Step by Step: Jesus and Zacchaeus - Luke 19:1-10 - Jordan Varghese

See, when we we pay, when we make payment to make something right, like I think, you might have experienced this, you've ever been in a relationship, you've done something a little wrong, you get flowers. You get flowers, right? It's just a small sign. It's a small sign that you want to repair the relationship, right? But what's so strange about this dynamic is usually, you have a wrongdoer and you have a wronged, right? And the wrongdoer is the one that kind of makes the effort to show that they want to make things right. But Jesus actually says that he wants to give his life as a ransom for many. This idea of ransom, the scriptures describe the life, death and resurrection of Jesus with multiple metaphors and ransom is one of them. See, in many ways, Jesus sees what the world is in as like a hostage situation. [00:27:15] (54 seconds)  #RansomForMany

We have Zacchaeus, we have me and you, and we're kind of trapped in systems of evil and oppression. We're both harmed by those systems, economic exploitation, war and violence, but we also contribute to those systems. There are ways that we are both wronged and wrong in both our activity and our passivity. And Jesus names this as what is required is a ransom. Someone needs to pay the price so that people can be free. And, rather than the wrongdoer, the people who've who've invested in these systems of exploitation, Jesus says, I will pay the cost. The story of the gospel is this, Jesus pays the price to free us. It's even more scandalous than the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is the one that pays the price to make things right, but in the story of the gospel, Jesus is the one that pays the price to make things right. [00:28:09] (69 seconds)  #BreakTheChains

What Jesus does for Zacchaeus is reinstate his belonging, to reaffirm his belonging in the family of God. When the world around him rejected him, when his community despised him, Jesus saw him in a sycamore tree and said, that one is mine. This is the generosity of God to extend love, grace, forgiveness, mercy to anyone and everyone. See, Jesus says that salvation has come to this house. You know, in many ways, you read this passage and you see Zacchaeus' life, he's working for the Roman Empire, he's cheating people, he's enriching himself at the cost of the people around him, he's a cheater. And you would say, where does salvation need to go? It needs to go to the people that Zacchaeus has wronged. Right? Those are the people that need to be saved. Zacchaeus uses his power for self profit, he hurts people, and yet Jesus offers salvation to him. [00:22:59] (78 seconds)  #RestoredBelonging

This passage reminds us of a fact of Jesus' mission here on the earth. Jesus came to liberate everyone. Jesus came to free everyone. And, we might be tempted, tempted to categorize people into kind of oppressor and oppressed, you know, the jailer and the jailed. But, what Jesus wants to name for Zacchaeus, for the people watching, is that both the oppressor and oppressed are actually trapped in the same system. They're trapped in the same system of violence, of selfishness, of evil. What Jesus came here to do was to break the cycle for both and to offer freedom from this cycle, from these oppressive exploitative ways of relating to each other, to both. Jesus came to liberate everyone. [00:24:17] (64 seconds)  #LiberationForAll

You know, this idea of passion, it actually comes from the Latin phrase, petori, which means to suffer, to bear or to endure. And, it speaks of the suffering of the death and resurrection of Jesus and what that was all about. But, this idea of passion, it's like this relentless endurance to accomplish something. This desperate effort toward a purpose. See, Zacchaeus was desperate to see Jesus, but Jesus was also desperate to save Zacchaeus. And he was so desperate that he would even give his life for him and for us. [00:30:05] (43 seconds)  #PassionToSave

What Jesus does for Zacchaeus is reinstate his belonging, to reaffirm his belonging in the family of God. When the world around him rejected him, when his community despised him, Jesus saw him in a sycamore tree and said, that one is mine. This is the generosity of God to extend love, grace, forgiveness, mercy to anyone and everyone. See, Jesus says that salvation has come to this house. You know, in many ways, you read this passage and you see Zacchaeus' life, he's working for the Roman Empire, he's cheating people, he's enriching himself at the cost of the people around him, he's a cheater. And you would say, where does salvation need to go? It needs to go to the people that Zacchaeus has wronged. Right? Those are the people that need to be saved. Zacchaeus uses his power for self profit, he hurts people, and yet Jesus offers salvation to him. [00:22:59] (78 seconds)  #SalvationForTheOutcast

Now, whether you, you know, for those of us who might lack status, lack money, lack wealth, that's easy because we have needs that need to be met. And, we'll go to Jesus for anything because we're just desperate and we're going to ask and beg and be in prayer for Jesus to show up in our lives. But as Luke kind of informs us, sometimes when we have enough achievement, have enough status, have enough comfort, we can forget what it means to be desperate for God, desperate for Jesus to show up. Each and every one of us are invited to become desperate for Jesus. Let's see how Jesus responds to Zacchaeus. See, in the following verse, it goes like this. [00:12:27] (42 seconds)  #DesperateForJesus

When was the last time you climbed a tree? Like, really, I mean, think about it, when's the last time you climbed a tree? You know, in New York, we have like apple orchards everywhere, so sometimes, you know, people go apple picking, take their kids. And like, if you've ever tried to climb even a short tree, it's a little bit of a like an effort. You've got to like hoof your leg up and like pull your body up getting scratched by the bark of the tree, you're pushing through branches to try to find a stable tree, you're hoping that it doesn't break underneath you. Like, I think Zacchaeus kind of looks like a fool a little bit. [00:10:43] (33 seconds)  #ClimbTheTree