Scripture Daily

Context No. 4197 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 19:8-14: in context

8Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.” 9Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” 11As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that God’s Kingdom would be revealed immediately. 12He said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13He called ten servants of his and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, ‘Conduct business until I come.’ 14But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’

Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector who had grown rich by cheating, stands before Jesus a changed man. Look, Lord, he says, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. His encounter with Jesus has transformed him, and the transformation shows immediately in his relationship to money and to the people he had wronged. And Jesus declares: today salvation has come to this house.

What stands out is that Zacchaeus' repentance was not merely a feeling but a concrete change in action. He did not just express regret; he gave half his wealth to the poor and made costly restitution to those he had cheated, paying back four times what he had taken. Real repentance showed itself in his wallet and in his dealings with others. And Jesus adds why he came: the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, a man like Zacchaeus.

It is easy to feel sorry, to have religious feelings, without any real change in how we live, especially in the concrete areas of money and how we treat those we have wronged. Zacchaeus shows what true repentance looks like: it changes our actions, opens our hands to the poor, and makes right what we have made wrong.

Does my repentance show itself, like Zacchaeus', in concrete changed action, in open-handedness to those in need and in making right what I have done wrong, or does it remain merely a feeling that never reaches my dealings with money and people?

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