Most of us are at least vaguely familiar with a wee little man by name of Zacchaeus.  Even if we haven’t read the Biblical account of his visit with Jesus, we sung the song in Sunday School and Bible camps.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man,

And a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree For the Lord he wanted to see.

 

And as the Savior passed that way

He looked up in the tree and he said,

Zacchaeus you come down, For I’m going to your house today!

For I’m going to your house today!

 

Zacchaeus was a wee little man,

But a happy man was he,

For he had seen the Lord that day

And a happy man was he;

And a very happy man was he.

Nobody knows who wrote this little ditty.  It’s been around for so long though.  But just who was the wee little man, Zacchaeus?  Did he really climb up a tree?  I guess the reason the song and the man are so memorable to us is because as kids, we were “wee” and “little,” so we could relate to a small guy climbing up a tree to something or somebody.  The story of this vertically challenged man is found only the gospel of Luke and nowhere else.  That makes it special and worthy of our attention.  If ever there was a man who got the surprise of his life, it was Zacchaeus.  Let’s see what happened to him that day when he climbed up a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of the Savior as He passed by.

A rich man gets a surprise

The story of Zacchaeus starts in Luke 19, but if you want to understand it in context, you really  need to go back a chapter.  Dr Luke was no dummy, and there’s a reason why these two chapters and their stories are placed back-to-back.

In chapter 18 of Luke’s gospel, the good Dr relates a number of incidents in the ministry of Jesus designed to teach us something about the qualities our Lord is looking for in those who would follow Him and those whom He would bless.  Very, very quickly, with the speed of lightening, here they are:

•Always persist, Luke 18:1 – 8.  In this, the parable of the unrighteous judge, Jesus isn’t trying to teach us something about widows or God’s nature.  The point of the story is that if a secular judge will finally hear an appeal, how much more quickly will your Heavenly Father, who loves you with a perfect love, hear you and respond?  So don’t give up no matter what the odds.  The persistence refers to not giving up and throwing in the towel.  It doesn’t refer to bugging God to answer a prayer.  If you reach what seems to be an impossible situation, instead of panicking, and going all distraught, just call out to God and He’ll see you through.

•Be humble, Luke 18:9 – 14.  The simple lesson of this parable is that our opinion of ourselves will determine our opinion of who God is.  The giver who thought highly of himself saw God, not in a loving, personal and intimate way, but in a very cold, distant and impersonal way.  The humble giver, though, was awed by God.  He is the one who would experience God’s grace and compassion because he needed to.

•Be child-like, Luke 18:15 – 17.  God want us to be child-like, not childish.  There is a world of difference.  It’s not that God thinks children are more virtuous than adults; they really aren’t.  They’re just as selfish, devious, and conniving as their parents are.  It’s that God wants us to depend on Him as a child depends on his father.  

•Be single-minded in your devotion, Luke 18:18 – 23.  That’s the whole point of the rich, young ruler story.  It’s not about the impossibility of a rich man going to heaven, although that’s what we common folk like to think.  It wasn’t his wealth that was the problem, it was his attitude.  The rich, young ruler loved Jesus, no doubt, but his wealth was more important to him.  He just couldn’t give it up.  By the way, giving up wealth is not a prerequisite for following Christ.  You can certainly be a wealthy disciple.  What Jesus wants are people who will be completely devoted to Him and the Kingdom.  He knows what will come between you and your service to Him, and that’s what He asks you to surrender.  For most of us, wealth probably isn’t the problem.  Maybe it’s the lack of wealth. Or ambition. Or career goals.  All kinds of things and people can stop you from being completely devoted and committed to Christ.

This sermon series is about surprised people in the Bible, and I guess the rich, young ruler was surprised by our Lord’s response to him.  

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  (Luke 18:22 | TNIV)

The call to give away his wealth wasn’t just a challenge to the young man, it was a call to faith.  He already admired Jesus and was serious about how he was living.  He was scrupulously keeping the commandments.  But for all his hard work, he just didn’t understand the commandments he was working so hard to keep.  

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.  (Luke 18 23 | TNIV)

He claimed to love God – that was one of the commandments he kept – but when faced with the choice, his love for God was really an empty love; he couldn’t serve God if it meant giving up his wealth.  Like so many so-called Christians today, God really didn’t have first place in his heart.  No wonder he left Jesus sad.  

Another rich man gets a bigger surprise

That’s the background most people don’t associate with the story of Zacchaeus, the short fellow.  They should, because as you’ll see, Zacchaeus essentially did everything right without the benefit of reading Luke 18!  Leon Morris makes the observation:

Coming so soon after the emphatic statement about the difficulty of the salvation of the rich, this incident must be seen as a striking manifestation of God’s grace.

