Zacchaeus
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Zacchaeus the tax collector, for all his power over the people because of his job, could not get the crowds to part for him. What is interesting is that this public sinner, this publican who stole from his own people while collecting the Roman taxes, felt impelled to see Jesus. So, he forsook his dignity, something held dearly by every man in the cultures of the Middle East, by climbing up into a tree. That was something to be done only by children, not by powerful officials. Luke is telling us in this gospel story that there is still a seed of goodness within this tax collector, in that he feels driven to look upon our Lord.
What kind of tree does he climb? Nothing is in the gospels casually: it all has a meaning. A sycamore tree was described in those times as a wild, unruly tree. The disturbed conscience of this tax collector drives him up this particular tree, the wild one. While he is enduring the mockery of the Jews who despised him as a traitor, he is waiting in that wild tree with his disturbed conscience, waiting to be healed. Only God can bring peace to us when our nature has become wild.
That seed of goodness sprouts when Jesus calls Zacchaeus by name. The publican jumps down and in front of everyone announces his own radical conversion. He was going to impoverish himself by atoning for what he had stolen from his own people over the years. Ironically Zacchaeus means “pure” and now the tax collector really was pure. His conversion is the traditional start of the preparation season for Lent. In a 4th-century text called the Apostolic Constitutions, Zacchaeus was listed as a disciple of St. Peter the Apostle who accompanied him on his missionary journeys. Zacchaeus’ feast day is April 20. There is always hope for even the worst of sinners, if only we listen to the voice of God.
The Sunday of Zacchaeus is the unofficial beginning of the Preparation Season for Great Lent. This gospel of the repentant tax collector, who experiences a radical conversion, is popularly seen as opening the doorway to the season of conversion, meditation, prayer, and reflection that leads us into the Great Fast.