Our Unexpected God: The God Who Doesn't Wait for Permission

The story of Zacchaeus reveals how Jesus intentionally seeks out those society rejects. As a despised tax collector, Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus, who then invited himself to dinner at his house. The crowd was outraged that Jesus would associate with such a sinner. However, Jesus' unexpected grace transformed Zacchaeus instantly - not through guilt or shame, but through being chosen and valued. This demonstrates that God's grace comes before we're ready, and that belonging leads to transformation, not the other way around.

Transcript

All right, church, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to invite you to open up to the book of Luke. It's in the New Testament. We're going to start Luke, chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. It's a story that I hope all of you have heard. Okay, if you haven't heard it, then you were not in Sunday school as a child.

I don't know. You should have heard it. It's a good story. If you have a second, open up. If you don't have your Bibles this morning, it will be on the screen so you can follow along.

But here is a word of the Lord for us this day. Luke 19:1 through 10 says this. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, relatable, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and he climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, he has gone to be the guest of a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord, here and now. I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back for four times the amount. Jesus said to him today.

Salvation has come to this house because this man, too, is the son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost church. I know that many of us have people in our lives that are absolutely special to us, don't we? Some of our best friends, right? Some of us have friends who could ring the doorbell at any time of day and maybe even any time of night.

And you would be willing to get up and go answer the door for them safely, checking on your doorbell camera who it is, right?

And it doesn't matter whether you're wearing your robe or in your underpants. You will say, hey, friend, come on in. Right? We have some friends like that in our lives, don't we? Okay.

I apparently am the only one who will answer the door in my underpants for a friend. Okay? All right. It's fine. But we have friends that we love so much that we don't have to try to impress when we invite them in, right?

We don't have to worry about having the house cle to worry if we're wearing our grubby clothes or if our makeup is put on just right. When I had just graduated college, I ended up moving into an old apartment that I loved. So it was one of those buildings in Oklahoma City. It was built in 1927. It was a huge fourplex building.

Had a central staircase that went up to the upstairs units, and the downstairs had front doors you could just walk into. It was a great place. And I rented that space because my buddy Greg rented a spot on one side of the building, and I loved the building so much that I left the house that I was in to be in the other unit upstairs. So he and I shared this incredible balcony together, and we shared a hallway upstairs. And because we were such good friends, it didn't matter what time of day it was, we left our doors unlocked and we were just in and out of each other's apartments all day long.

On our balcony. We had, like, really made it super cool. We had a hammock up there, and we had like the. This kind of corner of this balcony where we put an herb garden, and we had, like a waterfall feature. It was super duper nerdy.

And we would come out there, we would eat dinner out on the balcony. We just spent so much time running back and forth to one another's homes. If I needed anything, I knew that I could always just go into his house and grab it. Salt, pepper, a vacuum cleaner, whatever, just go get it. Same was always true for him.

We didn't have to clean for one another. We didn't have to make sure that everything was in order. As a matter of fact, if I walked into his house and it was clean, I knew that he was dead and body was inhabited by an alien or something because it was never super clean. But we were always welcome inside each other's homes. And there's something sacred about being known well enough that someone doesn't have to knock on your door to be welcomed in.

There's something special about someone who sees your mess, your undone dishes, your apparently underwear, and still is able to walk right in. And friends, in the story that we read today, Jesus becomes that not because Zacchaeus invited him, but because Jesus invited himself. Zacchaeus didn't have anyone like Greg in his life. No one walked to his house. No one wanted to be his friends.

As a matter of fact, no one liked him at all. It was pretty clear from the fact that the whole crowd started grumbling as soon as Jesus invited himself. Zacchaeus's door stayed closed. His life was shut off. And in this story, we see that Zacchaeus runs ahead of the crowd and he climbs up a sycamore fig tree just hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesus, this man that he's heard about.

And he wants to see him, to know him for the first time. And then Jesus comes nearby, stops, looks up, and then calls him by name. He says, Zacchaeus, come on down because I'm coming over and we're hanging out. There was no warning, there was no permission, there was no rsvp. Just in that moment, Jesus was just doing some divine intrusion.

And the crowd responded. I think like many of us would respond, and they lost their ever loving minds. Do you see who Jesus is hanging out with? I'm sure there was like, like that gasp of shock. He's a sinner.

The crowd said Jesus had chosen the wrong guy.

