Zacchaeus was wealthy yet miserable. First, he was wealthy. Luke informs us that he was a chief tax collector. The Roman Empire bid out the position of tax collector of every district under its jurisdiction. The highest bidder was authorized to collect taxes in a certain area, paid the Empire a pre-agreed upon amount, and pocketed the excess of his collection. While Matthew, the apostle, was also tax collector, he was a petty bureaucrat, unlike Zacchaeus, who Luke informs us, was the chief tax collector in Jericho.
Second, although wealthy, Zacchaeus was a social outcast. He was despised by his fellow Jews for collaborating with their enemy, the Romans. The Jews, like the other subjects of the Empire, were heavily taxed in order for the Roman Empire to feed its vast army and sustain its military expansion. As the Empire was despised, so were the tax collectors, cohorts of the Romans. And because he was considered a public sinner, he was forbidden from entering and worshipping in any village synagogue or the great temple in Jerusalem which was nearby Jericho.
Third, although wealthy and fawned upon by sycophants, deep inside he must have been miserable. Something was terribly amiss with his life. Hearing that Jesus was in town and being small of stature, Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree in order to be able to see him. That he climbed a tree reveals to us his desperation, for by doing so, he exposed himself to the crowd that upon recognizing him could have pelted him with rocks or lynched him. While he enjoyed the perks in life, deep within, he must have felt a gnawing emptiness that made him willing to risk everything, life and limb, for a way out of his misery.
“Come down, Zacchaeus,†Jesus calls out to him. The crowds that recognized him must have seethed with hatred. But Jesus showed him compassion, “I must stay in your house.†While no upright Jew would have dared enter the home of a public sinner, an unclean person, Jesus broke through their religio-ethical boundaries and invited himself to the home of Zacchaeus.
On first reading, Zacchaeus shows hospitality toward Jesus by welcoming and preparing a sumptuous supper for him. On a deeper level, it is the Lord who shows hospitality toward one ostracized. It is the Lord who reaches out to and embraces a man condemned by society.
Thinking that he was ever beyond God’s favor and mercy, Zacchaeus is transformed by Jesus’ embodiment of God’s inclusive love. He declares to give away half of his wealth and pay fourfold the amount extorted from anyone (beyond the dictates of the Jewish law that stipulated paying twice the amount wrongfully extracted). Clearly, Zacchaeus was converted by his experience of God’s mercy.
The aftermath. First, after divesting himself of his ill-gotten wealth, he would have been reduced not necessarily to penury but to the basic necessities. He became poor in a way, nonetheless had found his true wealth in Jesus.
Second, prior to his encounter with Jesus, he was a social outcast. And being forbidden to enter any place of worship, he must have felt cast out of God’s circle. Now he felt included in God’s embrace.
Third, while he was formerly miserable and desperate, now he was reborn and filled with joy and zeal — not because of what he had done for God, but because of what God had done for him. Because God reached out to him and entered his home. God made a home in him. Consequently, Zacchaeus found himself finally at home in God.
We are so unlike Jesus. Like the crowds, we rightfully detest the corruption of public officials and entrepreneurs. Like the crowds we easily write-off certain individuals as being beyond redemption. Unlike Jesus, we have not the slightest compassion for them. We are confident that we are insiders and they outsiders, that we are embraced by God and they beyond divine mercy.
We forget that we too are like Zacchaeus. We are all complicit in the sin in the world, the corruption in our society. Just consider the recent barangay elections mired by violence and vote-buying.
But how many of us are like Zacchaeus in a positive sense? Having experienced God’s mercy, who among us have truly repented, have genuinely turned away from our sinful patterns of behavior? Accepting God’s forgiveness comes with a price. Our acceptance of Jesus in our lives is a sham unless accompanied by a life that shuns sin and ever strives to be virtuous. Our faithful reception of the sacraments is all for show unless accompanied by a life of moral integrity and a commitment to justice.
As we approach the end of the liturgical year and reflect on the Second Coming of Christ, we are invited to be reborn in Christ. May Christ, King of the Universe, invite himself to our homes, win our hearts and in the process redeem us not out of this world but while in the world.