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Traitor In A Tree
He was a dirtbag tax collector hated by his people, but Jesus stopped in front of the tree he'd climbed and told the short man to come down. Jesus was always making someone angry!
Bob Kuebler
7/14/20264 min read
A Traitor In A Tree
For some folks, the higher they climb on life’s ladder of accomplishments with fame and fortune, their view of others is tainted by a smug self-righteousness.
From the top of life’s ladder, the view is far-reaching and ego-inflating. A mind set above others is in danger of believing it is better than others.
Small things that are bad can cause great harm; they can also become good things of great blessing in the blink of an eye. Just one glance from Jesus, is the greatest blink of an eye of all time.
Zaccheus was a chief tax collector who worked for the Roman Empire. The Jewish people saw him as a villainous traitor who fraudulently took extra money for himself beyond the regular taxes. He was wealthy and despised.
The name we pronounce in English is, Zaccheus, but in Greek it’s pronounced, “Zahk -high-yahss” and it means, “pure.” It might seem strange to think of this despised villain as pure, but methinks he’s just like the rest of us.
We’re made in the image and likeness of God and placed in a world of selfishness and greed. We have a lofty view of ourselves until we meet a lowly servant named Jesus.
Let me pause for a moment and read a description of what Jesus did from Philippians 2:7,
“But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being.”
Zaccheus needed to see a Savior who would glance his way. Let’s read his story from Luke 19:1-10 from the Amplified Bible.
“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector [a superintendent to whom others reported], and he was rich.
Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, but he could not see because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran on ahead [of the crowd] and climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
When Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
So Zaccheus hurried and came down, and welcomed Jesus with joy.
When the people saw it, they all began muttering [in discontent], “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a [notorious] sinner.”
Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “See, Lord, I am [now] giving half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will give back four times as much.”
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this household, because he, too, is a [spiritual] son of Abraham;
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.””
Luke 19:1-10 AMP
Jesus is always on the lookout for folks in trees. People who are searching for Him. Zaccheus must’ve known he wasn’t doing life in the right way. He got rich at the expense of others. Maybe he had an axe to grind because he was a short guy. When someone has to climb a tree to see they must be pretty short. Maybe his shortness drove him to overachieve. Maybe he was exacting revenge from people who mocked his stature.
None of that really matters in the eyes of Jesus. He’s only looking to see if you’re looking. Zaccheus knew enough about Jesus that he just had to see Him. When Jesus walked by his tree, He stopped and invited Himself into Zaccheus’ home. The Jews only saw a traitor in a tree. Not only was he a dirtbag tax collector, but he was the chief dirtbag tax collector.
When Jesus looked up in the tree, he didn’t see a dirtbag, He saw a sinner seeking salvation from a Savior.
The Jews might as well have been perched in their own lofty trees of self-righteous arrogance.
They didn’t consider the little guy to still be a Jew. He was a traitor And a turncoat. I can imagine the people cursing the sinner in a tree. How could Jesus hang out with a loser like that?
Well, we already know the end of that story and the beginning of new life for Zaccheus.
In repentance, and evidence of his salvation and a changed life, he paid back more than what he had fraudulently taken.
The name Zaccheus was now pure again, just as he had been as a child. He became like a child and climbed a tree to see Jesus. Receiving Jesus, Zaccheus became a child of God.
Zaccheus was lost and Jesus came to seek and save him.
Jesus became the curse and carried our sins on a tree - He was crucified on a cross.
Zaccheus was an outcast redeemed by Jesus. Soon after, Jesus would become an outcast to redeem all of us.
It happened to me too. How about you?
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