Zacchaeus (Luke 19)

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Zachaeus is today’s Bible hero because he shows us different sight.

Essential Teachers notes:
Sight in this card is simply about seeing, it’s not about future predictions.
Main Passage: Luke 19

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Do you ever wish you were taller, imagine how much more you would see? The bible tells the story of a man who wished he was tall, his name was Zacchaeus, and he’s our bible hero for today.

Zacchaeus had a big job for a small man. Zachaeus collected tax from the people to send to the emperor. He would go round the houses with his scrolls and collect lots of money. People had to give Zacchaeua money for the emperor or they would get into trouble. When Zacchaeus wanted anything new he would charge people extra taxes and keep the money himself. It meant Zacchaeus had a nice house and lots of beautiful things, but he had no friends to share them with. The only people who liked Zacchaeus were the other tax collectors, and they weren’t very nice people either.

One day Jesus came to town. Huge crowds gathered to see him as he walked along the main street. Everyone had heard about Jesus, they knew he did amazing things, said amazing things, and everyone wanted to spend more time with him. Zacchaus went to see Jesus too, but everyone was so tall all he could see were other people cloaks.

Then Zachaeus had a clever idea, it was so clever he wished he could tell someone, but nobody would want to talk to him. Jesus was walking down the main road, and a little way along the road, right in the middle of the path, was a huge tree. Zacchaeus turned away from the crowd and ran to the tree. He pulled himself up on the branches and found somewhere he could sit and look down the road. He had a perfect view, he could already see a dark head of hair in the middle of the crowd that must be Jesus.

The crowd got closer and closer until Zacchaeus could not only see Jesus’ face but he could even hear some of the things he was saying. Jesus was walking straight towards the tree and he stopped right below Zacchaeus’ feet. Then he did the last thing Zacchaeus expected him to do, he looked right up at Zacchaeus.

“Come down Zacchaeus” said Jesus “I’m coming to your house to eat tonight!”

Zacchaeus was shocked. He ran down that tree as fast as he could. “hey Zacchaeus” he heard someone say, “would there be room for me too?”, and then someone else “and me, if it’s not too much trouble”, soon lots of people was asking Zachaeus if they could come.

Zacchaeus lead Jesus and his followers to his house, they sat down round the big guest table and Zacchaeus realised it was the first time his house had been full of people. Jesus started to talk and Zacchaeus saw for the first time that all his money had just made him miserable. He also saw that Jesus and his followers had something he didn’t, they saw the world in a different way than he did, and he wanted to see the world that way.

“I have an announcement” said Zacchaeus. “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.”

Everybody cheered, Jesus had helped Zachaeus see the world differently. Jesus came to find and save the lost, Zachaeus had been lost in his money.

Zachaeus is today’s hero because he shows us different sight.