Luke 19:1-10 - Jesus: Welcoming the Lost

Today's passage will be Luke 19:1–10.

In Luke’s Gospel we now find Jesus in Jericho, His final stop before traveling up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was about a day’s journey away, and Jesus is now nearing the city where He will soon accomplish His mission as the Savior of the world.

We should keep in mind that for about three years Jesus has been preaching and demonstrating the good news of the kingdom of God. This good news is that He has come to bring liberty to captives and salvation to the lost. Just before this story, Jesus healed Bartimaeus, a blind beggar who could not see physically but recognized Jesus as the Son of David. Now we meet Zacchaeus, a man who could see physically but was morally blind. Luke is showing us something important: those who think they see clearly are often blind to God’s kingdom, while those who know they are lost are the ones who truly see Jesus.

When Bartimaeus cried out for mercy, the crowd tried to silence him. And now they will block Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus and grumble when Jesus welcomes him. In their minds, these men were not deserving of God’s grace. And if we are honest, we often do the same. We judge people as unworthy of receiving God’s grace and treat them as unwelcome to God.

But this is not the heart of God. In this passage we see that God not only shows grace to the lost—He welcomes them into His family. The invitation before us today is to see and know the heart of God, and to live out of His grace, welcoming others to come and eat with us at God’s family table instead of excluding them.

With this in mind, let’s read Luke 19:1–10.

Luke 19:1–10 ESV

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The overall heart of this passage is that…

God welcomes the lost into his family

In the ancient world, one did not approach a king casually. Subjects could not simply walk into a king’s presence. Often they could not even look at the king unless they were invited. The king’s honor was high, and everyone else stood beneath him.

But imagine a king traveling through a city. A man climbs a tree just to catch a glimpse of him. Instead of looking down on the man, the king stops, looks up, calls him by name, and says, “Come down. Today I must stay at your house.”

That is the picture Luke gives us. The King does not simply allow the outsider to approach Him—the King invites Himself into the outsider’s home, in essence, welcoming him into his family.

That is exactly what happens in Jericho. The King of heaven is passing through the city. A despised man climbs a tree just to see Him. And instead of ignoring him…the King stops…looks up…calls him by name…and invites Himself into his house.

We see this in verses 1-6 as Jesus shows us how God takes the initiative to welcome the lost.

What is striking is how Jesus looks up at Zacchaeus, someone he had never met, and calls him by name. He not only knows his name, but knows that he needs God’s grace, Jesus’ visitation. So Jesus invites himself to stay at his house. This is a clear picture of how salvation begins with Christ seeking the sinner. How do I know this? Zacchaeus was simply seeking to “see” who Jesus was. He didn’t truly know. But Jesus looks up at him and commands him to come down and join Jesus at his house! Jesus took the initiative to bring the lost into fellowship with Him.

Next, in verse 9, we see that God restores the lost to His covenant family.

It is likely that after Jesus arrived, and during the meal, Zacchaeus publicly proclaims his allegiance to the Lord and the life of the Lord in him that will be lived out. After this, Jesus declares that salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house and affirms that he is also a son of Abraham.

Now, we should note that Jesus is not declaring salvation based upon Zacchaeus’ works, but rather, that he is a son of Abraham, who was lost, but was sought by Jesus, found, and now lives the life of a child of God. In other words, Jesus’ salvation of him, his seeking and saving, produced the radical change in Zacchaeus, because he is now behaving as a child of God, like Jesus, the Son of God, who himself became poor so we might be rich.

Finally, we see in verse 10 how Jesus declares that God’s mission is to seek and save the lost.

Jesus now explains what has just happened. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. In other words, salvation does not begin with us seeking Jesus. It begins with Jesus seeking us.

Salvation is not about us being or becoming fit for grace, even through repentance, but rather that we are taken from blindness and made to see God’s grace and then by the Spirit in us respond in faith to God by repenting from living from ourselves to living to God in love to Him and others.

God welcomes the lost into His family, but apart from Him, in our flesh…

We reject God’s welcome for the lost

We struggle to imagine a king stooping that low—looking up at a commoner, or worse yet, a notorious outcast. And so what do we do? What any good citizen might do—we assume we know what the king should want. And if someone unworthy tries to get near him, we block them. And if the king does welcome them, we grumble about it. We think, “Why would the king stop for him and not for me? If he’s worthy, then I must be worthy too.” We see this in our story.

