Hank Smith: 00:04 Hello my friends. Welcome to another FollowHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m here with the incredible John Bytheway. Welcome John.

John Bytheway: 00:10 Thanks, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:12 We are answering a question from this week’s lesson, John, and the question this week is: Who is the guy that climbs the tree to see Jesus? Where would I even find this story?

John Bytheway: 00:22 Zacchaeus is in Luke chapter 19. So why did he have to climb a tree?

Hank Smith: 00:28 He’s got a bit of a height problem. It says, “He couldn’t see Jesus, who he was because of the crowd.” This is verse 3 of Luke 19, “because he was little of stature.”

  00:39 I picture Zacchaeus jumping up behind the crowd trying to see Jesus, and he just can’t get up that high. So he looks in front of him, sees where Jesus is going, and he sees there’s a tree up that way. So he climbs the sycamore tree to see him.

John Bytheway: 00:52 You know what I love about this story is that Jesus says in verse 5, “Zacchaeus, make haste come down; for today I must abide at thy house.” When it introduces Zacchaeus in Luke 19:2, it says, “He was chief among publicans and he was rich.” He just finished saying in Luke 18 that “it’s easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they said, ‘Well, who then can be saved?’ Then Jesus said, ‘The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.'” And the very next chapter is this Zacchaeus who is rich. But Jesus says, “Come on. I’m going to eat at your house.”

Hank Smith: 01:31 I don’t think they’ve ever met, but still Jesus knows his name. “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down.” It says, “Zacchaeus made haste and came down.” I think he fell. He’s probably so shocked that Jesus knows who he is. And it says, “He received him joyfully.” Everyone says, “Oh, how could you go to that man’s house? He is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus says, “I give half my goods to the poor. If I’ve ever taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” Right? “If someone says, ‘Zacchaeus, you ripped me off,’ I go above and beyond to pay them back.” And Jesus says, “This is also a son of Abraham. He is of the house of Israel. This is a good guy.”

John Bytheway: 02:10 And some people thought that if you took the job of a publican, you’d kind of forfeited your house of Israel status. And so it’s important that Jesus says, “No. He is also a son of Abraham.”

  02:21 So I like it. There’s people that could be little of stature in lots of different ways, the people that don’t get seen that are kind of on the sides or in the back and Jesus sees them. So I like this story.

Hank Smith: 02:34 Yeah. Be careful on judging others. This man is a sinner and the Lord says, “No. He is a son of Abraham.” That’s beautiful.

  02:44 We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called FollowHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We’re with Dr. Keith Wilson this week. You’re going to love what he has to say about the lesson. So come join us there. And then join us, sit back here for another, FollowHIM Favorites.