Things we can learn from Zacchaeus

I think a lot of times we “water down” parts of the Bible because we teach them to children. Zacchaeus is one that I noticed recently I didn’t know much about. I knew stuff about him, but mainly just the stuff we sing in the song as kids. Even when reading through it, it seems like the mentality most times is that it’s just a “kid’s story” and miss out on a lot of the details we can learn from.
(Luke 19:1-10)
We see here that he was a tax collector. If you look back at how tax collectors were at the time, you see that they were hated among most, if not all, people. They were given what to tax the people by the Roman government and only they knew what that number was, so often times, they would overcharge people and keep the extra money for themselves. And seeing as it says that Zacchaeus was rich, that could have been what he did. We see that he still wanted to see Jesus. When Jesus saw him and said that He would come to his house, we see the reaction from the people in the crowd. They called Zacchaeus a sinner and judged Jesus for going to his house.
(1 corinthians 6:9-11) We could probably find 2 or 3 words in those verses that would fit the description of a tax collector in those days. But it says “as were some of you”. Zacchaeus was truly trying to make his life right, but the people around him still called him a sinner and judged him for his occupation. We also see this in the chapter before Luke 18:9-14. We need to watch out as Christians that we are not doing this. We shouldn’t think more highly of ourselves because we are saved. We have the gospel, it saves, and we should be out teaching it. Whether it’s because of financial status, race, occupation, or anything else, no one is too far to be saved. Tax collectors at that time were some of the most hated and untrustworthy people, but they could still be saved. I’m sure there’s people in our lives that we can think of that we might say, “they would never listen” or “they would never become a Christian”, but that’s not what we see from the Bible. If we look at Saul, later changed to Paul, he was going around killing Christians. He was traveling all over persecuting them. But then when we think of him as Paul, he was the complete opposite. Even if you look to more recent times and into the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, it is said that before being killed by other inmates in prison, he expressed the need to be baptized. A church of Christ preacher went in and baptized him and it is said that he continued to try to faithfully until his death. Even some of the most notorious and wicked people can be saved if they are truly repentant. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. We are commanded to and we should want to be doing the same.