Zacchaeus’ Wholehearted Repentance

April 26

The first ten verses of Luke 19 give us the story of a man named Zacchaeus. Like Levi/Matthew, Zacchaeus was a Jew, which put him in an awkward position as a Roman authority who taxed his own people. Perhaps you sang the children’s song about this “Wee Little Man.”

Dr. Luke tells us that he was rich. (Luke 19:2) This may be his way of saying that Zacchaeus was very successful at his job, and successful at lining his pockets with extra income from his fellow Jews. (The rest of his story bears out that idea.)

He wanted to see Jesus, but because he was a man of small stature and crowds were surrounding Jesus, he ran ahead and climbed a tree. When Jesus got to Zacchaeus, He called him by name and urged him to climb down from the tree because He desired to spend time at his home.

How did Jesus know Zacchaeus’ name? Perhaps he was a friend of Matthew, who knew where Zacchaeus normally worked and told Jesus, “Since we’re going to be in the neighborhood of my good friend, let’s stop by and visit with him.”

Zacchaeus may have heard accusations that Jesus was going into the home of a sinner and decided to take a stand—literally. He told Jesus he would give half of his income to the poor, and if he had extorted money from anyone, he would pay it back four times as much.

There are two points to highlight from that last sentence. We already saw on January 17 that there are several ways to describe an if/then statement in Greek. The way that Zacchaeus used the if/then phrase, he was agreeing that he, in fact, had extorted money. Exodus 22:1 required a twenty percent repayment over what had been extorted. (Leviticus 6:5; Numbers 5:7). Zacchaeus’ offer to give half of his possessions to the poor and four times as much as he had extorted was extremely generous.

Zacchaeus was a wholeheartedly repentant and changed man! We’ve already seen how John the Baptizer told the repenting tax collectors to only take what was authorized under Roman law. (Luke 3:13) We saw three disciples, as well as Levi/Matthew leave everything to follow Jesus. (You can check out our devotionals from April 6 and March 12 for more information)

Application

When was the last time you were convicted of sin? If we’re honest, we’re all convicted of sin. But the bigger question is: The last time you came under conviction, how did it change you? Did you respond accordingly or did you respond extravagantly?

© Copyright 2026 Craig Beaman