Zacchaeus has gotten the long end of the stick as far as Biblical stories go. I think it has something to do with being known as a wee-little-man and the fact that Jesus wanted to have supper with him. How can you not love a wee, little man? But the truth is that if he lived today, no one would write a song about him, and if they did, it wouldn't be so kind. He was a professional crook. He enriched his life by impoverishing others. So what does this story teach us?
The story of Zacchaeus offers an antidote to cheap grace. Zacchaeus didn't take God's grace as a free pass for all the terrible things he had done. Instead, he allowed that grace to work itself out into his broken past and he made restitution, to the extent he could, for what he had done. The Old Testament law commands restitution for any number of offenses. In fact, many are surprised to learn that incarceration was not used as a punishment for crimes in the Old Testament. Instead, God called people to make things right. We could learn a lot from Zacchaeus. Grace may be free, but it does come with a price.
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