“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

Chapter 19: 1-10       Zacchaeus the Tax Collector                       

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus uses many parables to illustrate his Good news.

“The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector” in Luke 18: 9-14 is my favorite where Jesus made comparison between the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Pharisee was bragging or boasting about his righteousness… thanking God that he was “not like the rest of the humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous, even like this tax collector, fast twice a week, pay tithes.“ While the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

In the Gospel of Luke 18:18-25 A Rich Official encountered Jesus and asked “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” After the rich official told Jesus that he had kept his commandments since his youth, Jesus said to this rich official, “There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come a follow me.” But when he heard of this he became quite sad, for he was very rich. Jesus looked at him and said, ”How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

Climbing a Sycamore tree – a humble act for the Chief Tax Collector

According to the Gospel of Luke, it was not long after he told the above parable and encountered the Rich Official that Zacchaeus the Chief Tax Collector of Jericho who was also a wealthy man encountered Jesus. Zacchaeus probably has heard about Jesus and his teaching. He was seeking to see who Jesus was but he was short so he climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus. At this juncture, I want you to try imagining that someone short, very wealthy (humbling himself) by climbing a tree in order to meet Jesus. That act of humbleness perhaps caught the eyes of Jesus. And, Jesus asked him to come down quickly, for he must stay at his house.

Can you imagine what an honor it must have been for this little man Zacchaeus, a chief Tax collector for Jesus to stay at his house? His is a kind of smallness that is far more devastating than being short. His smallness emerges from his terrible self-image resulting from others’ attitudes toward him. Though a member of a group that was widely despised, Zacchaeus appears in today’s story as a fundamentally honest and humble man who seeks the truth and is open to finding it where he can, even if it means climbing a sycamore tree in a crowd, just to catch a glimpse of Jesus.

Give half of his possessions to the poor, those that I have cheated, I shall repay it 4 times over – “Zacchaeus acknowledges that he is a sinner needing the mercy of God”

Zacchaeus provides a contrast to the rich man of Luke 18:18-23 who cannot detach himself from his material possessions to become a follower of Jesus. Zacchaeus, according to Luke, exemplifies the proper attitude toward wealth: He promises to give half of his possessions to the poor, and consequently is the recipient of salvation.

We have much to learn from Zacchaeus - His humility, his recognition of his sin, his act of reparation.

“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

Transformation

In his Letter to Priests written for Holy Thursday 2002 (Nos. 5-6), the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote these words about today’s delightful Gospel story:

Everything that happens to him (Zacchaeus) is amazing. If there had not been, at a certain point, the ‘surprise’ of Christ looking up at him, perhaps he would have remained a silent spectator of the Lord moving through the streets of Jericho. Jesus would have passed by, not into, his life. Zacchaeus had no idea that the curiosity which had prompted him to do such an unusual thing was already the fruit of a mercy which had preceded him, attracted him and was about to change him in the depths of his heart. [...]

Luke’s account is remarkable for the tone of the language: Everything is so personal, so tactful, so affectionate! Not only is the text filled with humanity; it suggests insistence, an urgency to which Jesus gives voice as the one offering the definitive revelation of God’s mercy. He says: ‘I must stay at your house,’ or to translate even more literally: ‘I need to stay at your house’ (v 5). Following the mysterious road map which the Father has laid out for him, Jesus runs into Zacchaeus along the way. He pauses near him as if the meeting had been planned from the beginning. Despite all the murmuring of human malice, the home of this sinner is about to become a place of revelation, the scene of a miracle of mercy. True, this will not happen if Zacchaeus does not free his heart from the ligatures of egoism and from his unjust and fraudulent ways. But mercy has already come to him as a gratuitous and overflowing gift. Mercy has preceded him! [...]

This is what happens in the case of Zacchaeus. Aware that he is now being treated as a ‘son,’ he begins to think and act like a son, and this he shows in the way he rediscovers his brothers and sisters. Beneath the loving gaze of Christ, the heart of Zacchaeus warms to love of neighbor. From a feeling of isolation, which had led him to enrich himself without caring about what others had to suffer, he moves to an attitude of sharing. This is expressed in a genuine ‘division’ of his wealth: ‘half of my goods to the poor.’ The injustice done to others by his fraudulent behavior is atoned for by a fourfold restitution: “If I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold” (v 8). And it is only at this point that the love of God achieves its purpose, and salvation is accomplished: ‘Today salvation has come to this house’ (v 9).