First, in verses 1–3, we see the crowd blocks the lost from seeing Jesus.

Like the crowd that prevents Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus, we often make it harder for those seeking Christ to encounter Him. We see people who are “short” morally and assume they are unworthy of Jesus. And so we expect them to clean themselves up before they come to Christ. We talk about moral reform before we talk about the deeper problem—the rebellion of the human heart and our need to be rescued by God’s grace.

Second, in verses 4–7, we see how the crowd grumbles at God’s welcome of sinners.

When Jesus invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house, the crowd begins to grumble. Luke uses the same kind of language used of Israel in the wilderness when they grumbled against God. God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, yet they complained about His provision. They looked back longingly at what they once had and forgot the grace that had saved them.

The same thing happens here. The crowd sees God’s grace extended to someone they believe does not deserve it—and they grumble. And we are not all that different.

Sometimes we resent grace when it is extended to people we think are undeserving. We see someone with a terrible reputation…someone whose sins are obvious and public…someone who has done terrible things. And when we see them forgiven, when we see them find peace and joy in Christ, something in us can resist that grace.

Third, in verses 9–10, we see that the crowd assumes some people are beyond God’s grace.

They cannot imagine Zacchaeus being called a son of Abraham. To them he was a traitor—a collaborator with Rome. In their eyes he stood outside the covenant people of God. And we can fall into the same way of thinking.

There are people we look at and assume they are simply too far gone to be saved. We cannot imagine them becoming Christians. And so sometimes we never even share the gospel with them, because deep down we have already decided they are beyond grace.

But that forgets something crucial. Jesus is the one who seeks and saves the lost—not us. Our task is simply to proclaim the gospel.

And all of this exposes something troubling in our own hearts. Instead of welcoming sinners, we often exclude them. Instead of seeing ourselves as lost and in need of grace, we place ourselves among the crowd who thinks they already belong. But that posture is dangerous. Because the very ones who reject sinners are often the ones who end up rejecting Jesus Himself. And to reject Jesus is to remain outside the kingdom of God.

Jesus has already told us that the kingdom belongs to those who receive it like a child—those who know they are helpless and must depend entirely on God’s grace.

If the story ended here, our pride would leave us just as lost as the crowd. But the good news is…

Jesus welcomes the lost by bearing our rejection on the cross

Jesus Christ Himself—the true King—left heaven and came to earth. He put on human flesh and entered our world. And as He was on His way toward Jerusalem to die, He stopped beneath that tree, looked up at Zacchaeus, and invited Himself into his home so that Zacchaeus might be welcomed into the kingdom of God as a son of Abraham, a child of God.

But that moment shows us something even greater.

Jesus looked up at Zacchaeus in that tree in Luke 19:5, and not long after Jesus Himself would be lifted up on a tree—the cross—so that we might be set free.

If we remember what Jesus had just told His disciples in Luke 18:32–33, we see what is happening here. Jesus said that He would be mocked, shamefully treated, and killed. In other words, Jesus accepts the lost through His own rejection.

By welcoming Zacchaeus and accepting the crowd’s scorn in Luke 19:5–7, Jesus foreshadows the greater rejection He would endure at the cross so that sinners might be welcomed by God. Jesus was rejected so that we might be accepted.

But we also see that Jesus provides salvation through His saving mission. In Luke 18:33, Jesus foretells His death and resurrection, and in Luke 19:9–10 He declares that salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house and explains why: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Through His life of perfect obedience to the Father, His sacrificial death on the cross, and His victorious resurrection, Jesus accomplishes the salvation that He declares in this moment.

When Jesus looked up at Zacchaeus in that tree in Luke 19:5, He knew that soon He Himself would be lifted up on a tree, bearing our sin.

Finally, in Luke 19:9, Jesus restores the lost to God’s covenant family.

By declaring Zacchaeus a “son of Abraham,” Jesus publicly restores him to the covenant family of God. Through union with Christ in His death and resurrection—foretold in Luke 18:33—those who were once excluded are welcomed into God’s household.

