“And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold” (Luke 19:8).
Zacchaeus was a tax collector for the Romans, and these men were hated by everyone who had to pay taxes. To make it easy for themselves, the Roman Empire often hired men like Zacchaeus to do this job, and would state how much money they wanted from a certain group of people. The tax collector was allowed to charge more than this, and the extra was his pay for doing the job. As you may imagine, many of the tax collectors were greedy, and charged people a lot extra, so that they became rich men. The Bible tells us that Zacchaeus was a rich man, for he had probably done this at some point in the past.
But now the Lord was working in his heart. He wanted to see the Lord Jesus, and was willing to climb a tree in order to see Him. Also, he had begun to be careful about how much he collected, and if he had made a mistake and taken too much, he gave the person back four times as much as he took. Also, he began to give away some of his riches, and the Bible tells us that he gave half of his money to the poor. He was doing this before He ever met the Lord Jesus, for God had begun a work in His heart.
We see something else here in Zacchaeus that is most important. He was truly repentant about his sins, and there was a change in his life. Sometimes people pretend to repent of their sins, and say, “I’m sorry,” but it is clear that they are not really very sorry. At the time I am writing this, the Covid pandemic is still going on. Some government officials are making strict rules for people to follow, but then later we find out that the government people have broken their own rules! When they are found out, they usually say, “I apologize; I wasn’t really thinking straight that day.” This is not real repentance; it is just an excuse after getting caught. But real repentance is when we see our sin in the sight of God, and then there is a change in our life.