Bulletin Articles
Wee Little Man in Jericho
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD" and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. -Psalm 32:5
Tax collectors were extremely unpopular in Jesus' day. Rome ruled the lewish homeland, and Jews considered the Roman Empire to be an oppressive regime. Tax collectors were Jews working for Rome, so they were seen as traitors by their countrymen. Rather than collecting just what Rome was owed, tax collectors cheated people out of extra money and then kept the extra funds.
Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector who had built a fortune on the backs of others in Jericho. When Jesus visited Jericho, Zacchaeus wanted to see him. But Zacchaeus was short. Really short. With a crowd of people around Jesus wherever he went, Zacchaeus would never get a glimpse of him. The chief tax collector had no choice but to debase himself, run ahead along the path that Jesus was walking, and climb a sycamore tree, just as a child or youth would do.
When Jesus came near the tree he said, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today" (Luke 19:5). Zacchaeus couldn't believe it! Practically leaping from the tree, Zacchaeus hit the ground and received le-sus joyfully. Others, however, were not so joyful. They grumbled that Jesus had "gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner" (v. 7).
But the call from Jesus had transformed Zacchaeus' life. "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor," he said to Jesus. "And if I have defrauded come to Zacchaeus. anyone of anything, restore it fourfold' (v. 8). Jesus replied that salvation had come to him.
Like Zacchaeus all of us are sinners. Jesus calls us anyway, because he came "To seek and to save the lost" (v. 10), When we confess our sins to God-noi open to hide them, not making excuses for them, but acknowledging them openly-God forgives the iniquity of our sins.
