Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

In the town of Jericho there lived a man named Zacchaeus. He was a tax collector — and not a very fair one. He took more money than he should from people and kept the extra for himself. Because of this, nobody in town liked him. He was also very, very short.

One day, word spread that Jesus was coming through Jericho. Zacchaeus really wanted to see him. But a huge crowd had gathered, and Zacchaeus was too short to see over anyone’s shoulders.

So he did something a grown man wasn’t supposed to do — he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree! He scrambled along a branch and waited, peeking through the leaves.

When Jesus reached the tree, he stopped. He looked straight up into the branches and called out: “Zacchaeus! Come down. I’m coming to your house today.”

The whole crowd gasped. Why would Jesus visit him — the dishonest tax collector?

But Zacchaeus scrambled down as fast as he could, so happy he could hardly speak. And being near Jesus changed his heart completely.

“Lord!” he announced. “I’ll give half of everything I own to the poor. And anyone I’ve cheated, I’ll pay back four times as much!”

Jesus smiled. “Today, salvation has come to this house,” he said. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Nobody is too far gone for Jesus to love. He noticed the one man everybody else ignored — and that one moment of being truly seen changed Zacchaeus forever.