A Heart for Outreach

Text: Luke 19:1-10

Introduction: When we think about our mission as Jesus-followers, we usually go to texts like Matthew 28:19-20 or Acts 1:8. But there is a succinct command found in the parable of the pounds that is sometimes overlooked: “Occupy until I come” (Luke 19:13 kjv). Other translations help us to get our job description: “Do business . . . until I come” (nasb); “Put this money to work . . . until I come back” (niv); “Invest until I come back” (tlb). The text is casting evangelism in a commercial format. Jesus the master teacher also gives us a masterful example of what the text means in the story of the conversion of Zacchaeus found in Luke 19:1-10. Jesus was doing “gospel business.”

1. Profile of Zacchaeus (19:1-4). Luke crams an amazing amount of information about Zacchaeus into four short verses.

· His name: Zacchaeus means “the righteous one.” We have to imagine the proud Jewish parents of baby Zacchaeus bringing him to the temple for his dedication. When the priest asks for his name, they answer Zacchaeus, with a prayer that throughout life he would be righteous. They were in for a disappointment!

· His job: “a chief tax collector.” Zacchaeus “must have been considered a very prominent individual. He had been placed at the head of the entire tax district of Jericho and vicinity, one of the three main Palestinian tax offices, the other two being located at Caesarea and Capernaum” (William Hendricksen, New Testament Commentary: Luke, p. 855).

· His finances: He was rich. You became rich as a tax collector by working for the Roman rulers and overcharging your fellow citizens. Anything over the designated tax fee could be pocketed personally. This is why Zacchaeus would be considered Jericho’s most hated man and labeled a sinner.

· His appearance: “He was short of stature.” He may have battled feelings of inferiority. I imagine him being nicknamed “Shorty.” Perhaps he tried to compensate for his short stature by obtaining a position to prove his worth. Maybe this is how Zacchaeus became chief!

· His temperament: He was curious and clever. He made his way behind the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree to get a glimpse of Rabbi Jesus.

2. Lunch with Zacchaeus (19:5-7). The two individuals Jesus paid special attention to during his trek through Jericho were Bartimaeus and Zacchaeus. They are viewed in stark contrast. One was poor, the other rich. One needed physical sight, the other spiritual sight. Both were marginalized in the culture of the day. The crowd told Bartimaeus to be quiet (18:39), but Jesus stopped and listened and healed. Passing through Jericho, Jesus focused on the most unpopular man in town—Zacchaeus, “a sinner.” There is something for us to learn from observing Jesus. He had time for those on the fringes of society—a blind man and a despised tax collector.

When we think about doing gospel business in the 21^st century, will we follow the lead and heart of Jesus? Will we reach out to the handicapped? What about those despised by society? In the outstanding text in Luke 4, Jesus defines where His heart lies: “He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (vv.18-19).

3. Conversion of Zacchaeus (19:8-9). How I wish I could have been “a fly on the wall,” to eavesdrop on that conversation! The speech of the new Zacchaeus leaves us in no doubt about the topic of conversation. Zacchaeus, who was a son of Abraham racially, was learning about becoming a son of Abraham spiritually. The apostle Paul provides us with more teaching in his letter to the Galatians: “Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (3:6-9). The new believer, Zacchaeus, gave dramatic evidence of the spiritual change in his life. He was ready to restore what he had wrongfully charged in the Jericho tax bills.

“The loving concern Jesus had shown for Zacchaeus made the latter a changed man. So deeply impressed is he that, in response, he rises, and states that here and now he is giving half of his possessions to the poor. That is his thank-offering. Has he at times been guilty of exacting too much money from anybody? He has. . . . In the presence of all he now declares that he is returning whatever he has unlawfully taken away. Not only that, he is going to add something to it. The law (Lev. 6:1-5; Num. 5:7) required that in certain cases one-fifth . . . of the overcharge had to be added when making restitution. Zacchaeus, however, has just now decided to restore not double but fourfold the amount overcharged” (Hendricksen, New Testament Commentary: Luke, p. 856).

4. The mission of Jesus-followers (19:10). “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” I see intentionality in Jesus’ style of evangelism. He seeks! He found Zacchaeus up a tree, the Sychar woman by a well, and Levi in his office. He is on the lookout. Winning the lost is on His heart. Is it on mine? Is it on yours? Let’s follow His lead by not overlooking the Bartimaeuses and Zacchaeuses of our day.