The Case for Zacchaeus

We hear in the news at regular basis, criminals being set free in light of some new evidence. For the most part the new evidence is DNA, a new witness or perhaps intentional or unintentional cover up. The case for Zacchaeus is my interpretation of the text found in Luke 19:1-9. For hundreds of years Zacchaeus has been seen as one of the worst men the Bible mentions and He is later seen as one the best converts of the scriptures. Not to disagree with his conversion, but was his conversion as we most commonly hear it accurate?

 My drive and purpose to write about this one man is purely truth seeking and not to discredit any of the teachings or lessons that could be learn from these verses. My intention is only to bring forward and compare and analyze the difference one word can make in the life of this man. With that out of the way, let me say that my interpretation is not a popular, but as I have discovered has some validity to it.

We read in Luke 19

Jesus Comes to Zacchaeus’ House

19 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. ² Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. ³ And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. ⁵ And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him,^[a] and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” ⁶ So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. ⁷ But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”

⁸ Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”

⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; ¹⁰ for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

The major difference in translations is this, in some translations there is an almost insignificant, easy to overlook addition the original text as seen in Greek, also the verve tense is different making a completely different interpretation on the verse. But of most importance is the description of the kind of man Zacchaeus really was.  Here is part of the original text I found side by side with the Strong’s number Greek, Greek and English. Next you will see several different Bible translations and interpretation of the text below. So what is the big deal? I hope that by the end of this observation you would be able to make that decision yourself. My comments are in red.

New International Version (©1984)

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." (Notice I will)

New Living Translation (©2007)

Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, "I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!" (Notice I will twice)

English Standard Version (©2001)

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”

New American Standard Bible (©1995)

Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much." (Notice I will twice)

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, I'll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I'll pay back four times as much!" (Notice I will)

International Standard Version (©2012)

Later, Zacchaeus stood up and announced to the Lord, "Look! I'm giving half of my possessions to the destitute, and if I have accused anyone falsely, I'm repaying four times as much as I owe."  

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)

Then Zakkai arose and he said to Yeshua, “Behold, my Lord, I give half my wealth to the poor, and anything that I have seized I repay fourfold to every man.”

American King James Version

And Zacchaeus stood, and said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

American Standard Version

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold.

Douay-Rheims Bible

But Zacheus standing, said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wronged any man of any thing, I restore him fourfold.

Darby Bible Translation

But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I return him fourfold.

English Revised Version

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold.

Webster's Bible Translation

And Zaccheus stood, and said to the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him four-fold.

Weymouth New Testament

Zacchaeus however stood up, and addressing the Lord said, "Here and now, Master, I give half my property to the poor, and if I have unjustly exacted money from any man, I pledge myself to repay to him four times the amount." (Notice I pledge)

World English Bible

Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much."

Young's Literal Translation

And Zaccheus having stood, said unto the Lord, 'Lo, the half of my goods, sir, I give to the poor, and if of any one anything I did take by false accusation, I give back fourfold.' (In this case I did meaning of curse in the past)

Ok, so what is the big deal again? Nothing really unless you are Zacchaeus  or people have the wrong idea of your faith. Notice that in 5 out of 10 different translations the word “I will or similar” is added to the text. And this is just a few translations I found. The point being “I will” signifies that Zacchaeus will do these things in the future and not that he has been doing as a common practice.

But wait you say, he was a chief tax collector worst of the worst. And this is where I will try to prove my point in addition to other observations.

In almost every case that I found referring to this scripture, Zacchaeus is seen as a man that was a horrible sinner. He was the chief tax collector which made him the worst of all tax collectors. He is seen as a thief, an abuser of power and a man that cheated people of their money just to mentioned a few. We get a description of his physical stature and that he is rich.  We also learn that he sought to see who Jesus was. I am sure there was no doubt he had heard about Jesus, but his desire to see Jesus was so much that he climbed a tree to get a view of Jesus, putting aside all if any concerns about what the people though of him and the hatred they must have felt for him as well. When Jesus saw this man on the tree, Jesus called him by his name and told him that He must stay at his house that night. Zacchaeus came down from the tree and came to Jesus. The crowd of course reacted in a negative way. Why Jesus had chosen this man a sinner to stay with, basically saying that that man was not worth Jesus time and attention, like saying we are better than that man.

