Deuteronomy Chapter 30: Verses 1-5 (NLT)
“In the future, when you experience all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the nations to which the Lord your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions. If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where he has scattered you. Even though you are banished to the ends of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you from there and bring you back again. The Lord your God will return you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will possess that land again. Then he will make you even more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors!”
Luke Chapter 19: Verses 1-9 (NLT)
Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”
Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.
Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”
Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.
God promised the Israelites that He would not hold a grudge against them if they fell away from following Him, and would restore them in full if they returned to Him wholeheartedly. And that was Zacchaeus’ experience! He was spiritually restored publicly by Jesus when he decided to follow Jesus, and put things right. The study notes today (Nicky Gumbel’s Bible in One Year) for this story tell me that Zacchaeus’ name means “righteous one”, and that it was likely that he was not a young man, having established himself as the chief tax collector in the region.
Given the meaning of his name, I wonder what hopes his parents had for him as he grew up – to be a rabbi perhaps? Almost certainly not a tax collector of the time, given their reputation. Perhaps over years he had lost his faith, choosing instead to focus on money and status. But no matter how many years had passed, Jesus was able to declare, “Salvation has come to this house today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
That’s important for us to remember so that we don’t hold someone’s past against them, if like Zacchaeus, they decide to follow Jesus, and prove their intention by their actions.
Dear Lord,
Thank You for the mercy and restoration and mercy You show to us when we return to wholeheartedly following You. And may I never cast up someone else’s past if they have made the decision to follow You. I ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.