Not just a “striking manifestation,” but a powerful contrast, as we shall see.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.  A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.  (Luke 19:1, 2 | TNIV)

Our Lord was slowly making His way to Jerusalem for the last time. Jericho was a very prosperous trade city, located in the Jordan valley, some five miles from the Jordan River and about seventeen miles from Jerusalem. It’s location made Jericho an important city. Dead center on an important trade route, the world literally came through Jericho and, as some historians have noted, there was likely a large Roman custom house located there.

Jesus was just passing through this metropolis, but this gave a man by name of Zacchaeus a chance to see Him.  Apart from these ten verses in one Gospel, Zacchaeus is completely unknown to us.  All we know about him is found here.  He was short, and he was a “chief tax collector.”  That title is also unknown to us as it isn’t found anywhere else.  But we assume he was higher up the state revenue collection chain than the other tax collector we are familiar with, Levi.  As a matter of fact, Levi was probably the kind of man that Zacchaeus would have employed.  Oddly enough, given his scandalous occupation, Zacchaeus had a good name, for it meant “pure” or “righteous.”  

Jericho must have been the perfect location to be a tax collector.  It was very prosperous, full of people needing to pay their taxes and businessmen and tradesmen who also would have to fill Rome’s coffers with some of their hard-earned dollars.  It’s no wonder little Zacchaeus was rich.  He could hardly be anything else living and working in Jericho.  In spite of his great wealth, though, he likely had no social life.  Who would want to associate with a tax collector?

He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.  (Luke 19:3, 4 | TNIV)

Somehow, his man heard of Jesus and wanted to see him. That was surely commendable.  But what was more commendable was that  Jesus wanted to see him!  That seems surprising to us, but it shouldn’t be.  Remember, Jesus had the “bad habit” of associating with people of questionable character: prostitutes, for example.  As much as prostitutes were hated and shunned by society, tax collectors were probably hated even more because nobody could really shun them!  Everybody would have to see the tax collector in order to pay his taxes.  

Zacchaeus had a problem. In addition to being a hated tax collector, he was short.  With the crowds surrounding Jesus as He walked through Jericho, how could a short fellow hope to see Jesus?  Zacchaeus didn’t become the chief tax collector for no good reason!  He thought of the perfect solution.  He would scamper up a tree.  Wouldn’t you have done that?  The fact that this grown man would do what a child would do reminds us the previous chapter, doesn’t it?  

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”  (Luke 18:16 | TNIV)

He did what a child would have done.  Nobody would have made way for him, so he did what a child would have done.  

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”  (Luke 19:5 | TNIV)

Now we know why Jesus was passing through Jericho: the divine imperative.  He told Zacchaeus, “I must stay at your house today.”  He “must” stay at the tax collector’s house that very day.  Jesus had to talk to Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus had an appointment to keep with the Son of God, even though he didn’t know it.  God was working in the background, for who knows how long, drawing this short collector to the place where he would have to face Jesus.  

So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.  (Luke 19:6 | TNIV)

That’s a remarkable sentence.  With all the speed he could muster, Zacchaeus, apparently without question, scrambled down the sycamore tree and welcomed Jesus gladly into his home.  Just a few minutes earlier, all Zacchaeus wanted was to catch a glimpse of Jesus, a man he had heard about, like so many others had heard about Him.  And all of a sudden, he’s opening up his home to this stranger!  You may not have done that.  I may not have done that.  But when God is working on a lost person’s heart, he will find himself doing what God desires him to do.  

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”  (Luke 19:7 | TNIV)

You can always depend on your fellow man to misinterpret what he’s looking at if he’s looking at you.  They looked at Zacchaeus and all they saw was was a sinner. Jesus looked at Zacchaeus and He saw a sinner in need of saving.  

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.”  (Luke 19:8 | TNIV)

The word “but” seems out of place.  Older translations use the word “and,” but “but” is correct.  Luke used “but” to set what Zacchaeus did in contrast to the grumblers.  While onlookers murmured and grumbled about Jesus deigning to eat with a tax collector, Zacchaeus “stood up…”  There’s formal tone in about what he was about to say and do. He was almost standing at attention as he was about to say and do something of great import.  What he said was proof positive that Jesus’ visit to his home had changed him in dramatic fashion.  Dr Luke hasn’t told us that Jesus had told Zacchaeus to do any of what he was announcing he would do, but it’s telling that the tax collector, the man who took money from others legally and illegally, would make restitution and then some!  

This incredibly generous spirit and genuine desire to make right any past wrong shows how much this man’s heart had been changed by the Spirit of God.  The short speech Zacchaeus made, he made not to the people, but to Jesus.  This wasn’t an effort to convince anybody else that he was sincere.  It was the spontaneous response of a man who saw the wrong in his life and the necessity to make it right.  It was the response of a heart recreated and made clean and of a spirit given a new and eternal life.  He was willing to give half of his wealth away – suggesting that half of his wealth was gained in devious ways, and he would help the poor.  He said this of his own accord, not prompted by Jesus, as far as we know.  This is in sharp contrast to the rich, young ruler of the previous chapter, who wouldn’t give up his wealth to follow Jesus.  

