Deuteronomy 29, Deuteronomy 30: 1-10, Luke 18: 31-43, Luke 19: 1-10, Psalm 68: 1-6
Luke 19: 8-10 (ESV)
“And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord,
the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of
anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has
come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came
to seek and to save the lost.”
In verses 8 through 10 from Luke 19, we read the story about
Zacchaeus who was a rich chief tax collector. He knew about Jesus and wanted to
see him, but he was small so he climbed up sycamore tree to see him. Jesus stopped
where Zacchaeus was in the tree and told he wanted to stay at his house. The crowd
who was there complained that Jesus was going to be the guest of a sinner. Zacchaeus
told Jesus he had given half his wealth to the poor and he restored fourfold to
anyone whom he had defrauded.
Zacchaeus wasn’t just someone who wanted to see Jesus. He
knew about his teachings and had put them into action in his own life, so Zacchaeus
was already transformed when Jesus spoke directly to him. Jesus told the crowd
that Zacchaeus had received salvation by his actions, and he was exactly the
type of person that Jesus had come to see and save. Jesus took incarnation on
earth to save and seek sinners, and that salvation was open to all if they
followed his teachings. I like this story because it shows that were people who
had heard about the teachings of Jesus and had followed them without first
having seen Jesus or his miracles. The faith of Zacchaeus was so strong that he
needed to just hear about the teachings of Christ to believe them, without ever
having seen him or experienced a miracle from Jesus in his life.
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