As a matter of fact, Zacchaeus wasn't just the wrong guy. In the minds of the crowd, he was probably the worst person that Jesus could have ever gone to visit. So this morning, welcome to week four of our unexpected God. Right? So Zacchaeus for us is in the story.

It was clear that he was the man that nobody wanted to be near to. He was a tax collector in the first century, and he wasn't a tax collector for something that these people enjoyed or believed in. Right, because we all just got done with tax day, didn't we? Hallelujah. Thank God for Rhodes.

Right? But man, it's different when we pay our taxes to our government, who's taking care of us, rather than these people during the first century who were paying taxes to, to Caesar in Rome, thousand miles away from where these people were. And none of that money got reinvested into this part of the empire. If you think about Israel, it was kind of the armpit of the Roman Empire. So he, in this moment, Zacchaeus works for Rome.

He's paid out of the money that he takes from these people in order to pay tribute to the Roman army that patrols their streets. So he's collecting taxes for an occupier.

He was not welcome.

The story tells us that he basically profited off of his own people. Tax collectors were notorious for taking more money than they were supposed to take in order to pad their pockets a little bit. He's seen as a traitor because he's colluding with the occupiers. And it says that he was a wealthy man in scripture, but even though he was wealthy, nobody wants to eat with him. Nobody invites him over to their house.

Usually, especially during this period of time, if you were wealthy, it was a sign that you were welcomed at banquets. You were often invited as a special guest. And if you happen to host banquets, a lot of people would love to show up. But that wasn't Zacchaeus's story. No one wanted to be around him because of who he was, because of what he did, because he was colluding with the occupier.

And then Luke also throws in a pretty hurtful comment here. It says he was short.

We were at an event last night, my wife and I, and I had a conversation with a man I had never spoken to words to. And it was a really long conversation, but the whole time, this was me, because he was like 6 foot 4.

I'm not tall, but man, you know, the Bible's trying to say something when it labels you a specific way. So he was short. I imagine he was pretty tiny, right? It's the Bible's way of telling us Zacchaeus doesn't look like a leader. He didn't look like somebody that God would choose.

And we know our God is very unexpected. So God tends to choose people that many of us wouldn't.

So he runs ahead of the crowd. He climbs up the tree kind of like a child would do, because he can't see over the people he needs to see over, because he knows the crowd doesn't like him. They're not going to make room for him. I think some of us in this room might know what it feels like to be in the room but not welcomed in the room. Have you ever had that feeling?

You're in a place that doesn't actually want you to be there? Many of us, I think, know what it's like to be tolerated but not embraced. And some of those feelings are hard, right? It's been happening to people for far too long. Women, people of color, the poor, all have been devalued, and their voices are oftentimes silenced because they've been seen as less than.

All this brings me to an important point that many of us might try to skip over if we're not paying attention. Sometimes the people that we block from seeing Jesus are the ones that Jesus is most eager to see. Those that we consider of less value are exactly the ones that Jesus intentionally seeks out. This story is proof of that. If Zacchaeus wasn't able to see Jesus that day, I'm pretty sure that his life might not have ended up the way that it did.

So here's what that means for us church people who grumble when we see the Zacchaeuses. If we become a block for others, lives don't change.

So Jesus stops. He's passing through Jericho, and it says, he's just passing through. There's no reason that he's hanging out with Jericho. He's just going through. The crowd is buzzing.

People are all shouting. Everybody wants to spend time with Jesus. He's exciting to be around. The crowd is like, o, oh, Jesus is in town. Let's go see him.

He's just passing through and people are being drawn to him. I imagine the crowd was not quiet. It was probably a pretty loud crowd. And the road, I'm sure, was packed. And everyone is jostling, trying to get as close to Jesus as they can.

And then he stops. And when Jesus stops, I meant the whole street stops. And Jesus looks up into the tree in the middle of the road. Jesus stops, looks up and says, Zacchaeus calls this man by name. And we've talked about identity before so many times.

To be known is incredibly important.

He calls Zacchaeus by name. And it probably had been years since anybody had called Zacchaeus by his name and not grumbling under their breath. Traitor. Jerk. I hate that guy.

Right, so he was called by name by Jesus, and Jesus had never met him before.

Maybe rumors about Zacchaeus had spread far and wide. There's a little tiny tax collector, and he's not a very nice guy. However it worked out. Jesus calls him by name, and he calls his name out in kindness. His tone is warm and welcoming.

And probably for the first time in years, Zacchaeus hears his name without being embarrassed by his name. Come on, Zacchaeus, I'm going to hang out with you at your house today.

