, but what he really hungered for was love. And that was evident when Jesus dropped an ocean of his love into Zacchaeus’ desert-like heart.
Or is our life cluttered with possessions that we don’t use, because we’re using the acquisition of those possessions—whether it’s shopping or business or whatever it may be—to try to calm the anxiousness that’s in our minds and in our hearts?
Instead of doing all of those things in our outside world to try and medicate our broken and hungry soul, let’s identify the brokenness and hunger in our heart and then bring it to Jesus.
You see, the brokenness and the wounds that you may have in your heart are no barrier to him. He doesn’t see those things—whether it’s fear, guilt or shame. What he sees is you, and he says to you: I love you, and I am with you, and I forgive you. I heal you and I take all of your shame away.
And Jesus also makes you a beloved, forgiven child of God—just like he did for Zacchaeus.
But also, let’s remember that we are not the only ones who are struggling in life. Sometimes we see people do horrible, shameful things, and our tendency is to judge them for it. But let us remember that others can have who a hunger in their soul, or wounds in their heart, or brokenness in their mind which we cannot see. So let us have compassion on those around us and love them with the heart of Jesus, who reaches out with love to the fear-filled hearts of those who hate him, washes away all the shame of the despised and the lonely, and recalibrates our heart so that we are aligned with his mission to seek and to save all that is lost.
Rescued from a Struggle with Shame
Christine Caine grew up poor in one of the poorest parts of Australia. And as she was growing up, she was repeatedly abused sexually by four different men. And she said, when that happens to you once or twice, you think to yourself, That’s wrong. But when it happens repeatedly, you begin to think to yourself, There must be something wrong with me, that this is happening.
And you don’t have to be sexually abused to struggle with shame like she did. And what happens when we struggle with shame is we think to ourselves, God really can’t work through me in the way that I am. He can work through other people, but not through me. So we hold ourselves back from living the kind of life God wants to have for us and experiencing the good things God wants to give to us.
When she was in her 30s, through a series of events, she found out that she was adopted, and everything that she believed about herself in terms of her identity was stripped away. But that revelation also caused her to cling more dearly to that new identity that Jesus had given to her. Two Bible verses that were especially meaningful for her during this time were from Psalm 139 and Ephesians 2: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. …For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So the challenge which I wish to leave with you today is this: Bring your shame and any other soul wounds you may have to Jesus, and let him wash it all away with his love and replace it with his loving presence in your heart. For he came to seek and to save all that is lost—including every part of you.
So how deep are the depths of God’s grace? They go all the way down, and then they lift us all the way up to live life with Him.
Amen.
Farewell to Shadowlands 