Today at Hope - A - Palooza, Pastor Martin from Trinity taught on Luke 19:1-9 and Identity.
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “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.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
First of all, tax collectors in their time were evil. Those working for the Romans who were Jews sometimes took extra for themselves on top of the outlandish amount the oppressing government was laying on the Jews. This set of verses therefore, spell out that Jesus associates with the sinner. Particularly those that are projected as sinners by the people. God makes it known to the public that he seeks out the broken so that he may heal them. In Zacchaeus's time, Jesus was teaching parables in order to teach man how to live and still today Christ Jesus wants to have a relationship with YOU. Martin addressed that God wants to take the labels off of YOU that others have given you and all associations that you could never change, and make you new in Christ. He wants to take those labels on himself and give you the labels of treasure, the gift of love, His love. He wants you to be his so that He can treasure you forever.
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