Not. Hey, Zacchaeus, do you mind if I come by? Not a. Is it okay with you if I come and have dinner? Not.

Hey, let's schedule something a few weeks from now so we can maybe get together and have a conversation. Conversation. There was no response. Hey, Jesus, if you'll just give me about 20 minutes, I can sweep the dirt off my floor before you come in. Jesus says I must come and stay with you today.

A man that nobody likes. The Son of God says, I must come and spend some time with you. So this, in this moment, is a divine urgency. This is grace in action in this moment, in the present tense. This moment is an example of God refusing to wait for Zacchaeus to get his life together right?

I cannot tell you the number of conversations I have had with people who say, you know, Matt, thanks for the invite, but I'm not going to come to your church until I kind of get some things figured out with me. Friends, there is no better place to get things figured out with you than amongst a community of people who are still trying to figure stuff out. Right?

And the promise of this story is that the same God that met Zacchaeus right where he was, is active in our world today. The God who pushes his way in to our lives, the God who still self invites is the God who is active today. Church. This has to be a lesson for us that God's divine grace doesn't knock. God's divine grace is constantly inviting itself in.

And then the crowd melts down. Right when they saw it. Scripture said they grumbled. Not a few of them. It says they all grumbled.

Stupid don't like that.

Does that sound like a church to you? Right?

Of course they sounded like that. Right? Because we all want to believe that Jesus is supposed to choose us, right? Those who are here faithful, like I gave my $4 in the offering today. Jesus, you're supposed to choose me.

I have sat and had to deal with Matt talking every week for years. Jesus choose me. But no, no, no. Jesus chooses an outsider. Jesus chooses an oppressor.

Jesus chooses a thief. And none of us want that.

The reality is that Jesus always chooses the one in the tree. Even if we don't like it, even if it sucks and makes us uncomfortable. Jesus chooses the one in the tree.

Jesus sometimes chooses the one who needs to be redeemed the most to spend his time with. He said it himself in three different gospels in Matthew, Mark and Luke. I think the most quoted here is in Luke, chapter 5, 31 and 32. You can see this on the screen when it says here, Jesus answered them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Friends, some of us have become righteous and we've forgotten that at one point in our lives. And oh, by the way, every single day, we are also sinners. We think that we're righteous, but Jesus is calling those who need him the most. Man, I just, I don't like that I want heaven to look all like me. Middle class white dudes.

Okay, I was joking when I said that. I don't really want that. So to be clear here, friends, the crowd would self identify as the righteous and they say he's gone to be the Guest of a sinner. And if they are anything at all, like me, and they probably are, that snarky little tone, oh, that was in there for sure. Stupid sinner.

These people in the crowd are judging Zacchaeus because they don't believe that this rabbi named Jesus would go and choose to spend time with him when there are so many other faithful Jews, right? Why Jesus? This guy. They're surprised that Jesus isn't bothered by Zacchaeus sin. You can almost hear the crowd as Jesus is saying, hey, Zacchaeus, come on down.

I'm coming to hang out with you.

The crowd isn't mad that Jesus chose Zacchaeus, a sinner. They're mad because Jesus didn't choose them.

Friends, if we follow a version of Jesus that never upsets the crowd, we're not following Jesus, we're following the crowd. Jesus changes our expectations. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to grace isn't a sinner in a tree, but the crowd on the ground. That cannot be us. Church.

So Zacchaeus comes down, and I bet he came down with excitement. He wasn't fearful. He didn't feel shame. In that moment, he came down joyfully. And before Jesus says a single word, a single word to Zacchaeus about repentance, Zacchaeus blurts out, half of my possessions.

In this moment, I'm going to give away to the poor. And if I've defrauded anybody, if I've been unfaithful in how I've collected taxes, I'm going to pay people back four times what I owe.

Jesus didn't guilt him saying, now, Zacchaeus, if you were just a little bit better, heaven would be opened up to you and you can have eternal life. In that moment, what happened with Jesus changed Zacchaeus instantly. Jesus didn't have to throw the guilt trip. Jesus didn't have to make him feel the shame of his past life. In that moment, Zacchaeus changes.

This is economic repentance. It's also relational repentance, as Zacchaeus tries to come back to the community that he took advantage of.

In this moment, Zacchaeus is experiencing joyful repentance. And it wasn't because Jesus demanded it change or you're going to burn in hell. There was none of that. It was not because Jesus threatened him if he didn't repent, that hell was his only option, not because Jesus shamed him into changing himself. But that moment when Jesus calls him by name, I'm coming to your house, let's have a party.

