Grace and peace to you through Jesus Christ, who has come to seek and save the lost. Amen.

Lord Jesus, Zacchaeus grew to love listening to your Word. Move us also to accept and endear your words in our hearts. As your Word says about itself: "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good!" Make us crave your Word that we may grow up and become mature children of the Lord. Amen.

There were two brothers who were likable young men but they had a little bit of a wild streak. It got so wild that they began earning their money by stealing sheep from the local farmers. As happens to all thieves, one day they were caught.

Rather than kill them, the villagers decided to brand the two brothers on the forehead with the letters S. T. for "Sheep Thief." The action so embarrassed the one young man that he ran off, never to be heard from again. The other brother was so filled with remorse and repentance that he chose to stay and try to reconcile himself to the villagers whom he had wronged.

At first the villagers were skeptical. Most of them wouldn’t have anything to do with him. But he was determined to make reparation for his offenses. Whenever there was sickness, the sheep thief was there to help care for the sick person. Whenever there was work that needed to be done, the sheep thief showed up to help. It made no difference whether the person was rich or poor, the sheep thief was there to lend a helping hand. Soon he was an integral part of the community, never accepting pay for anything he did. His life was totally lived for others. As a consequence, he was a friend of all and became very well respected.

Many years passed and a traveler came through the town. As he sat at the sidewalk café eating his lunch, he noticed the well-respected old man with the strange brand on his forehead, sitting at a table nearby. It seemed that everybody in town stopped to pay their respects or share a kind word. Even the children stopped to play or give and receive an affectionate hug. The stranger’s curiosity was peaked and he asked the café owner about the old man. "What does the strange brand on his forehead stand for?"

The café owner, a contemporary of the old man, thought for a moment then said, "It happened so long ago that I don’t rightly remember. But I think it stands for "Saint.""

I love that story because a great transformation had taken place in that man. He was changed and people looked upon him as a saint. One of the greatest Bible stories about a transformation is that of the tax collector, Zacchaeus. Through Jesus, Zacchaeus was made a saint and a child of God.

Today we delve deeper into one of our VBS stories from this past week. VBS is really a lot of fun with seeing the animals from the Racine Zoo, viewing the insects from the Bug Man, eating ice cream and snacks, singing, making crafts, and studying Bible stories. But the main focus throughout the week is always Jesus. Jesus is what makes a week of fun and activities special and worthwhile. Otherwise it is just a week of free daycare. Hopefully, Jesus affected all of the children, teens, and adults in the same way he affected Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a totally different person after meeting Jesus. Today we see that Jesus brings a spectacular salvation. Jesus brings a spectacular salvation to a searching sinner through the seeking Savior.

The transformation of Zacchaeus, who made his riches exacting money from his fellow countrymen, was a sight to behold. Nobody was hated as much by the Jews as the tax collectors. It was bad enough that the Jews had to pay taxes to the hated Romans, but their own countrymen collected these taxes. The tax collectors were notorious for having "sticky fingers." They charged the people more than they needed to pay. Then they kept the rest for themselves. Zacchaeus was not just your average tax-gatherer; he was the chief. If other tax-gatherers were disliked or despised, Zacchaeus was hated; if tax collection was profitable or lucrative, Zacchaeus made obscene money and he was filthy rich. And then his height made him famous. He was the talk, the joke, and the scapegoat of Jericho residents.

Luke describes Zacchaeus as being rich. However, in many ways Zacchaeus was as poor as any man in Jericho. For all of his money he was a lonely, empty man. In the world of the flesh he had everything; in the world of the spirit he had nothing. The people, of course, looked upon him with complete contempt. He was a dog. He was cut off from the community of God. The people viewed him not only as the chief tax collector, but also as the chief among sinners. Therefore, he was prevented from seeing Jesus that day, not only by the press of the crowd, but also due to social and religious ostracism.

Still, something stirred within Zacchaeus on that day. He wanted to see Jesus. Zacchaeus, though, was "vertically challenged" like some people you might know. I had a friend that I used to play basketball with. He was short, too. He would grin and say, "I may be short … but I’m slow." Zacchaeus was short, but he wasn’t slow! He ran ahead of the crowd, looking for a way that he could see Jesus. He was so excited that he became like a little boy and climbed a tree to get a better view of the coming Savior.

It was no accident that Jesus stopped beneath that particular tree and looked up. The people were astonished that Jesus stopped and talked to this hated tax collector, and then said that he had to stay at his house. But nobody was as astonished as Zacchaeus.

Jesus said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." "I must" stay at your house. It was no coincidence that Jesus was coming over. Work had to be done. A soul needed to be saved.

The people wondered how Jesus could talk to and go to the house of such a despicable sinner. Yet throughout his ministry Jesus always reached out to those whom society rejected. He continually sought those that were away from God, those whom society would not allow to come back to God.

