Luke 19:1
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through…

Luke 19:2
A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

Luke 19:3
He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.

In a culture of Exclusion and isolation, there are The Left Out.

The next group of people that exist in an atmosphere of exclusion – The Leaving Out.

Luke 19:4
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

Luke 19:5
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

In a culture of exclusion, Jesus modeled the group that all followers of Jesus should be in – The Reaching Out.

Sadly, there is another large group of people in an atmosphere of exclusion – The Sitting Out.

Luke 19:5-7
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

There’s our final group – The Mutterers.

If you are going to be like Jesus, people are going to mutter about you.

Luke 19:8
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 four times the amount.”

Luke 19:9
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.

From hated, cheating tax collector to strategic church leader. Only Jesus.

Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

People who don’t show grace to others, have forgotten the grace they received.