Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10

There once was a tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus,
who thought it was alright to cheat, if nobody could see us.
So he told everyone that their taxes were higher than they really were, and if he found a poor widow, he really inflated the taxes for her. So Zacchaeus would charge as much as he dared.
If people suffered or complained, he never cared.

Then one day he learned that the great teacher and preacher
called Jesus, was just down the street.
Now there was somebody he really wanted to meet!
Jesus claimed that he was sent from above,
to tell us all of God’s wonderful love.
People talked about how Jesus made lame people walk, and blind people see.
Zacchaeus wondered if these things really could be.

When Zacchaeus arrived at the place where Jesus was that day,
there were great crowds of people who were all in his way.
There were people whom he had cheated, like Bartholomew and Stephen.
When they saw short Zacchaeus, they saw their chance to get even.
Since they were all much taller than he,
they stood close together so he couldn’t see.

Zacchaeus stood by a big tree, but his toes got stepped on,
he was elbowed, and someone gave him a shove.
Then he saw a big branch in the tree up above.
“I’ll show them,” he thought, “nobody is going to take advantage of me! I’ll just climb up there where I can see.”
While he was sitting on the branch where he could see, but just barely,
he thought, “These people just aren’t treating me fairly!”
Now he didn’t like to be treated that way,
and he realized that neither did they.

Jesus stopped right below Zacchaeus, in that very spot,
and he looked right up at him, believe it or not.
Jesus said, “Zacchaeus, I’d like to eat supper at your house tonight.”
Now that really gave Zacchaeus a fright,
because Jesus seemed to know all about him, and of course he was right.
Zacchaeus thought, “He knows what kind of a man I am, but he cares about me just the same.”
For the very first time in his life, Zacchaeus felt shame.
It was right after supper that night
that Zacchaeus confessed, he hadn’t been treating people right.
He said, “I am truly sorry and I’ll make it up as much as I can.”
Right then, he was forgiven, and Zacchaeus became a new man.

By Elaine J. Roark
1995