The perfect Son of God was rejected by the sons of Abraham and nailed to a cross so that we, who were once sons of this world, might become sons and daughters of God.

Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirement of God’s law. He defrauded no one, exploited no one, and perfectly loved both God and neighbor. Where Zacchaeus—and every sinner—has failed, Jesus lived in flawless obedience, and through His life, death, and resurrection He provides the righteousness that is credited to all who are united to Him by faith.

The Son of Man, who should have looked down upon us, looked up to Zacchaeus in Luke 19:5, and would later be lifted up on the cross so that we might be lifted up into the family of God.

And this is certain because Jesus gives us His Spirit, who testifies within us that we are children of God and forms Christ in us so that…

We welcome others into God’s family

As the King in our illustration does not simply allow the outsider to approach Him—but invites Himself into the outsider’s home, in essence, welcoming him into his family, so God welcomes us into His family, calling us His children through union with Christ.

Notice how verse 5, shows us the welcoming heart of Jesus, and since Christ lives in us, we see and welcomes the lost.

As the Spirit forms Christ in us, we begin to notice and welcome those whom others overlook or reject. Just as Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus before any repentance was visible, the grace of Christ in us enables us to welcome others before any repentance is visible, trusting that the same grace that welcomed us is able to transform them.

And since Jesus lives in us, as verse 10 reveals, we live out God’s mission of being instruments that God will use to seek and save the lost.

Because we are united to Christ, we participate in His mission of seeking and saving the lost, gladly offering our lives so others may encounter His grace. They see Christ in us, and Christ speaks through us.

We also, like Zacchaeus in verse 6 and 9, because we have been welcomed, live in joy and joyfully welcome others into God’s family.

Because Christ has restored us to God’s covenant family, we joyfully proclaim that all who receive Jesus belong among His people as our brothers and sisters. And so, we treat them this way!

But you might be wondering, what might this practically look like?

Instead of living in fear and constantly trying to prove that I am not like the tax collector, I rest in Christ’s welcome. My belonging in God’s family does not depend on my performance but on Jesus’ promise that no one can snatch His sheep from His hand. I can trust those hands because they were nailed to a cross for me. When I begin to doubt whether I truly belong at God’s table, the Spirit reminds me that I am a child of Abraham through faith as He cries within me, “Abba, Father.” Because of Christ’s finished work, I live not trying to earn my place at the table, but from the seat He has already given me. Because I know Christ has welcomed me, I no longer hide in fear or try to prove myself spiritually. Instead, I live openly as someone who belongs to God’s family.

Instead of grumbling when grace is extended to people I think are undeserving, I move toward them with the same welcome that Christ showed me. Rather than assuming there is no hope for someone because of their sin, reputation, or past, I seek to know their story and trust that Jesus still seeks and saves the lost. The Spirit reminds me that Christ died for me while I was still a sinner and that no one is beyond the reach of His saving grace. When I encounter people whose lives seem terribly broken or far from God, I remember that the same Jesus who visited Zacchaeus can visit them as well.

Instead of placing my confidence in the moment when I “prayed a prayer,” I rest in the reality that Jesus is the King and head of the church who sought and saved me. My salvation did not begin with my initiative but with His grace. The Spirit continually draws me back to the Scriptures—especially passages like John 1:12 and John 3—reminding me that I was born again by God’s work, not my own. When I am tempted to believe that I was the one who welcomed Jesus, the Spirit gently reminds me that Jesus first welcomed me, called me by name, and brought me into His life. Instead of pointing back to my own decision or spiritual moment, I speak about the grace of Christ who sought me first.

Because Jesus sought Zacchaeus when he was a notorious sinner and outcast, you can know today that you are not beyond his grace. He came to seek and save the lost. If you are lost today, in other words, aren’t united to him, he is inviting Himself into your “house”, will you receive Him? If you receive Him—believing that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world—you will be saved. Receive His welcome today.

Because Jesus sought us when we were hiding, we can stop hiding and start seeking others with the same joy that found us. And when we do, we will be children of our Father, living in the Son, and empowered by the Spirit to give Him all the glory as we live out His mission of seeking and saving the lost.