Changed him. Zacchaeus chose to do everything he could to change everything about who he was, because in that moment, Jesus saw him as a person who needed him. Jesus chose him specifically to spend time with. Jesus went to Zacchaeus his house, probably where nobody else had been for years.

And when you've spent your whole life being hated, I bet being chosen feels a lot like resurrection.

And Zacchaeus story ends with Jesus giving us one of the clearest mission statements that Jesus ever speaks in the Gospel. He said, the Son of man came to seek and to save the. Who? The lost? He didn't say, I came to hang out with all the people who have all their stuff together.

I came to seek and to save the lost. Friends, if we as a church are not seeking and saving the lost, we are not following Christ, we are following something else. This is why it is so important for us as a church to get to that moment of self-sufficiency so that we can do the work of Jesus, not the work of building maintenance.

That's a sermon for another day.

That means Jesus is here for the overlooked. He's here for the intentionally avoided. He's here for the ones that are hiding up in trees. And if you've ever felt lost, be that emotionally, spiritually, relationally, however you felt it, Jesus in this moment is talking to you. He calls us by name.

He doesn't wait for us to find him. Jesus actively woos us to himself through the power of the Holy Spirit. I served under a great pastor for the first five years of my full-time ministry in Broken Arrow who constantly said that Jesus is constantly speaking to us, drawing us near to him. All we have to do is open our ears and hear. But he's wooing us.

Chuck, you're a jerk. Come closer to me. Right?

That's hypothetical. All right.

Did it. Okay. I don't know, just first name that came to me. Matt, you are a failure at some of the things you're trying to do because you're not looking like me. Look more like me.

Every day we should wake up and look in the mirror and say, Jesus, today I'm going to serve you better than I did yesterday. Today I'm going to be a better version of myself than I was yesterday. And if we're not doing that, this story isn't speaking to us like it should be.

Jesus didn't wait for Zacchaeus to repent. He invites himself in. The heart of the gospel is that God moves toward us before we even have an opportunity to move towards God. If you know anything about John Wesley, we call this, what, prevenient grace. Yes, you are also great today.

Prevenient grace. It is God's grace that shows up in our lives before we even know that we need it. It's those moments that when we look back in our lives, we go, oh, yeah, that was God kind of trying to keep me out of trouble right there. That's God telling me that God is real and wants to reveal himself to me. That's that prevenient grace I'm talking about.

So I think we can see that this story matters for us today in 2026, don't we? I believe that Jesus showing up for Zacchaeus means that Jesus is still stopping under trees for us when we act like goofballs. Jesus is still calling people by name, even the people that we don't see. Jesus is calling them and wants them to be a part of his kingdom, too.

Even when they don't deserve it.

Jesus is still inviting himself into messy homes and into messy lives. And this story means that we have to be intentional enough about the importance of people meeting Jesus that we can never be people like the crowd who try to stand in the way. That means we're going to have to start asking ourselves questions like who is in the tree in our lives today? Who is it that's trying to see Jesus but can't get past us? The crowd?

Who have we decided is too far gone, maybe too compromised, too messy to deserve the new life that Jesus promises? Who is trying to see Jesus but can't get past me today?

Because the truth is, Jesus is probably heading to their house next church. I want to remind you that the church's job has never been to decide who's in and who's out. Our job as a church is not to judge between who deserves Jesus and who doesn't. Sometimes our job as a church has got to look more like just getting out of the way and letting God do what God's going to do, but inviting people in, especially the broken, especially those who are hiding in trees today.

And if we're honest with ourselves, some of us in this room today, we might feel like Zacchaeus. We might feel like we have to hide. We might feel that we're not a person who belongs in the group. Maybe some of us in this room are hoping that Jesus doesn't notice the mess in our homes, in our lives. But church, this story should remind you that Jesus sees you, Jesus wants to call you by name, and Jesus is intentional about saying, I want to spend time with you.

Not when you're ready. Not when you've got it all figured out. Not when you're perfect. But today.

So here's the invitation for us. Church. Let Jesus in. Let grace interrupt your life wherever you find it. Let belonging become.

Sorry. Let longing come before. Sorry, I can't even speak. Let belonging come before a behavior shift.

Let joy lead to your transformation. Because our unexpected God is the God who invites himself in. And when Jesus comes home with you, everything in your life can change. Fear leaves. Isolation leaves.

And hope has an opportunity to move in.

Church, let's pray.