Jesus is only about a week away from Holy Week, where he would enter Jerusalem to suffer and die. Though Jesus has his face set toward the cross, he stops and ministers to a searching sinner.

You and I are searching sinners like Zacchaeus. Though he was physically wealthy, he was spiritually poor. His sins were bothering him. He needed to search out his Savior. There are plenty of signs that we are like Zacchaeus. Like Zacchaeus our main pursuit may be our job and earning money. We are always working, always scheming to earn more, have more, and spend more. Like Zacchaeus we see signs of our spiritual poverty: depression, sadness, stress, discouragement, complaining, doubt, lack of joy, we feel absent from God, we linger in our guilt over our sins. Feel free to add any I’ve missed. Each one of us could well be described as "the chief among sinners."

In our despair and spiritual poverty, we are searching for Jesus, but Jesus is the one who finds us. Jesus knew right where Zacchaeus was. He knew all about him. And he was filled with compassion toward him. This is how it always happens. Jesus makes the first move by coming to the dead sinner and offering life through himself. We would never be able to come to Jesus unless he came to us first. Jesus brings a spectacular salvation because he is the seeking Savior.

Zacchaeus didn’t waste any time getting out of the tree. "So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly." Jesus said, "jump" and Zack jumped. He came down right away and welcomed Jesus joyfully and with great excitement. He got way more than he asked for. He just wanted to get a closer look at the Savior but now the Savior was coming over for dinner!

Zacchaeus was converted during the dinner conversation with Jesus. He confessed his sin and believed in Jesus as the Savior who had come to bring salvation to his house. His conversion is clear because of the life-change we see. Zacchaeus pushed himself away from the table and promised to pay back all those he had cheated. The law said that if you defrauded anybody, you had to pay back the amount plus 20%. Zacchaeus goes way beyond this and promises to pay back four times the amount. You and I may think that giving 10% of our income to the Lord in our offerings is a lot. That is nothing compared to the life-change that had taken place in Zacchaeus.

He was fully sold out to Christ. Jesus had changed his heart and now he wanted to demonstrate that change through his actions.

Why did this miraculous change take place? Jesus gives us the answer: "Today salvation has come to this house … For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." This is the key verse in this whole story. This is why the Holy Spirit chose to record this story in the gospel of Luke. It is to show Jesus as our Savior who seeks to save the lost. Jesus wouldn’t give up on this wealthy, but poor tax collector. He was a sinner that needed saving. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. What Jesus did for Zacchaeus he has done for all of us. Zacchaeus was but one of the trophies Jesus was seeking to win and lay before his Father’s feet.

C.S. Lewis has this really helpful illustration. He says that in the incarnation, (God becoming man) Jesus was like a diver. He is God in heaven looking down into this dark, slimy, murky water. That’s our sinful, polluted world. God dives in, he gets himself wet. And then God came up again, dripping, but holding the precious thing he went down to recover. That precious thing was Zacchaeus, and you and me. He dove in to save sinners like us. That’s how we get out of the slime of tax collecting, or cheating, or lusting, or hating, or whatever other self-destructive sin we are buried in. God in Christ descended down into the slime and rescued us. Resolutions and vows to be better won’t help by themselves. We don’t have the power to keep them. We are stuck on the sea bottom. We have no power of our own to get up or out. All we can do is cry out for God’s grace to lift us up, to rescue us. Jesus saves us because he is seeking the lost.

Zacchaeus was a bad, hated, and miserable person the first half of his life. He fell short and missed the mark initially but God caused him to make a U-turn. He was Jericho’s biggest miracle – bigger than the walls falling down. The evidence of his transformation was that his heart was opened to the gospel, his wallet was opened to others, and his house was opened to Jesus

Wednesday night after we learned this story in VBS, my family went home to get ready for bed. My two older girls were being ugly toward each other. I yelled at both of them, but more at Abbey because she was older and should know better. Then, to be fair, I yelled at Miriam for getting her sister into trouble. I came back later and learned that Miriam had apologized and offered a gift to Abbey as a way of saying she was sorry. It was just one of those goofy toys you get out of a gumball machine, but it was a wonderful gesture of repentance. Then Abbey told her, "That’s okay, Miriam, I forgive you." A wonderful gesture of forgiveness.

How could I be mad at them anymore? They were a living example of Jesus changing people, just like he changed Zacchaeus.

Why does Jesus bother with skunks, weasels, and vultures of society – mainly people like us? Because he is in the business of catching people who fall, snatching sinners from Satan, attaching people to himself, and patching relations between people. Remember these words: "Jesus does not love us because we are good, but we become good because he loves us." The same spectacular salvation that occurred in Zacchaeus is yours as well. You are the searching sinner. More importantly, Jesus is the seeking Savior. Do you hear Jesus calling you by name, urging you down and inviting himself into your home? Jesus wants to enter the door of your heart, occupy the throne of your life, and make his home in your house. All because he brings spectacular salvation. Amen.

"Today salvation has come to this house, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Amen.