Read Luke 19:1–10
Questions from the Scripture text: Through where was Jesus passing (Luke 19:1)? Who was there (Luke 19:2)? What five things do we learn about him in Luke 19:2-3? What does he do in Luke 19:4? What does Jesus do and say in Luke 19:5? How does Zacchaeus respond in Luke 19:6? How did the crowd respond, and why (Luke 19:7)? But to whom does Zacchaeus address himself in Luke 19:8? What does he pledge? What does Jesus say has come in Luke 19:9? To whom? Why? What has the Son of man done (Luke 19:10)? To do what?
“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). That’s Jesus’s summary of how this all happened.
Perhaps Zacchaeus thought he was the seeker. He certainly went through some effort to overcome his height disadvantage. But Jesus gives us a clue in Luke 19:9 about where good works like those in Luke 19:8 (or effort like that in Luke 19:3-4) come from: Jesus Himself.
“Today salvation has come to this house” in Luke 19:9 reprises Luke 19:6’s “today I must stay at your house.” Jesus Himself is salvation, and He Who came to the house produced these good things in the master of the house. It was Jesus Who stopped in Luke 19:15, Who called Zacchaeus by name, Who insisted on coming to his house.
How necessary this was! For, Luke 19:2 had delivered the terrible news, “and he was rich.” Coming on the heels of Luke 18:24–26, that’s a heavy blow. But the crowd’s complaint in Luke 19:7 actually identifies why Zacchaeus was joyful (Luke 19:6) as opposed to the sorrowful rich man from chapter 18. He needed Jesus. He was a sinner. What use were all the earthly goods in the world to someone who knew that Jesus Himself was the “one thing he lacked”?
The proverbial Pharisee of Luke 18:11 comes back to mind on the lips of an entire crowd in Luke 19:7, who could easily have thanked God that they weren’t like that sinner come down from the tree. But it’s for sinners that Jesus came. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
How are you the kind of person that Jesus came to seek and save? How has He sought you? How have you received Him? What have you gladly given up for Him?
Suggested Songs: ARP16A “Keep Me, O God” or TPH508 “Jesus, Priceless Treasure”
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