Home/History of Christianity/People/Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus
The chief tax collector of Jericho — hated, wealthy, short, and transformed by a single encounter with Jesus.
Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector of Jericho, a wealthy man and, in the eyes of his countrymen, a traitor. Jericho was a major customs center on the trade route to Jerusalem, and the man who ran it had become rich on the backs of his own people. Luke tells us he was short, and that this mattered when Jesus passed through town.
The Sycamore Tree
Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but the crowd blocked his view. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree — an undignified thing for a man of his position to do. When Jesus reached the tree, he stopped, looked up, and said: “ Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
The crowd grumbled. This was a tax collector — a collaborator, a thief, a man whose wealth was built on extortion. And Jesus was going to his house.
Repentance and Restitution
Zacchaeus’ response is one of the clearest pictures of genuine repentance in the entire Bible. He does not merely say he is sorry. He announces a two-part restitution: half his possessions to the poor, and four-fold repayment to anyone he has defrauded. That is not a token gesture. It is radical.
Jesus’ reply is the theme verse of the passage: “ 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 the lost.”
“ 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 19:8Sources
- Luke 19:1–10.
- I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1978), 694–702.