“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down, and received Him joyfully. Whatever it was that Zacchaeus heard, it had made him spiritually hungry, and Jesus must have sensed it, because by the inspiration of the Spirit he knew Zacchaeus’ name and was drawn to him like a magnet, singling him out from among the crowd: Perhaps he had heard of the many miracles Jesus performed. Talk of Jesus would have been fizzing from the lips of his community. In the case of Zacchaeus, I propose that he could feel the man’s hunger for righteousness. These are just a few examples of a ubiquitous truth in the Gospels – that Jesus, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, could perceive people’s thoughts, and the state and intentions of their hearts. John 1, 47-48: ‘Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “ Here is truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”’ Luke 6, 8: ‘ But He knew what they were thinking, and He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And he got up and came forward.’ I’m much more interested in what happened in his heart as he began to be drawn to Jesus. The man earned his wealth by working for the enemy occupier, taking money directly from his neighbours, so his pariah status isn’t much of a surprise. I won’t linger on that, as it is well understood. We can see from the passage that Zacchaeus was an unpopular person. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”’ When the people saw this, they all began to complain, saying, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner!” But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I am giving to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I am giving back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down, and received Him joyfully.
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So he ran on ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree in order to see Him, because He was about to pass through that way. Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, and he was unable due to the crowd, because he was short in stature. And there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. ‘Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.