SERMON
Seeking and Saving the Lost
Luke 19:1-10
March 22, 2026
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10, NASB)
Jesus identifies a Tax Collector and even invites himself to his house! Zacchaeus of Jericho responds with joy, showing how Jesus never forgot why he resolutely set his face to Jerusalem; it was to finish what God started a long time ago: to seek and to save the lost!
Introduction
Luke never lost sight of God’s ongoing Kingdom-building salvation story brought to fruition through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Much earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus called Levi (also called Matthew) a Tax Collector to follow him, and Matthew willingly responded, throwing a dinner for Jesus and his other Tax Collector friends. When the religious legal experts complained about his eating and drinking with ‘tax collectors and sinners,’ Jesus responded, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:27-32). Then he healed a crippled woman (of all places in a synagogue, and on the Sabbath!), and in response to his detractors called her a ‘daughter of Abraham’ (Luke 13:10-16), another sign of the diversity of God’s family of the redeemed. Then, before Luke comes to the Zacchaeus the Tax Collector story, he narrates Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who go into the Temple to pray (Luke 18:9-14). In contrasting their attitudes, Jesus clearly regards the Tax Collector, a self-acknowledged sinner, as deemed justified by God. The Pharisee, on the other hand, is rejected by God because of his self-righteousness. It is almost as if Jesus went looking for those deemed ‘sinners’ by religion and the world and called them into God’s family of the redeemed. The three ‘lost and found’ stories of Luke 15 make this so clear: “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Thus, we find Jesus entering the ancient town of Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. Once again, we read about him stopping to heal (“save”) someone, this time a blind beggar. Then he enters a town whose walls God brought down about 1,400 years ago: remember the song “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a tumblin’ down”? Jesus was about to bring some “walls” down, too, this time of prejudice and exclusion!
Jesus’ Desire to be invited into the emptiness of your life
Today I must stay at your house (v.5, NASB)
Luke describes Zacchaeus: chief tax collector, wealthy, and short. Each word gives several reasons for the ordinary Jew to heartily dislike him and want to ridicule and/or avoid him.
Nothing of Zacchaeus's private life is revealed in the story; this much we know on principle: No one can be privately righteous while actively participating in and profiting from a program that robs and crushes other people.
But Zacchaeus sought Jesus, as had the (rich young) ruler and the blind man of Chapter 18. As in the case of the blind man, the tax collector is hindered by the crowd, and so short Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree to be able to see Jesus. People are still sometimes separated from Jesus by crowds and a “multitude” of distortions (of who he actually is), well-meaning or otherwise.
Did Zacchaeus know about Jesus’ tax collector Levi/Matthew? Was it curiosity, or was it an emptiness that the manipulative rich try to conceal?
Jesus saw Zacchaeus and called out to him. Luke makes no comment to suggest that Jesus knew Zacchaeus's name through supernatural power. I can well imagine the scene with a whisper going around, “Look, on the tree! That’s Shorty – Zacchaeus, the boss-man of tax collectors!”
And then Jesus makes abundantly clear his desire to be invited to Zacchaeus’ house! Why?
Would thoughts of Jesus coming to one's home put one in a party spirit or in a spirit of dread? If anyone had reason to dread the presence of a religious teacher who could be expected to roundly censure his profession and life, it was Zacchaeus, but something about Jesus set him at ease. It was as if Zacchaeus knew Jesus wanted to be there – NO QUESTIONS ASKED. NO JUDGEMENT MADE.
"Guest of a man who is a sinner": The important thing about this statement is not what it says about Jesus or Zacchaeus, but what it says about those who uttered it. These words echo the attitude of the Pharisee in the parable of "the Pharisee and the Tax Collector" (Luke 18:9-13). These people do not consider themselves sinners, and such people cannot understand Jesus, the man or his message. There are few Christians today who would assert that they are not sinners, but there are many whose attitudes toward others indicate that they think they are not sinners, or at least not as bad as most.
Today I must stay at your house. There is urgency, there is necessity, and there is desire all included.
Jesus’ desire is to be invited into your life:
not because you’re needy (even though each of us is);
not because you’re worthy (because none of us is).
