Luke 19:1-11 The Rich Publican of Jericho In all likelihood, most of us are quite familiar with the story of Zacchaeus. We are indebted to Luke as the only writer, under guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, to preserve this incident for our edification. In todays text, Luke takes us with the Savior to Jericho to witness a sinner come to Christ and become a saint. The redemption of this little man was not without its hindrances. Obstacles were in his path that easily could have kept him from Christ. Two such hindrances present themselves in verse two: He was a publican, and he was rich. No one was fond of a publican-a tax collector for the hated Romans. It was a position in which an unscrupulous man could become inordinately wealthy. Verse two describes Zacchaeus as chief among the publicans, and... rich. His fellow Jews considered him a traitor and detested him for making himself wealthy by oppressing his own people. Riches tend to captivate a man and blind him to his spiritual need of salvation; however, most problematic was the fact that Zacchaeus (like all of us) was a sinner (v.7)-a come-shorter: All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23). Thankfully, the curiosity of this sinner produced a desire to see Jesus and, equally important, led to an effort to see Him (vv.3-4). In the midst of this face-to-face encounter with the Savior, Zacchaeus was willing to obey Jesus (vv.5-6). Oh, yes, others murmured, but this did not disturb his trust in the Savior. Salvation came to his house that day (v.9), and his life changed dramatically (v.8). That was the precise reason why the Savior came to earth: to seek and to save that which was lost (v.10). JED
Posted on: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 01:12:09 +0000
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