Encountering Jesus - When Jesus Calls Your Name

Hello Church!

Many here have heard me preach on Luke 19:1-10 before, and I am very excited to be sharing with y'all once again about the encounter between Jesus and a wee little man named Zacchaeus. 

This is my absolute favorite story in the entire Bible, because as we have seen from so many of our stories throughout our Encountering Jesus series, this story shows that meeting Jesus will change anybody's life. No matter how lost or "bad" someone is, Jesus can change lives. 

Why is the encounter with Zacchaeus any different though? Well, let's have a quick word study of Zacchaeus's occupation. Zacchaeus was identified as a chief tax collector. He was more than just your everyday tax collector. During the time of Jesus, Roman-controlled Israel maintained its power through its taxation of the people, which funded the empire. 

Rome used a system called tax farming. Rome would determine what each region owed in taxes and then individuals or companies would buy the right to collect those taxes in a certain region. They would pay Rome in advance and then they would go and collect these taxes to regain their funds. BUT, the reason why tax collectors were so hated was because most often it would be a Jewish person buying these taxes, and then the only way they can make any money in this ordeal was to collect more taxes than determined by Rome. Any money collected above what they owed Rome would become their profit. 

This created a system filled with corruption, extortion, and abuse. 

Zacchaeus was one of these individuals who bought the rights to the taxes from Rome over the region that included Jericho. This means Zacchaeus would have then employed the actual tax collectors under him that would do the dirty work of collecting the taxes, which would all be brought back to Zacchaeus. In other words, Zacchaeus wasn't just the bad guy, but he was the BOSS of the bad guys. He was a traitor. His wealth came from taxing fellow Jews and taking a percentage from those under him. He had Roman backing, which gave him power, but was utterly despised by his fellow Jews. 
And despite all of this, Jesus chooses him. And this story should make you feel pretty wonderful, because if Jesus even chooses Zacchaeus, He most definitely chooses YOU!

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday, and I pray you have a blessed rest of your week! 

Sincerely,

Brian Sherman

Director of Youth Ministries