Who is Your
Zacchaeus? You
Need a Reject
11 Indispensable Relationships You Can’t Be Without!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Rev. Taft Q. Heatley
Ray of Hope Christian Church
Luke 19:1-9
Do any thugs,
harlots, hookers or
criminals have your
business card or
email address?
Zacchaeus was the
chief tax collector –
one of the most
despised profession
under Roman
occupation.
“If tax collectors were
bad, the chief tax
collector was the
baddest of the bad,
the chief of sinners,
the sinner supreme,
the ultimate social
outcast”
Jesus’ lineage was full of skeletons
Noah – Genesis 9:21
 Abraham – Genesis 12:10-16
 Jacob – Genesis 27
 Rahab – Joshua 2:1
 Ruth the Moabitess – Ruth

“If you cannot get rid
of the family
skeleton, you may as
well make it dance”
- George Bernard Shaw
Jesus was known as a friend of
sinners
Peter
 Mary Magdalene
 Samaritan Woman at the well in John 4
 The Thief on the Cross

Most of all the 11
(indispensable
relationships) have
something to give you;
Zacchaeus requires
something from you.
Five (5) Aspects of Zacchaeus that
Invite Your Response-Ability:
1.
Remember that a Zacchaeus is
someone who is “up a tree”
a.
b.
c.
d.
Misplaced, disgraced, isolated and ashamed
either socially, mentally, physically or
economically
They are people you would not normally
want around
We are all messed up and mess up
Romans 6:23; Romans 7:14-23
“Jesus didn’t relate to
men as men and women
as women, or to rejects
as rejects, but to
everyone he encountered
as a person in need
of love.”
“ With Jesus there are no
‘outsiders’ because no one is
outside the reach of
God…The one another
connection cannot be
broken, only denied. We’re
all up the tree, in the creek,
out to lunch, and looking for
love”
Is your name
Zacchaeus?
Five (5) Aspects of Zacchaeus that
Invite Your Response-Ability:
2.
Don’t forget that a Zacchaeus is a oneof-a-kind iconoclast
Iconoclast is a person
who destroys religious
images or opposes their
veneration; a person
who attacks settled
beliefs or institutions.
In a world full of the
“me-too” and “minime” mentalities, one-ofa-kind people—those
who break mass habits
are of thinking—are
rare.
We are programmed
to be types following
preordained circuits.
A Zacchaeus breaks
the mold and teaches
us to be authentic.
Every community
needs a few good
fools.
“A copycat Christianity
filled with quivering
knee-jerk, butt-kissing,
sound-the-same lookalikes is the exact
opposite of authentic
discipleship.”
Five (5) Aspects of Zacchaeus that
Invite Your Response-Ability:
3.
Be mindful that Zacchaeus is “out
there”
We have to go looking for
Zacchaeus…because they
normally do not fit in a
church culture (they are in
a smoking sections
(cipher), bar, or gutter…)
Do walls make
Christians?
–late fourth century
philosopher Caius
Marius Victorinus
The Christian church
is too much ‘in here’
and not enough ‘out
there.’
“There is no contact
with Zacchaues and
the other ‘outsiders’
unless you’re ‘out
there’ and start
‘living out’ not ‘living
in’ the faith.”
We need to have
“acts” of worship
and not “sits” of
worship.
Five (5) Aspects of Zacchaeus that
Invite Your Response-Ability:
4.
Be aware that a Zacchaeus is Trouble!
A test of whether or not
you have a Zacchaeus is
whether you are now
taking criticism for
making room in your life
for one of these
unperfumed
personalities.
The truth is a Zacchaeus
doesn’t just disturb you
others, they rub you the
wrong way too
sometimes…they are
unpredictable.
Do you have any
trouble makers in
your life?
You can’t have too
many Barnabases,
but you can have too
many Zacchaeuses!
Five (5) Aspects of Zacchaeus that
Invite Your Response-Ability:
5. Don’t overlook the reality that a Zacchaeus is
inefficient. But his/her inefficiency can
reshape you in the image of Christ.
healing, helping
hand partly
because only their
hand can deliver
you from
worshipping at the
foot of the god of
efficiency.
They make you
uncomfortable and
force you to trust
God…because they
are often
unpredictable.
For Jesus it wasn’t a
sacrifice to do this—
it was passion. Even
a pleasure!
To the downtrodden,
looked over, tossed aside,
ridiculed, forgotten,
rejected…we must always
ask the question have they
heard the good news about
Jesus Christ.