Preached in Markham Baptist Church, March 30, 2003.

Text: Luke 19:1-10

A TREE-CLIMBING POLITICIAN MEETS THE MASTER

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”  (Luke 19:1-10) (NRSV)

A very famous journalist once said that a very interesting book could be written about unbelievers who tried to explain why anyone would decide to follow Jesus Christ. For instance, when someone on death row says they have become a believer in Jesus Christ, people scoff at it saying that he/she is desperate and is clinging to any lifeline possible. Or when Charles Colson, one of the politicians caught in the Watergate Scandal of the 70s, when he became a follower of Jesus Christ, people said that he was only trying to obtain a lesser sentence. They couldn't believe that he would become a magnificent man of God, who is doing a great work for Jesus Christ.

So when this journalist became a Christian everyone couldn't believe it. They gave all sorts of reason saying that he had committed so many sins in his youth and now that as an old man he was no longer able to commit them, he would condemn them. They said he was an old clown who needed a new act.

And the journalist said that "the only reason they didn't give for my decision to follow Christ and have Him as my Savior was the true one: I've fallen deeply in love with Jesus Christ."

I wonder if you feel the same.  Have you fallen in love with Jesus?  Do you know that your relationship with the Lord of the universe can be so intimate and so close that it can be described as a love relationship?  I've fallen deeply in love with Jesus. I would suggest that this is the testimony of many here today. And I believe that if Zacchaeus was here today and was to give his testimony, I believe that he would say that he had fallen in love with Jesus.

No doubt there were probably some that questioned and ridiculed his commitment to Jesus Christ. There may have been some that said that his conscience had caused him such pain that he would turn to anyone who could relieve it. There would be others perhaps who would try to explain his conversion as unreal and all a charade.

But I wonder if Zacchaeus would say "the only reason they didn't give for my decision to follow Jesus Christ was the one true one - I've fallen deeply in love with Jesus Christ."

And we could ask, why?  Why?  Because, Zacchaeus would respond, I have never experienced such kindness.

Now we know from the text that Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Not just a tax collector but a chief tax collector. And we also know that tax collectors were hated. At the time the Romans had enlisted people to collect the required tax from the people of the occupied nations. The tax collectors were authorized to collect what was required plus anything extra they could squeeze out of the people. Whatever was extra they could keep for themselves, so they were considered to be traitors to the nation. Because they worked for the Romans, and they were considered to be selfish, greedy and crooked because they took more than what was required for their own benefit.  So when we read the gospels you read of tax collectors and sinners in the same sentence. They were not well-liked. 

There is little doubt that Zacchaeus would have been the subject of hatred and rebuke from the people.  And now here is Jesus standing here before him and what does he say?  Does he say - "you dirty swindler you! You heartlessly take from the poor. You take a perverse delight in forcing widows and orphans out on the street! You shall not escape the fires of hell!"

Jesus knew how to speak words of judgment, to be sure. But Jesus' mission is to seek and to save the lost. That is what He says at the end of our text. He says I have come to seek and to save the lost.  And notice how kindly He does this. He speaks kindly to Zacchaeus and calls him to come down and goes to his home as a guest.

And isn't that the way Jesus treats every one of us?  No matter what we have done, no matter where we have gone, Jesus comes before us with kindness in His voice, with grace in His attitude seeking to give His all to us. You know I often speak to you of His grace, His unmerited favour.  O, how we need to be reminded of it for we sometimes allow the world to tell us, we allow our own inner voices to tell us that we are not worthy of be a follower of Jesus Christ.  We have a past, we have made devastating mistakes, we have done or said that which is not worthy of a follower of God, and find ourselves up the proverbial tree. Yet still, still Jesus approaches us with kindness, looks up at us, and calls us by name and with grace invites us to follow Him and live for Him.

O, that you would know His love for you and His kindness toward you. So that you could say I have fallen deeply in love with Jesus.

And Zacchaeus would further respond - It is not only the kindness of Jesus Christ, it is the joy of having Jesus live in my life.  Zacchaeus' life was transformed. There is a deep-seated joy in him now, for that is the experience of everyone who gives their lives to Christ.

Do you know that Jesus did not come to make you solemn or sad?  He came that your joy might be full. And the highest and purest of all joys is the joy of saying to Jesus Christ "I need you in my life to forgive me of my sin and rule over my decisions" and then He comes and lives inside you. O, the joy!

Blaise Pascal, a great scientist and intellectual, left behind this record of his conversion on a piece of paper, one that he had sewn into his clothing:

"On Monday, twenty third of November ... from about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight, fire.  I have met not the God of the theologians, not the God of the scholars, not the God of the philosophers. I have met the God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob. The God of Jesus Christ. Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy."

And this is the testimony of all who have a relationship with Jesus Christ. There is joy in knowing your sins are forgiven, that you are reborn.  That you have fresh start.  The joy of having Jesus Christ live in you.

There would be some who would suggest that the Christian faith is a philosophy to live by and to an extent they would be right.  The Christian faith is a philosophy.  It does stand the test of reason.  But listen carefully, the Christian faith is not simply a philosophy to live by.  I can tell you that it wasn't a philosophy that captured Zacchaeus' heart.  For at the core of the Christian faith is not a philosophy but a person.  And O, the joy that is ours as we experience the love and the kindness and the generosity and the rule of the person of Jesus Christ.

