Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 37:5-7,
Lord, I choose to commit my way to You;
I choose to trust in You,
and to wait patiently for You
and for Your gift of righteousness.
Speak, O Lord, and guide me in Your Way. Amen.
Reading
Why did Jesus say, “‘Today salvation has come to this house … “?
What was it about His visit to Zacchaeus that transformed it from a mere visit into an eternity-shifting, life-transforming encounter for Zacchaeus? In simple terms: It was Zacchaeus’ response to Jesus’ presence and ministry. And that response was one of faith!
Jesus’ own explanation was, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.’
In saying this, Jesus was not suggesting that Zacchaeus’ genetic lineage was the catalyst for his salvation. He was responding to Zacchaeus’ faith-generated action in v.8. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
The first time the Bible explicitly mentions “faith” in in Genesis 15:6. God had just promised Abraham offspring as numerous as the stars, and Scripture records,
6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
Abraham was made right with God through faith. So, when Jesus referred to Zacchaeus as a “son of Abraham” He was commending him for having faith. Paul would later pick up on this in Romans 4 and would explicitly say in Romans 4:16, “For Abraham is the father of all who believe.” It was Zacchaeus’ faith that made him a “son of Abraham”.
So, back to Zacchaeus. When he met with Jesus and truly heard Him speak that day, something changed in Zacchaeus. He came to believe that Jesus was Lord and that His teachings were the Way to Life. He came to believe it with such conviction, in fact, that he declared:
‘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.’ (v.8)
Zacchaeus did not “believe in Jesus” as some kind of intellectual exercise. We can say with confidence that he “believed in Jesus” because we see the evidence. He trusted Jesus enough to transfer the Lordship over his life from money to Jesus, and to obey Jesus even when it cost him a great deal of money. That is what revealed that he had come to life-changing faith. Until then money had ruled his life. But now he trusted in Jesus enough to hand that Lordship over to Him, and follow in the Way of Jesus, even when that surrender cost him a huge amount financially.
So today we hear again the call to follow Jesus and His Way, even when it seems to cost us a great deal. Zacchaeus shows us that having saving-faith in Jesus means trusting Him enough to follow Him in His Way of Living, no matter the cost.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will trust Jesus with my whole life.
- I will follow Jesus and His Way, no matter the cost, because I believe He is the Lord of Life and that He reveals the True Way of Life.
Holy Spirit, strengthen my faith to truly follow Jesus in every way today. Amen.
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