Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro*

How many of you have ever seen a search and rescue effort on television?

Ted Haas from Bedford, Iowa talks about the mission and purpose of the Search and Rescue team:

“Search and rescue personnel risk their lives in tumultuous seas, deep forests, remote mountains, and desert wastelands.

Wherever they're needed they go.

When called, they respond, because lives are in danger.

A Search and Rescue Team in Colorado puts it this way: ‘Millions of people visit the mountains of Larimer County, Colorado, each year.

A few will become lost, stranded, or injured…some will die.

Our objective is to find and rescue these lost or injured people before it is too late….

We are dedicated to saving lives.’

Nevada's Washoe County Search and Rescue Team went out on 74 searches in 2003, bringing 95 persons to safety and recovering the bodies of 9 others.

In 2002, the U.S. Coast Guard made 54,609 rescue trips by boat or aircraft, saving 3,661 lives.

The Search and Rescue Team motto: ‘This we do so others may live.’”[1]

I love that motto because in a spiritual sense, that was also the motto and mission of Jesus Christ as well as for His followers in the church.

Jesus is a one person search and rescue team.

In the world today, if you ask people why did Jesus come to the earth?

They might say things like, “to show us how to live” or “to teach us good values,” or “to be a martyr,” etc.

However, in this encounter we are going to look at today, we are going to see His mission statement.

Here is Encounter 7 and it is found in Luke 19:1-10.

The title of the message is “An Encounter with the Finder of the Lost.”

What is Jesus’ mission?

How does He operate His one person search and rescue team?

First,

*I.

**The search is for lost sinners** (Luke 19:1-5)*

In Luke 19:1, we find Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem but passes through Jericho.

Pretty soon He will be crucified.

A little bit of information on this city: “Jericho is located in an oasis in the Judean desert eighteen miles northwest of Jerusalem.

A winding desert road, familiar to Luke’s readers from the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30), connects the two cities.”[2]

The reason why the man in Jesus’ story fell among the robbers on this road was because it was so windy, allowing robbers great hiding spots to commit their crimes.

In addition, it was a very wealthy and important town.

William Barclay notes that “It had a great palm forest and world-famous balsam groves which perfumed the air for miles around.

Its gardens of roses were known far and wide.

Men called it ‘The City of Palms.’

Josephus called it ‘a divine region,’ ‘the fattest in Palestine.’

The Romans carried its dates and balsam to world-wide trade and fame.”[3]

Still another commentator says that “Herod the Great and his son Archelaus had made it even more beautiful.

A grand winter palace had been built there, also a theater and a hippodrome.

Some of the streets were lined with sycamore trees.

The climate was delightful.”[4]

John Macarthur adds that Jericho had “Pilgrims from Galilee and Peraea, priests who live there and serve there, traders from all lands…it was one of the high density trading centers, there were routes going north, east, west and south, it was a busy, busy place…”[5]

It would be even more busy now, as the streets are full of pilgrims headed toward Jerusalem for Passover and for our Lord to become the Passover Lamb and die.

But with the multitude of people coming to and leaving Jericho, the businesses thrived.

In addition, for the Roman government, it was a lush center for taxation.

Not only did you smell the beautiful rose gardens in Jericho, the Romans smelled revenue as well.

They would exploit this area by placing heavy taxes on the Jews.

After all, they had to use all means necessary to finance their great world empire.

This was one of the several reasons the Jews despised Rome.

Look at Luke 19:2.

We meet Zacchaeus.

He has a Jewish name that means “Righteous One,”[6] though there is nothing righteous about him at this point.

Pastor Kent Hughes says that if he was looking for the lead role in a modern version for /Zacchaeus, the Movie/, he would probably hire Danny Devito and call him “the Z-man” because of  “those shifty eyes, his swagger—the perfect little big man.”[7]

We are told he is a “chief tax collector.”

To collect taxes, the Romans needed tax collectors and if you wanted a tax franchise, you had to buy it from Rome.

They would auction positions off and then require you to pay a certain amount as a tax collector.

Whatever else you wanted to tax or keep, that was up to you.

This was an easy formula for corruption.

You had foundational taxes, income taxes and customs taxes (kind of like a toll for passing through the city), but if you wanted to tax people for anything imaginable from the number of wheels on your cart or animals you are bringing or the products in your bag.

So tax collectors became filthy rich and likewise hated.

In fact the rabbis taught that associating with a tax collector was to make yourself unclean.

They could not attend the synagogue.

If you were a good Jew, you did not associate with these robbers.

The Jews viewed them in the same light as a prostitute.[8]

In fact, “the Jewish Mishnah goes so far as to say it is permissible to lie to tax collectors to protect one’s property!”[9]

So he is an outcast, but Luke loves talking about the tax collectors (this is the sixth time already he’s mentioned them[10]) and Jesus’ love for them.

But Zacchaeus is not just a tax collector.

He is a “chief” tax collector, meaning he supervises the other tax collectors.

Luke also writes that he was rich!

Macarthur notes that, “He was at the top of the pyramid, top of the pile.

Everybody who collected everything, and there were lots of tax collectors, had to pay him a piece of the action.

So everything came up the pyramid and landed eventually in his pocket.

Everybody extorted for him.”[11]

Interestingly, Luke had just mentioned the story of the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-27) and how hard it is for the rich to get to Heaven.

Not only hard, but impossible!

But Jesus adds, “What is impossible with man is possible with God!” (Luke 18:27).

We are going to see Zacchaeus as an illustration of this miracle shortly.

And on this day, Zacchaeus is among the crowd as usual.

The squeeze of the multitude is making him claustrophobic.

He notices there is an unusual anticipation and excitement.

“Wait a minute?

Is all this for the noise of that miracle worker rabbi from Nazareth that I have been hearing about?” he thinks as an elderly man bumps into him.

“Hmm, I hear some say He might be the Messiah!”

Some of the crowd have heard of Jesus and wonder if He indeed is the Messiah they have been waiting for.

And Zacchaeus also remembers hearing about how he hangs out with tax collectors!

Perhaps he even heard of how Jesus befriended maybe a friend of his named Matthew, another tax collector, in Capernaum (Matt.

9:9-12; Luke 5:27-31).

Look at Luke 19:3.

Zacchaeus wants to get close to see Jesus, but not too close.

He also has another problem.

He is really short.

For him to be really short according to the standards of his time, he must have been less than five feet tall.[12]

He was a “wee little man” as the song goes.

He is so short he cannot see above the crowd.

Yet something is driving him to take a look at this man and he can’t seem to shake the thought of a Messiah who befriends tax collectors!

Now we are not sure if he has a Napoleon syndrome; i.e. a short man always trying to compensate for his height by becoming “tall” in other areas.

I do not want to over-psychologize and go all Freudian here, but it is kind of ironic that a short man like him was a “chief” tax collector.

Perhaps being tired of all the jokes growing up in a tall world, Zacchaeus finally decided he was going to climb the professional ladder and step on others who stood in his way instead of being stepped on all the time.

He has finally made it as chief tax collector.

Now he was the king of the hill, looking over the people in Jericho.

Now if you are stuck in a crowd, you are really short, and you can’t see, what do you do?