I have fallen deeply in love with Jesus Christ. Why?  Because of the joy that He has given me.  Because I have not met such kindness.  And then this. Z acchaeus experienced relief and release in having Jesus Christ as Lord of his life.

Luke does not tell us what Jesus said to Zacchaeus over dinner.  Surely he spoke of the way of eternal life - because that was the end result.  Look what happened to this tree-climbing politician after he had met the Master.  He stands up and says, in verse 8,

"Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much."

To be sure it is a genuine act of repentance - Zacchaeus wanted to put right what was wrong. But do you hear the relief in Zacchaeus' voice? It was the relief of one who had been set free from the accumulation of stuff.

I once heard Maurice Boyd, a great Welsh preacher, tell of a very interesting conversation he had at 30,000 feet.  His seat-mate on the plane was a salesman, a very successful salesman.  He had a home in Vancouver, a home in Florida, a cottage in the woods and a yacht. He had a BMW with six cylinders and four doors. Maurice Boyd knew all this because the man told him - and then came the question. It is a question that most of us preachers dislike.  And the question is, "What do you do?"  We don't like the question because you know one of two things will happen to the conversation.  Either it will come to a screeching halt as the person feverishly reviews the past conversation to see if he might have said anything to offend the perceived genteel sensibilities of the pastor.  Or the conversation will careen down some uncharted territory as the person tells you about his aunt who is a big Baptist, or will want to talk about the one book of the Bible that he has a faint interest in - the book of Revelation.  All of which makes for a long plane ride.  Maurice Boyd dislikes these responses so much that when asked he will simply say, "I'm in insurance."

But he didn't this time, he said, "I am a minister."  And interestingly, none of the things we fear happened. The man got a very interested look on his face, and he leaned in and whispered urgently, "I want to talk to you."

"What about?" asked Maurice.

"I've told you about all that I own and all that I have accumulated and all that I have. Well I feel so shallow, so empty. It's as if all the inventory of my life is in the store window but there is nothing in the warehouse."

I wonder if Zacchaeus didn't feel this way too? And I wonder if when he heard about Jesus Christ and the promise of life, life to the full that Jesus had to give that there wasn't an amazing sense of relief for Zacchaeus that indeed there was more to life than the accumulation of wealth.  Before Christ came into Zacchaeus' life, he was greedy, money-hungry, longing for the material and searching for meaning in what can be accumulated.  But now he is free from that.  Why?  Because Jesus Christ was now his Lord and Zacchaeus had something, no someone in his possession that was worth far more than silver or gold. And the relief that came into Zacchaeus' life from that time on.

My friends, it is one of the benefits of belonging to Christ that we sometimes forget - there is that sense of immense relief that he didn't have to accumulate the stuff anymore.  That we don't have to strive to get more.  The relief in knowing that all the silver and all the gold and all the stuff of this world is shear rubbish when placed next to the incomparable riches that are ours in Jesus Christ.  Riches of joy, of peace, of security, of purpose, of grace. We are free from all the stuff of this world for we have someone much better.

O, we forget this. O, how we sometimes displace Christ in our lives with the things of this world.  It is such a danger for us. I can talk to some Christian men about Jesus Christ and there is no light in their eyes, there is no passion in their voice. But talk to that same man about the new wide-screen, flat-to-the-wall, high-definition Sony television and they are there, man! You have to take two steps back because they are salivating all over you.

And I see it in myself. You want to talk about tractors. I'm there. You want to talk about the green and yellow brand, nothing runs like a Deere, man. Let's talk about tractors!

Careful. To be sure, enjoy all the good things God has given to you. But beware. Beware. Do not get caught in the trap. For those of you who belong to Christ have been released from the grasping and the accumulating of all that stuff. Remember your first love. We have been given a great gift in the person of Jesus Christ. We have fallen deeply in love with Jesus. Let Him have the first place, let Him have your attention, let Him have your goals, let Him have your desires, let Him have your agendas, let Him have your fears, give to Him your families, your relationships, let Him have all that you have. Let Him have first place in your life and I will guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

Zacchaeus was released, from all that stuff and the accumulation - saying, "Lord, I am not owned by that any more. And I will give half of what I have to the poor.  And if I have defrauded anyone of anything," (and you can be sure that he had) "I will make restitution."  It was true repentance. Having been completely forgiven he wanted to make it right.

I have fallen deeply in love with Jesus Christ. Can you say that?  O, that you would know His kindness, that He has come to seek and to save that which is lost.  He does not come to crush or condemn, He comes to seek and to save.

That you would know His joy. That you would know that you have been released.

Maybe you said that you had fallen in love with Jesus at one time, but that love has grown dim. May you say this morning, "Lord, rekindle my love. May I know your kindness, restore in me the joy of your salvation, grant to me release from accumulating. And Lord my actions and my words and my thoughts show you and all those around me that I have fallen deeply in love with Jesus Christ."

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - March 2003