September 15, 2025; Luke 19:1-27

Daily Dose of Hope

September 15, 2025

 

Scripture - Luke 19:1-27

 

Prayer (from St. Augustine): Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, That my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, That my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, That I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, To defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, That I always may be holy.

 

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church daily Bible reading plan at New Hope Church in Brandon, Florida.  We are currently doing a deep dive into the Gospels and Acts.  Today, we begin a deep dive into Luke 19.

 

At the beginning of the chapter, we meet Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus is worth a fair amount of reflection. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. The Roman government hired local Jews to actually go around collecting the taxes for them. One article I read said that they didn't receive a salary per se but instead collected significantly more in taxes than was owed so they could keep that money for themselves and evidence suggests they took a lot for themselves. Thus, tax collectors tended to be wealthy and they were hated by their fellow Jews. The Jews thought of them as selling their services to a foreign oppressor at the expense of their own people. The rabbinical writings refer to these tax collectors as "robbers" and the Gospels call them "sinners." They were the scum of the Jewish community. And Zacchaeus was one of them.

 

Zacchaeus wasn't just a run of the mill tax collector but a chief tax collector. You typically don't get to be chief of something unless you have worked at it for a while and climbed your way to the top so I'm thinking Zacchaeus had probably been living a dishonest life for years, extorting and deceiving others for his own financial gain. He wasn't a newbie at this.

 

Zacchaeus lived in the town of Jericho, which was Jesus' last stop on his journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. It's interesting...people must have heard that Jesus was coming through. Zacchaeus must have heard it because he is determined to see him. I'm curious what it was that made Zacchaeus want to see Jesus so badly-curiosity or conviction-but Scripture says that the crowd that had gathered was quite large and he couldn't see over all the people because he was short. But he was persistent, so he ran ahead to a place where he knew that Jesus would walk by, he climbs a tree, and he waits.

 

As Jesus walks by, he notices Zacchaeus and he calls him by name. He knows him. (I hope each of you know that Jesus knows your name too!) When Jesus calls to him, he tells Zacchaeus to climb down from the tree, for he had plans to go to his home. We might not recognize the significance of this, but to go to someone's home, to dine with them, demonstrated connection and belonging. To break bread with someone was a big deal.

 

It was pretty much a given that the Pharisees didn't like this. He was hanging out with "those" people again. But Jesus goes to Zacchaeus' home and possibly while they are dining together, something happens within Zacchaeus. Maybe it started when Zacchaeus heard Jesus was coming through Jericho-something within him stirred for a different way of doing life. Maybe it started when Jesus really knew him and saw him up in that tree. Maybe it was when Jesus offered him the gift of acceptance by offering to dine with him. Maybe it was in their dinner conversation (I wonder what they talked about over their meal)...but we know that because of his encounter with Jesus, something changes within Zacchaeus. In fact, he eventually tells Jesus, "I'm going to give half of my money to the poor and if I have cheated people, I will payback four times as much.” Four times! He didn't just say, I'll pay them back, I'll make amends ,but he specifically says he will pay them four times as much as he took. He was no longer the crooked, thieving Roman sympathizing tax collector, but rather a repentant, generous Jesus follower.

 

What can we learn here?

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