What Became of Zacchaeus?
The truth is we don’t know, of course, what happened to Zacchaeus after receiving the gift of salvation from Jesus. He is never mentioned again in the Bible. However, using the other Gospel accounts we can make some plausible assumptions. Let’s look at some.
Jesus lived in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee and visited Jerusalem many times during His earthly ministry. We know He traveled to and from there sometimes by passing through Samaria. It is very likely He also traveled to Jerusalem on other occasions by taking the southern route along the eastern side of the Jordan River and then through Jericho. Zacchaeus probably had seen Him during one of these previous transits through Jericho. He certainly had heard of Jesus prior, knew of His reputation, and that He attracted the outcasts of Jewish society to His teaching sessions.
We know Jesus knew who Zacchaeus was because He addressed him by his first name when He saw him up in the sycamore tree. Maybe the apostle Matthew, a former tax collector himself, knew Zacchaeus and told Jesus about him. Or maybe Jesus just knew his name intuitively.
Did Jesus call Zacchaeus to follow Him just like He did with Matthew while he sat at his tax collection booth in Capernaum? Or did Zacchaeus ask to go with Jesus just like the demonic from Gadara did after Jesus cast out the legion of demons from him into the herd of pigs? Maybe he just joined the crowd that followed Jesus out of Jericho on the road to Jerusalem. We don’t know. We do know, though, that those like Zacchaeus who had a significantly meaningful encounter with Jesus were forever changed and wanted to be with Him.
It is purely speculation on my part, but I don’t think Zacchaeus went back to tax collecting as an occupation. I believe after making good on his restitution claims, Zacchaeus followed Jesus to Jerusalem and sat at His feet while He taught in the Temple each day leading up to Passover and His death on the cross. And maybe Zacchaeus was among those at the Temple for the Festival of Weeks, or Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit filled the apostles 50 days after Jesus' resurrection.
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2 Comments
Brian Conaway on August 18, 2011 at 3:26pm
Another very plausible outcome, Mark. It is fun to speculate on what may have happened to Zac and other Gospel characters.
Mark Durant on August 18, 2011 at 3:13pm
Brian,
While your feel good story sounds nice, I think we got a timing issue here. Z-man tells Jesus "“Look, Lord! Here and now I will give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:8) According to Pastor Mark, we know he did cheat folks - probably a lot of people. My guess is that Z-man spent a lot of time going through his ledgers and made restitution exactly as he promised the Lord. I believe he then stayed on in his job to be a light in the world, just no longer of the world. As for what really happened – who knows, but for some reason, I think Z-man would have been happy to have received the gift of life and then spend the rest of his life toiling in obscurity vice following the Rabbi everywhere He went.