A Wee Little Man Was He! - Reflections on Luke 19:1-10, Pentecost 21, Year C

by John C. Holbert on Wednesday, June 25, 2025

         I have revealed in my essays many times that I was not raised in the church—in any church for that matter. Hence, I had no Sunday School or Youth Camp experiences, and did not begin to attend church at all until college. Because I sang in the choir there, though it was a very secular place, I was required to attend Sunday chapel, where the choir regularly outnumbered the congregation—it was the 60’s after all! I never heard the little ditty my title includes until much later in life, perhaps during my children’s forays into the world of elementary church. I suppose you all have it in your head now as you read; let me apologize in advance for the earworm I have provided. If it is any comfort, I have the same worm, too!

         It is decidedly odd that this story of Zacchaeus remains so memorable. I assume that is largely the result of the little song that rattles around in the brains of many a churchgoer. Of course, the matter of the man’s height is hardly the center of Luke’s concern, though his quick scrambling up the nearest tree in order to catch sight of Jesus is a wonderful portrait that has graced more than few church school walls down the years. Of more crucial moment is this fact: the end of the story says that the “Son of Man (or “the human one”) came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10), while all that Zacchaeus had in mind was attempting to see Jesus, that is, to see who he was, but is unaware that he is being sought and saved by that same Jesus. Zacchaeus becomes the very model of those who Luke imagines Jesus is most concerned with. 

         For the community, it is precisely persons like Zacchaeus who are inveterate sinners, beyond the pale of any sort of saving, any kind of inclusion in the community. He is, Luke says “chief tax collector” (architelones—only used here in the New Testament), and thus obviously very rich. Luke employs here an echo of the “rich ruler” of Luke 18:18, who is called there archon (that is “ruler”). Unlike that one, this Zacchaeus is eager to interact with Jesus; his wealth will be no impediment to his desire to follow. Interestingly, the only other place where the name Zacchaeus is found in the Bible is 2 Maccabees 10:19, where that Zacchaeus is a traitor during the Maccabean revolution against the Greeks in the second century BCE; due to his “money hunger” he is bribed and allows some prisoners to slip away from a tower he was charged to guard. Later, Judas Maccabeus himself executes him for his treachery (2 Macc.10:22). The isuue of money there may have suggested the name to Luke who is the only gospel writer to use this tale.

         After Zacchaeus climbs that famous sycamore tree to see the passing Jesus, the surprises of the story begin. All Zacchaeus wished to do was catch sight of the passing Jesus, but Jesus has something else in mind. “Zacchaeus,” he shouts up at the man in the tree, “Hurry down from there, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). In one of Luke’s shocking reversals of expectation, it is the worst man of the community, a top tax collector, plunderer of his own people for the benefit of the Romans, and probable thief of the Romans, too, skimming off some of the tax money for himself, who is called. Thus did tax collectors act in the main. At this wonderful and amazing invitation from Jesus, Zacchaeus “quickly climbed down and joyfully welcomed him” (Luke 19:6). The man is filled with the joy which often signals repentance, as in those fabulous tales in Luke 15, all of which describe joy as the accompaniment to repentance.

         But now the expected “grumbling” begins in Luke 19:7. We note that it includes “all” who witnessed the desire of Jesus to enter the house of this obvious sinner. That “all” must include scribes and Pharisees, though unnamed here, along with disciples, the crowd and the opponents of Jesus. But the surprises are not over, for Zacchaeus has an announcement to make which he proclaims loudly, apparently stopping on the way to his house. “Look, Lord, I am giving half my possesssions to the poor, and if I have cheated someone out of anything (no doubt he has!) I pay them back four-fold” (Luke 19:8). The important thing for Luke here is that the tax man gives significant alms, a true sign of righteous living (see 6:3-31, 38; 11:41; 12:33; 16:9; among others). We are reminded of the words of John the Baptizer in Luke 3 where he warns soldiers not “to extort any one” (using the same verb used here) and tax agents to take no more than they are owed. Zacchaeus does exactly both things. And his “four-fold” restitution is the most stringent reading of any law of restitution we know anything about at the time.

         Jesus replies to this generous announcement as follows: “Today, salvation has happened (or “come” NRSV) to this house, because he too is a child of Abraham” (Luke 19:9). In short, what Jesus means is that to receive him in joyful welcome and to give to the poor means salvation occurs. The word “salvation” implies far more than some verbal acceptance of Jesus’s life and ministry; it also means actions of generosity and concern for the marginalized of the community. Further, the word “salvation” may also be heard as “unity,” “oneness,” “wholeness.” The Hebrew root is certainly the familiar “shalom,” which bears the same implications. Zacchaeus by his actions toward the poor now joins the community of Jesus, and rejoins the community of those who saw him only as sinner. Jesus proclaims, “he too is a child of Abraham,” meaning that he is among the people of the blessing, instituted by Abraham so long before. In Zacchaeus, we see as clearly as possible that Jesus really has come “to seek and save what is lost” (Luke 19:10). It turns out that Zacchaeus’ short stature is not his most distinguishing attribute; he is now a child of Abraham, a follower of the prophet, Jesus.