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”  (Luke 19:9, 10 | TNIV)

This man was saved, not because of what he did, but because “this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”  Penance wasn’t what saved this man’s soul, it was because he was in solidarity Abraham, the man who experienced God’s free grace.  Zacchaeus became a true member of Abraham’s family, unlike those miserable grumblers and those who murmured about Jesus fellowshipping with a tax collector.  

And verse ten is the one of the most important verses in all the Bible and the key verse in Luke’s Gospel.  Jesus came to seek the lost.  In this case, the lost man Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus, and Jesus was seeking Zacchaeus. And as a result of all this seeking, salvation came to Zacchaeus’ house. 

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In this study, there are a couple of surprised people, but if we can learn from their example, we ourselves will be spared a terrible surprise in the hereafter.  In the letter to the Hebrews, we read a truly chilling verse that each one of us should memorize and think about every day of our lives.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.  (Hebrews 4:13 | TNIV)

See what I mean?  Chilling!  Can you imagine standing before God knowing that He’s seen every thought you ever had?  Even the stray ones?  He’s seen everything you’ve ever done, even the things you did in secret?  A verse like that puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?  There isn’t a thing about you that God isn’t aware of.  He knows your wants and desires; good or bad He knows them.  He knows your ambitions and how you are planning on accomplishing them.  He knows what you’re afraid of and He knows what you’ll do before you do it.  This is true on a personal, micro scale, but it’s also true on the worldwide, macro scale.  What do you do with this information?  Hopefully it will lead you to think twice about doing something you’d be embarrassed about when having to give an account before God.  

Our surprised person is a person by the name of Hazael. Just who was this man?  Here’s what we know about him:

•He succeeded Ben Hadad as king of Syria, or Aram;

•We find him in a piece of extra Biblical history known as the Assyrian Annals, where he is called “the son of a nobody,” meaning he was a commoner.

•He was attacked often by the Assyrians.

•He often attacked Israel, the Northern Kingdom, usually after an Assyrian attack.

He was a shifty character who caused no end of trouble for the Israelites.  But how he came to the throne is surprising.  

The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram.  (1 Kings 19:15 | TNIV)

It sounds like a cake walk; a simple task.  All the prophet Elijah had to do was walk “from here to there” and anoint some fellow by the name of Hazael as king over Syria.  Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that.  The Desert of Damascus was enemy territory.  And for that matter, what did God have to do with a pagan country and their politics?  Apparently everything if you believe the Bible.

It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.  (Psalm 75:7 | TNIV)

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.  He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.  (Daniel 2:20, 21 | TNIV)

“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”  Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”  (John 19:10, 11 | TNIV)

There’s no denying the sovereignty of God in the politics of the world.  We may not like it, but there it is.  

Even though Elijah was tasked with the job of “anointing” Hazael king of Syria, it would be up to his successor, Elisha, to do it.  We don’t have a record of God directing Elisha to go into Syrian territory.  It sounds like a coincidence; that he just happened to have found himself suddenly across the border.  But with God, of course, there are no coincidences.  Elisha was simply being obedient to the will of God.  Clearly, he thought obeying God was more important that fearing the enemy.  Like his mentor, Elisha had a “heavenly perspective.”  That is, he lived with eternity always in view.  Do you live like that?  Is heaven that real to you?  Does your eternal destination dictate how you live on earth, your temporary home?  C.S. Lewis once wrote:

If you read history, you will discover that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.… They all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you get neither.

It may well be that one of the reasons why so many believers today live such spiritually anemic lives is because their aim is at earth, not heaven.  

Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,” he said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”  (2 Kings 8:7, 8 | TNIV)

There was no earthly reason for the prophet Elisha to cross the border into Aram, or Syria, so obviously he is there for a heavenly reason.  Since Elijah didn’t have a chance to anoint Hazael as king, the duty fell on Elisha, and Elisha was up to the task.  The “anointing” probably wasn’t a ceremony where oil was poured over the candidate, but rather it was a way to show Hazael that it was God who was ultimately in charge; that he would sit on the throne because God was going to allow it to happen.  In non-Biblcal historical accounts of this time, Hazael is known, in addition to being the “son of a nobody,” as being a usurper; someone who rose to power by very devious means.  How he attained the throne is irrelevant.  God knew he would be sitting on that throne and He wanted him to know that He knew what was going to happen.

