Christian Podcast Central
The Apostle John turned out to be quite the lyricist. One could almost sing some of his melodious verses. In fact, many of us have.
As you will hear in this PODCAST, John wasn’t a scholar, not by any stretch of imagination. Quite unlike the Apostle Paul, for example.
John engaged in virtually no complex doctrinal discussions involving the nuances of theology, the kinds of stuff in which Paul reveled.
John’s Greek is so simplistic that 1 John is invariably the first book every 1st-year Greek student translates.
John was a passionate soul, one who wrote far more emotionally than he did academically.
Consequently, John had the uncanny ability to relate to us all on such a visceral level that you get the sense that he understood exactly what it’s like to be us — fragile, fearful, human.
When their paths first crossed, Jesus met a rather unremarkable, uneducated fisherman from the provincial little town of Bethsaida. Yet, by the time Jesus got done with him, John became a prolific author (with one Gospel, three letters, and his magnum opus, the majestic book of Revelation to his literary credit).
John was the only one of the twelve who stayed with Jesus on that fateful day of the crucifixion. So devoted was he to Jesus, that with one of His last, dying breaths, Jesus committed the care of His dearly beloved mom, Mary, to John.
It was John who went from being known as a “Son of Thunder” for his uncontrollable temper, to the “Apostle whom Jesus loved,” as John so referred to himself because he could not get over that fact that Jesus saw in him someone who could be loved.
Among his other glistening credentials, John was for a time the pastor of little family of faith in Ephesus. John was arrested, charged with being a leader of a Christ-following community, sentenced, and subsequently banished to penal colony on island of Patmos.
Separated he now was — by the Aegean Sea — from the people he so loved, his modest little flock in Ephesus. Which explains why, when John was allowed to see the splendors of Heaven, the very first description he wrote was so curiously cryptic to us, but not to him. Just a fragment of a verse that spoke volumes to John: “There was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1).
Anyway, John was eventually released from Patmos. He then apparently became reunited with several people from his former congregation in Ephesus.
Much to John’s delight, many of his former flock had continued in his absence to follow Christ faithfully, and to raise their children to follow Christ. This brought John such enormous joy, as you can imagine, that he wrote this in 2 John: “How happy I was to meet some of your children and to find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.”
“To find them living according to the truth.” Nothing brings more joy to a parent’s heart than that.
Likewise, there is nothing that brings to a parent more grief and heartache than to watch his or her child reject the truth they so love, and the God whom they so cherish.
That same anguish of soul floods the heart of every spouse whose husband or wife rejects truth, the family’s faith, the one true God. Just as it does anyone who watches helplessly as a beloved friend, relative, whomever, reject the truth.
The gallons of tears shed. The many sleepless nights spent worrying, agonizing, questioning, praying.
Our unnerving lament, written in a minor key, that invariably results from the knowledge that the thing we hold most dear they ridicule with contemptuous disdain.
The ever-present, nagging thought that perhaps if I had only said more, or said less; tried harder, or didn’t try so hard; or hadn’t succumbed to my own weaknesses and hypocrisies. Maybe then I could have successfully passed onto my children a godly heritage one generation to the next.
And then, of course, there are those self-righteous parents whose own children are thriving in the faith. And they never seem to let you forget that you failed where they succeeded, causing us yet all the more guilt, shame, heartache, and heartbreak.
Just ask the mother of Zacchaeus. She was an admirable woman of simply Jewish faith. We know this because names, in Biblical times, were never chosen casually. No one ever chose a name simply because it sounded “cute”. No, names were chosen out of a parent’s highest aspirations for their children.
So, by naming their son Zacchaeus, it is evident that these particular parents had a deep and abiding Jewish faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
You see, Zacchaeus means “purity born of innocence”. Unlike, say… Mary or John, Zacchaeus was a relatively rare name.
Zacchaeus was evidently raised in Sabbath School and knew his Torah. Yet, he chose to reject the Torah – much, I am sure, to the sorrow of his parents, as he grew up, moved to the “resort town” of Jericho, and worked as a loathed tax collector for the hated and vicious Romans.
We read about Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-2
Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
Did you catch that? Zacchaeus was not just a ruthless tax collector… he was Jericho’s CHIEF tax collector!
That’s a long way off from someone who is “purity born of innocence”. You see, when his fellow Jews could not pay their taxes (extortion money, really)… it was common for the chief tax collector to seize their land, their possessions… even their daughters for sex trafficking. He was not just a tax collector, but a pimp.
Which explains the people’s reaction to him in Luke 19:
3 He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.
5 When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name.“Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”
6 Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7 But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. (Luke 19:3-6)
I mean, think about the most disgusting, loathsome person you have ever known. Try to imagine any parent’s greatest fear of the one singular sin that their son or daughter could ever possibly commit… the one trespass that they might pray vehemently that God would protect them against…
THAT SINNER IS THIS GUY, ZACCHAEUS!
Yet, upon seeing Jesus… this guy repented! He sincerely and authentically repented.
8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” (Luke 19:8)
Now, as I mentioned earlier, Zacchaeus knew his Torah. Therefore he knew that genuine repentance is so much more than simply saying a “get out of jail” prayer. He knew that it was a complete change of heart that would result in a change of life. He also knew what the Torah says about making things right with those he had cheated.
He shall make restitution for his trespass in full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one he has wronged. (Numbers 5:7)
Under Torah law, restitution is required to the sum of 120%. Yet this man, Zacchaeus was so broken and so aware of the separation that he had caused between himself and God’s will for his life, he volunteered for Jesus – without even being asked – to give away half of his wealth to those in need and to find every person he had robbed and give back to them not 120%, but 400% of the amount he cheated them.
And, undoubtedly, this would result in him losing his job altogether.
This was indeed a changed heart that resulted in a changed life.
Another way to apply this to all of our lives is what we read in James 2:24,
So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. We are not SAVED by our good works. Our good works are merely the RESULTS of us being saved.
And what was the result of Zacchaeus’ repentance?
9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.” (Luke 19:9)
Now, keep this in mind: Zacchaeus’ wrongdoings were perfectly legal under Roman law. But, they completely went against God’s will and His Biblical law. And whenever there might be a conflict between governmental law and Biblical law, Biblical law always trumps governmental law.
But, Luke’s story about the interaction between Zacchaeus and Jesus – in fact the theme of the entire New Testament – didn’t end there.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
Jesus sought out Zacchaeus, and quite soon He would die on a cross in order to save Zacchaeus… and all of us as well.
And Jesus is seeking and saving those who are lost still today! He shuns no one. No one is beyond repentance and unredeemable.
I sometimes wonder if Zacchaeus’ parents ever lost hope for their son. But I know that Jesus never did. Just as I know that Jesus never loses hope for anyone who has gone off the rails today in the 21st century. And since Jesus never loses hope, neither should we.
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