He just wants to, because that is who he is. Just know this, nothing will ever be the same again…
The Result of Jesus filling your life to overflowing
Today salvation has come to this house (v.9, NASB)
The fact that this holy man had honored him by entering his house was not lost on Zacchaeus. He was transformed by Jesus' acceptance. Note: No judgment; no censure/scolding; not even preaching! Just good food, fellowship, and fun!!!
Without prompting, Zacchaeus pledges half of his wealth to the poor. Immediately, this short, hated, chief of tax collectors demonstrates a changed lifestyle. He seemed to understand the claim of grace. When you really receive God’s unlimited, unadulterated, undeserved, unconditional favor and love – I know, lots of “un’s” – EVERYTHING CHANGES: the way you see yourself and everyone else, the way you see your past-present-future, the way you think, the way you behave/act. It’s like, “I’m accepted…I’m free, truly free…because I know I’m forgiven.”
Song:
I'm forgiven because you were forsaken
I'm accepted; you were condemned
I'm alive and well
Your Spirit is within me
Because you died and rose again.
Amazing love, how can it be?
That you my King would die for me
Amazing love, I know it's true
It's my joy to honor you
In all I do I honor you.
You Are My King (Amazing Love): CLICK HERE
The joy Zacchaeus experienced in being accepted spilled over to put joy into the lives of others. "Repentance" is a word rarely heard in some religious quarters. But that’s what repentance does. Life is never the same again…
Zacchaeus’ "being saved" refers to a conversion, but not just in a private sense. Not only is his household involved, but also the poor who will be beneficiaries of his conversion, as well as all those people whom he may have defrauded. His salvation, therefore, has personal, domestic, social, and economic dimensions. In addition, we should not forget that in other stories "saved" is translated as "made well," "healed," and "made whole."
"Today," there was a change in his spiritual status... Jesus had set Zacchaeus on a new course, but there was still much to learn and do. The first encounter with Jesus may lead to conversion, but that conversion becomes an ongoing process. Luke would object to Zacchaeus’ salvation to mean only that of the soul. The whole of life is affected by Jesus' ministry, and that is the foretaste of the complete reign of God. The closing pronouncement (v. 10) makes it clear: Jesus' visit to Zacchaeus' house was neither a delay nor a detour on his journey to Jerusalem; this was, and is, the very purpose of the journey. "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."
Zacchaeus is the object of compassion, but he is even more the means of revelation: Only when a person is lost and knows it will he seek direction.
How about you?
Introduction
Luke never lost sight of God’s ongoing Kingdom-building salvation story brought to fruition through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Much earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus called Levi (also called Matthew) a Tax Collector to follow him, and Matthew willingly responded, throwing a dinner for Jesus and his other Tax Collector friends. When the religious legal experts complained about his eating and drinking with ‘tax collectors and sinners,’ Jesus responded, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:27-32). Then he healed a crippled woman (of all places in a synagogue, and on the Sabbath!), and in response to his detractors called her a ‘daughter of Abraham’ (Luke 13:10-16), another sign of the diversity of God’s family of the redeemed. Then, before Luke comes to the Zacchaeus the Tax Collector story, he narrates Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who go into the Temple to pray (Luke 18:9-14). In contrasting their attitudes, Jesus clearly regards the Tax Collector, a self-acknowledged sinner, as deemed justified by God. The Pharisee, on the other hand, is rejected by God because of his self-righteousness. It is almost as if Jesus went looking for those deemed ‘sinners’ by religion and the world and called them into God’s family of the redeemed. The three ‘lost and found’ stories of Luke 15 make this so clear: “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Thus, we find Jesus entering the ancient town of Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. Once again, we read about him stopping to heal (“save”) someone, this time a blind beggar. Then he enters a town whose walls God brought down about 1,400 years ago: remember the song “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a tumblin’ down”? Jesus was about to bring some “walls” down, too, this time of prejudice and exclusion!
Jesus’ Desire to be invited into the emptiness of your life
Today I must stay at your house (v.5, NASB)
Luke describes Zacchaeus: chief tax collector, wealthy, and short. Each word gives several reasons for the ordinary Jew to heartily dislike him and want to ridicule and/or avoid him.
Nothing of Zacchaeus's private life is revealed in the story; this much we know on principle: No one can be privately righteous while actively participating in and profiting from a program that robs and crushes other people.
