Zacchaeus. We know him as the wee little man who climbed up in the sycamore tree. It was the Lord he wanted to see. (Do you remember the Sunday School tune?) And as the Savior walked that way, he looked up in the tree. (Pausing to look up.) He said (cupping his hands around the mouth), “Zacchaeus, you come down. For I’m going to your house today!” 

Wait a second. Stop the music. What? Jesus, inviting himself to the house of a sinner who was so completely despised? How wrong that must have felt to just about everyone there that day. Except Zacchaeus. 

Overwhelmed, Zacchaeus “came down at once and welcomed Him gladly.” And in spite of all the mutterings against him, “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 19:6,8, NIV) 

Truly shocking. Who could have imagined that kind of response from Zacchaeus of all people? It’s one of the clearest examples of true repentance in the Scriptures.  

In one of His teachings on the Kingdom of God, Jesus instructed His followers, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34, NIV) 

Through the miraculous work of God, Zacchaeus now considered his treasure to no longer be in his (cheating people out of their money) storehouses on earth, but in heaven – his new home. His heart of greed had been transformed into a heart of generosity. Jesus invited, welcomed, and celebrated such a heart change. We could even go so far as to say that Jesus made His home in Zacchaeus’ repentant heart. 

It was through his heart transformation that Zacchaeus was able to experience times of refreshing in ways that were impossible when his heart was hardened by his sin. The Apostle Peter made a connection between repentance and refreshment in speaking to those who opposed his healing of the lame man at the Temple, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19, NIV) 

What might we, like Zacchaeus, need to repent of in order to experience times of refreshing in our lives? What do we consider to be our treasure (for real, not just the right Sunday School answer?)