Here is where it gets interesting. In verse 8] And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, which had to have meant that he was a smart man. He was in charge of workers, tax collectors which meant that he more than likely was not the one out in the field collecting taxes. Why would a rich chief tax collector would be doing the work of collecting taxes when he was the boss and responsible for answering to the government. He had people collecting taxes but this did not exclude him from the action of his office.  Every tax collector was a representative of him, so when he says that if he had taken any thing by false accusation, he was referring to himself and his tax collectors as well; which in this case would indicate that if at any time his collectors (his office) would falsely collect any thing; he would repay the victim fourfold. Here is something to consider. Zacchaeus was a smart man and a Jewish man, a man that knew the Jewish law.

Exodus 22:1 "If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.

Zacchaeus new that this was the Law if any man would steal anything from any other man, so this practice was not new to him; he was well aware of the Leviticus Law. If the animal is dead, you would pay for the dead animal plus four more. If the animal was not dead then you would bring the animal back plus four more. One more thing to consider is that the Roman Government expected the tax collectors the do the same.

Zacchaeus said Lord, Lord I give half of my goods to the poor. Zacchaeus was filled with guilt. He was the chief tax collector and the money that he collected a lot of it came from the poor and as a Jewish man working for the Roman government, this was also seen as wrong doing and against God. In Numbers 5 we see how Zacchaeus was dealing with this guilt and how it would justify the giving to the poor.

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ⁶ “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way^[b] and so is unfaithful to the Lord is guilty ⁷ and must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged. ⁸

Here, Zacchaeus was unfaithful to the Lord and would restitute more than twenty percent as it was commanded. He would give half of his good to the poor. The question may arise, wouldn’t people had known of his generosity, perhaps, but not if he was a man of God and did not seek attention and be boastful of his giving. How many times we see “anonymous donation to the such and such? And do we question the donor that did not want recognition. Perhaps that is one other thing we could learn from this lesson. We all seek recognition for our good deeds, if we don’t tell someone about what we have done or what we give, we feel like we don’t get the credit that we deserve. Why is it too difficult to accept that Zacchaeus was doing the right things in the eyes of the Lord, but still he felt guilty and sinful of his profession and seek forgives for his sins by giving to the poor and paying back to the people his office would cheat. You see Zacchaeus was doing ever thing right, helping the poor and making wrongs right even though he was judged for his profession we made things right with God, but here is where we miss the point; he was doing the right things but he did not have salvation. The one thing he was seeking from Jesus was his eternal salvation. He was a man doing the right things, following the law, helping the poor, and correction wrongs, but he did not have Christ as his Lord.

But before I keep going let me pause for a moment a reemphasize the immense difference that lies between this two descriptions of the same man, one the worst of the worst and the other a man that was doing things right according to the law.  So if you think a single word does not make much difference, I hope that you would consider the impact it truly makes.

In the following verses Jesus states, in verses, 9 and 10

9 And Jesus said unto him, today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Matthew 15:24 But He answer and said, “I was not sent to except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”.

When Jesus said “Salvation has come to this house” I very highly doubt that He would limit Him self and only mean Zacchaeus house, if so why would He mention that he was a son of Abraham (from the house of Israel)

John 18:37 Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. I was born for this, and I came into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is committed to the truth listens to my voice."

Jesus came to seek and save which was lost; in this case He was referring to the children of Abraham all from the house of Abraham. Yes trough Him all who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life is so true and we are sinner because of the fall. But this is a whole other lesson. 

What I would like you to consider is this, review you translation and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you. For me He guided me in this one direction and I trust that He will guide you accordingly.

Here is one last thing. If you chose to consider Zacchaeus as a good man a man that did right for God despite of his profession, what are you? What are we doing to be right with God? Through Christ we obtain salvation, and our faith should be demonstrated by our actions. Can you say Lord, I am giving half of my good like Zacchaeus? Aren’t we sinner too? Can you give more for the kingdom or have you given enough already? And who determines how much is enough? 10% 50% or is it your heart and the Holy Spirit that guides your charitable giving. What are we willing to give up for the kingdom? How much comfort’s must we have? Can we chase after Jesus and say, “Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor? 

Luke 12:48 but he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with a few. For every one to whom much is given, form him much will be require; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Please also take the time to read Luke chapter 12:13-48

The case for Zacchaeus, could be the case for you and me>

The case for Zacchaeus is not about a horrible man repenting of his wrongdoing, but it could be a case of a man doing the right things in need of a savior. His repentance was not about being a sinner because of his wrong doing, but his repentance and conversion was about wanting to be found and calling Jesus his Lord and becoming a Christ Follower.  Just my 2