A Swindler Receives Jesus

Background Scripture: Luke 19
Lesson Scripture: Luke 19:1-10

Introduction

When Jesus’s love enters one’s heart, that love will be felt by others and will witness to other people of Christ’s presence. When our hearts are open to Jesus’s love and we have no personal agenda, that love will show in the way we treat others. In this lesson, we will study how Jesus’s love can affect our lives even now.

Key Verse

When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector in Jericho. Jericho was the main center for balsam production and exportation. This commerce made his position very influential and profitable. He collected tax revenue for the Roman Empire, to which the nation of Israel was subject. The people despised him because he was employed by the foreign government and also because he was dishonest.

Something was working in this dishonest man’s heart that made him want to have the experience of seeing Jesus. People were attracted to Jesus because they felt loved in his presence, so there were many people walking with Him. Zacchaeus could not see Him because of the crowd. He ran ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he would be able to see Jesus as He walked underneath the tree.

When Jesus walked under the tree, He stopped and looked up at the man in the tree. He told Zacchaeus He wanted to come to his house that day. The people in the crowd were astonished because this man was a well-known, despised, tax-collecting sinner. Now Jesus wanted to go to his house to eat with him—this was unbelievable!

After Jesus was at Zacchaeus’s house, he better understood the love that emanated from Jesus and desired to experience that love all the time and pass it on to others he came into contact with. Zacchaeus was so thrilled at being loved by Jesus that he declared he was going to give half of all his belongings to the poor. He was also going to recall anyone that he had dishonestly taken money from and pay that person back at the rate of four times as much as he had taken.

How Jesus’s love can make a person feel so good and so thankful is a miracle. It prompts a desire to do anything to keep that love alive in the heart. It no longer mattered how sinful Zacchaeus had been up until that point or even who he was. He was penitent and wanted to make everything right, and he was overjoyed to feel loved and at peace. Jesus told him that salvation had come to his house that day.

Practical Truths for Today

The lesson text is about a sinner who accepted Jesus into his house and into his heart. He was forgiven for his sins and became one of Jesus’s followers.

John 8:1-11 tells a story about a woman who was caught committing adultery. Jesus was sitting in the temple talking and visiting with the people. Some scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus, leading a woman with them. They presented her to Jesus, telling Him that she had been caught in the act of adultery. They reminded Him that Moses had written the law, and it stated that this woman should be stoned. They wanted to know what Jesus would say about that. They were hoping to catch Him unprepared and to be able to accuse Him of not following the law of Moses.

Jesus’s love was warm, and the Pharisees’ legalism was cold; therefore, Jesus was loved, and the Pharisees were hated. They wanted to discredit Jesus, but Jesus acted as though He hadn’t heard them. He bent down and wrote in the dirt, ignoring the accusers. They continued to badger Him until He stood up. He told them that those who were without sin should begin by picking up a stone and casting it upon her. Then He bent down and wrote in the dirt again. The self-righteous people who had led her there started feeling condemned by their own sins and misdeeds and began leaving one at a time, from the oldest leader to the youngest one. All were feeling embarrassed and ashamed because the guilt they felt in their own hearts had been brought back to their minds; they realized they were sinful men.

After they were all gone, Jesus stood up and looked around. He saw that all the men were gone, and the woman was standing there alone. He asked her where her accusers were. No one had thrown a stone in condemnation. Surely the love that was shining from his eyes as He looked at her was enough to make her never want to sin again. Jesus told her He did not condemn her either and that she should go and live a life free from sin. That woman also received the gift of forgiveness and salvation. It did not matter what she had done before; as of today, she was one of the recipients and beneficiaries of Jesus’s love. She was a child of God.

All of the encounters people had with Jesus left them with a choice. They could accept the love and peace that He was offering and live the more abundant life. The other choice was to not need Him, to not be humbled and accept what He offered and to keep living a good life doing what they wanted to do. It is no different for us today.

Luke 23:33-43 tells the story of how Jesus was crucified with two criminals and their conversation with Him. One of them angrily railed on Him and tried to get Him to work a miracle and save their lives. This man made the choice to believe that what Jesus was preaching and doing for people could not really be of God; there had to be a catch somewhere. He wanted to avoid judgment and get on with his self-serving life. The other man had a different attitude. He made the choice to believe in Jesus and to believe the love and peace that he was feeling from Jesus was the real thing. He rebuked the other criminal and asked him why he did not fear God. He realized they were both going to die and suffer condemnation. They were suffering because they had been bad men, but Jesus had done nothing to be deserving of the punishment He was receiving. Then he humbly asked Jesus to remember him when He came into his kingdom. Jesus said to him, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (v. 43). That thief died with peace in his heart, knowing that he was a child of God. It didn’t matter what he had done for his whole life before he met Jesus on the cross. At that moment he was forgiven, and he was saved.

All of the people we have read about in this lesson met Jesus and were forgiven for their sins. They had an attitude that was humble, and that allowed Jesus to touch them and change their hearts. Today this same Jesus is looking toward every person throughout the whole earth. The same love is shining forth from his eyes, and his whole being is sending love to all of his creation. He wants every human being to experience love and belonging and to be humble enough to accept it. If we humble ourselves and let it change our lives, we will be content and happy and also experience that unequalled gratitude that comes because of Jesus’s forgiveness and salvation.

Questions

1. What keeps a person from experiencing God’s peace and love?
2. How can I determine if I am like Zacchaeus or like those who couldn’t figure out why Jesus would go to a sinner’s house?
3. How does one know if he is enjoying the abundant life Jesus wants him to enjoy?

Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).