The Tuesday after the Second Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord
Posted on January 20, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 19:1-10 (NKJV)
19:1 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”
8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Devotion
The account of Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus should bring us no end of joy. How many of the rulers and leading men of Israel worked as hard as Zacchaeus did to actually see and hear Jesus? Instead, many of them sneered and tried to trap Jesus, but Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree for the chance to see and hear Jesus in person. When Jesus sees him, He says that He must stay at Zacchaeus’s house. The scoffers, of course, were horrified that Jesus would dine with a “sinner.” But as Jesus Himself says, on this occasion and similarly in others, He came to seek and save that which was lost.
Of course Zacchaeus was a sinner. But as we see in our lesson, he was a repentant sinner. He showed this by giving of his wealth to the poor, and promising to repay fourfold anything that he had taken by false accusation. Thus, we can rejoice with Jesus when He says, “Today salvation has come to this house.” We can be sure that Jesus rejoices in the very same way when any sinner repents, because this is why He came to earth, as He says.
Collect: Almighty and Everlasting God, Who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of Thy people, and grant us Thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