Ben Hadad was sick enough that he thought he was going to die – that whatever his illness was, it was terminal.  When a man thinks he’s going to die, he’ll do what it takes to either avoid it or prepare for the day when it finally happens.  The fact that he was willing to take Elisha at his word shows just how “famous” this prophet was.  Even the pagan Ben Hadad would take the prophet’s word as truth.  

Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”  (1 Kings 8:9 | TNIV)

Ben Hadad’s over-the-top gifts to Elisha showed the tremendous respect this Syrian king had for the prophet of God.  Not only that, the fact that he would go to such trouble suggests that he had been very impressed with the power of Israel’s God over the years.  Some scholars have suggested that Ben Hadad had actually been converted to Yahweh.  Is that possible?  Maybe, but at the very least, at this occasion he was willing to take a chance on God – the true God, instead of on his nation’s deity, Baal.  That old saw, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” rings true most of the time.

Can you imagine how impressive 40 camel-loads “of every good thing of Damascus” must have been?  It’s speculation, of course, but it’s likely the camels were carrying such goods as apricots and dates, other foods, arms, some furniture and probably some kind of wine.  

That curious designation, “your son, Ben Hadad,” sounds strange to our Western ears, but it’s really proper spiritual protocol.  The king is showing the prophet all the respect he is due; like that of a son for his father.  Ben Hadad, sworn enemy of Israel, had been backed into a corner by his fear of death that he saw Yahweh and His prophet as his only hope.  

Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’ Nevertheless, the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.”  He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of God began to weep.  (2 Kings 8:10, 11 | TNIV)

Had Elisha stopped at verse 10, Ben Hadad would have been one happy pagan king.  As it turned out, whatever malady he was suffering from wasn’t terminal at all.  Eventually, nature would take its course and he would get better.  But the prophet added that God had shown him that Ben Hadad would, in fact, die.  The king’s time on earth was short, but it wouldn’t be the illness that would be the cause of his death.

Why did Elisha begin to cry at the revelation God had shown him?  As he stared at Hazael, we can conclude that God had revealed to him that the servant would ruthlessly assassinate his king, Ben Hadad.  Is that what made him cry?  Partly.  There was no love between Israel and Syria and certainly Elisha had no love for Hazael.  The problem was – what made the prophet cry – was that as bad as Ben Hadad was, Hazael would prove to be much worse.  He would be the scourge of Israel for many years.  

“Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.”  Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?” “The Lord has shown me that you will become king of Aram,” answered Elisha.  (2 Kings 8:12, 13 | TNIV)

The result of Hazel’s battles against Israel and even Judah was disastrous to say the least.  King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah once fought the forces of Hazael at Romath-gilead, where they were soundly defeated.  After the murder of Joram by Jehu, again Israel had to defend itself against the forces of Damascus, and again without success.  Eventually, he would invade Judah and cart off the treasures of the Judean palace and temple.  Israel had largely been rendered helpless by the mighty forces of Hazael and probably reduced to vassalage.

For now though, Hazael in genuine surprise must have wondered how this man could read his mind.  But this was no parlor trick; this was the work of the Lord whereby His prophet was given a supernatural insight into the inner workings of deceitful Hazael’s mind.  

Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.”  But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.  (2 Kings 8:14, 15 | TNIV)

And once again, Elisha the prophet’s word came to pass.  Certainly Ben Hadad was surprised by this turn of events.  And Hazael was also surprised that a mere man could know the what was in his mind and his immediate future.

There are some fascinating things about this story.  First, the actions of Ben Hadad.  This was not a good man.  He was evil and did a lot of harm to Israel and God’s people.  In fact, he tried to have Elisha killed. Yet here he was, afraid that he was facing his own death, he reached out to the one man from whom he know he’d hear the truth.  As a Christian, you may annoy people with your faith.  Non-believers may mock you and tease you on account of your faith,  But when disaster strikes, the Christian is one those people will turn to.  Will you be up to it?

Second, Elisha knew Israel was doomed; he knew the future was bleak.  The Israelites had routinely abandoned Yahweh in favor of worshiping the idols of surrounding nations.  Idolatry with all of its attendant perversities seemed to fascinate the Israelites to the point where they just couldn’t stop their sin.  And yet, Elisha wept for his people.  In spite of their hopeless addiction to sin and rebellion, his heart ached for them.  This is a revealing look at the heart of God’s man.  And this is the kind of person God is looking to use today.  There’s nothing more frustrating than dealing with God’s people who know better, yet who continue to do things they shouldn’t be doing.  Are you like Elisha?  Do you weep over the state of God’s people, or is your attitude more like that of Elijah, Elisha’s mentor, who was so discouraged he just wanted to curl up and die?  

The prophet Elisha was able, somehow, to focus on that “still, small voice” and he kept on keeping on in spite of the fact that his people were seldom in his corner and weren’t all that interested in hearing what he had to say.  

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