But Zacchaeus sought Jesus, as had the (rich young) ruler and the blind man of Chapter 18. As in the case of the blind man, the tax collector is hindered by the crowd, and so short Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree to be able to see Jesus. People are still sometimes separated from Jesus by crowds and a “multitude” of distortions (of who he actually is), well-meaning or otherwise.
Did Zacchaeus know about Jesus’ tax collector Levi/Matthew? Was it curiosity, or was it an emptiness that the manipulative rich try to conceal?
Jesus saw Zacchaeus and called out to him. Luke makes no comment to suggest that Jesus knew Zacchaeus's name through supernatural power. I can well imagine the scene with a whisper going around, “Look, on the tree! That’s Shorty – Zacchaeus, the boss-man of tax collectors!”
And then Jesus makes abundantly clear his desire to be invited to Zacchaeus’ house! Why?
Would thoughts of Jesus coming to one's home put one in a party spirit or in a spirit of dread? If anyone had reason to dread the presence of a religious teacher who could be expected to roundly censure his profession and life, it was Zacchaeus, but something about Jesus set him at ease. It was as if Zacchaeus knew Jesus wanted to be there – NO QUESTIONS ASKED. NO JUDGEMENT MADE.
"Guest of a man who is a sinner": The important thing about this statement is not what it says about Jesus or Zacchaeus, but what it says about those who uttered it. These words echo the attitude of the Pharisee in the parable of "the Pharisee and the Tax Collector" (Luke 18:9-13). These people do not consider themselves sinners, and such people cannot understand Jesus, the man or his message. There are few Christians today who would assert that they are not sinners, but there are many whose attitudes toward others indicate that they think they are not sinners, or at least not as bad as most.
Today I must stay at your house. There is urgency, there is necessity, and there is desire all included.
Jesus’ desire is to be invited into your life:
not because you’re needy (even though each of us is);
not because you’re worthy (because none of us is).
He just wants to, because that is who he is. Just know this, nothing will ever be the same again…
The Result of Jesus filling your life to overflowing
Today salvation has come to this house (v.9, NASB)
The fact that this holy man had honored him by entering his house was not lost on Zacchaeus. He was transformed by Jesus' acceptance. Note: No judgment; no censure/scolding; not even preaching! Just good food, fellowship, and fun!!!
Without prompting, Zacchaeus pledges half of his wealth to the poor. Immediately, this short, hated, chief of tax collectors demonstrates a changed lifestyle. He seemed to understand the claim of grace. When you really receive God’s unlimited, unadulterated, undeserved, unconditional favor and love – I know, lots of “un’s” – EVERYTHING CHANGES: the way you see yourself and everyone else, the way you see your past-present-future, the way you think, the way you behave/act. It’s like, “I’m accepted…I’m free, truly free…because I know I’m forgiven.”
Song:
I'm forgiven because you were forsaken
I'm accepted; you were condemned
I'm alive and well
Your Spirit is within me
Because you died and rose again.
Amazing love, how can it be?
That you my King would die for me
Amazing love, I know it's true
It's my joy to honor you
In all I do I honor you.
You Are My King (Amazing Love): CLICK HERE
The joy Zacchaeus experienced in being accepted spilled over to put joy into the lives of others. "Repentance" is a word rarely heard in some religious quarters. But that’s what repentance does. Life is never the same again…
Zacchaeus’ "being saved" refers to a conversion, but not just in a private sense. Not only is his household involved, but also the poor who will be beneficiaries of his conversion, as well as all those people whom he may have defrauded. His salvation, therefore, has personal, domestic, social, and economic dimensions. In addition, we should not forget that in other stories "saved" is translated as "made well," "healed," and "made whole."
"Today," there was a change in his spiritual status... Jesus had set Zacchaeus on a new course, but there was still much to learn and do. The first encounter with Jesus may lead to conversion, but that conversion becomes an ongoing process. Luke would object to Zacchaeus’ salvation to mean only that of the soul. The whole of life is affected by Jesus' ministry, and that is the foretaste of the complete reign of God. The closing pronouncement (v. 10) makes it clear: Jesus' visit to Zacchaeus' house was neither a delay nor a detour on his journey to Jerusalem; this was, and is, the very purpose of the journey. "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."
Zacchaeus is the object of compassion, but he is even more the means of revelation: Only when a person is lost and knows it will he seek direction.
How about you?