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Illustration:Jesus invites Zacchaeus to come down from the sycamore tree,
11th century Veneto-Byzantine mosaic from Saint Mark’s Basilica
Pope Francis Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. II.
The life of Jesus. The encounters 3. Zacchaeus.
“Today I must stay at your house!” (Luke 19:5
Wednesday, 2 April 2025
Luke (19: 1 10)
He entered Jericho and was passing through and there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature.
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”
So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today we will continue to look at Jesus’ encounters with some of the characters the Gospel.
This time, I would like to focus on Zacchaeus.
It is an episode that is particularly close to my heart, because it has a special place in my spiritual journey.
Luke’s Gospel introduces us Zacchaeus, a man who seems irredeemably lost.
Perhaps we too sometimes feel this way: without hope.
Instead, Zacchaeus will discover that the Lord has already been looking for him.
In fact, Jesus came to Jericho, a city located below sea level, considered a symbol of the underworld, where Jesus wants to go in search of those who feel they are lost.
And in reality, the Risen Lord continues to descend into today’s underworlds, into places of war, into the suffering of the innocent, into the heart of mothers who see their children die, into the hunger of the poor.
Zacchaeus is lost, in a sense; perhaps he has made the wrong choices or perhaps his life has put him in situations from which he is struggling to escape.
In fact, Luke insists on describing the characteristics of this man: not only is he a tax collector, a person who collects taxes from his fellow citizens for the Roman invaders, but he is the head of the tax collectors no less, as if to say that his sin is multiplied by the hunger of the poor.
Luke then adds that Zacchaeus was rich, suggesting that he got rich on the backs of others, abusing his position. But all this has consequences: Zacchaeus probably feels excluded, despised by everyone.
When he learned that Jesus was passing through the city, Zacchaeus felt the desire to see him.
He did not dare to imagine a meeting; it would be enough to observe him from a distance.
But our desires encounter obstacles and are not automatically fulfilled: Zacchaeus is small!
It is our reality: we have limitations that we have to deal with.
And then there are others, who sometimes do not help us: the crowd prevents Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus. Maybe it is a kind of revenge on their part.
But when you have a strong desire, you do not lose heart. You find a solution.
But you have to be courageous and unashamed; you have to have a little of the simplicity of children and not to worry about your own image. Zacchaeus climbed a tree, just like a child,
It should be a good vantage point, especially to observe without being seen, hiding behind the branches.
But with the Lord, the unexpected always happens. Jesus, as he approached, raised his eyes..
Zacchaeus feels that he has been discovered and probably expects a public rebuke.
The people may have hoped for it, but they are disappointed.
Jesus asked Zacchaeus to come down immediately, almost surprised to see him in the tree, and said to him, “Today I must stay at your house!” (Lk 19:5).
God does not pass by without looking for those who are lost.
Luke emphasized the joy in the heart of Zacchaeus.
It is the joy of one who feels that he has been seen, recognized, and above all forgiven.
Jesus’ gaze is not one of reproach, but of mercy.
It is the mercy we sometimes find difficult to accept, especially when God forgives those who, in our opinion, do not deserve it. We grumble because we would like to impose limits on God’s love.
In the home scene, after listening to Jesus’ words of forgiveness, Zacchaeus, stood up, as if he was rising from a state of death.
And he stood up to make a commitment: to return four times what he has stolen.
It is not a price to be paid, because God’s forgiveness is free, but rather the desire to imitate the One by whom he felt loved.
Zacchaeus made a commitment to which he was not bound, but he did so because he understood that this was his way of loving.
And he did so by combining the Roman law of theft and the Rabbinic law of penance.
Zacchaeus, then, is not only the man of desire; he is also man who knows how to take practical steps.
His intention was not general or abstract but came precisely from his history:
he looked at his life and identified the point from which to begin his transformation..
Dear brothers and sisters, let us learn from Zacchaeus not to lose hope, even when we feel we have been cast aside or are incapable of change.
Let us nourish our desire to see Jesus, and above all let us allow ourselves to be found by the mercy of God, who always seeks us, no matter what situation we may be in.
