“The Hunger of Zacchaeus“
[By Matthew Russom]

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6, ESV). Jesus’s statement is powerful as he explains the passion and desire one must have to follow Jesus. There are numerous examples of Biblical people who need Jesus and his gospel and put all their efforts into seeing or hearing him. One Biblical account of someone who hungered and thirsted for Jesus’s righteousness was Zacchaeus.

At the start of Luke 19, an account is written about a tax collector who was “seeking to see who Jesus was” (Luke 19:3, ESV).  Zacchaeus would have failed his mission on his first try of hearing Jesus, because of the large crowds. He did not give up his hunger for the Lord after he failed, because he hungered for the teachings of the Lord. Zacchaeus put all his effort into climbing a tree to get Jesus’s attention which showed the fruit of his true thirst for the Word. He climbs the sycamore and Jesus “satisfies” him by calling him. I believe it is important that Zacchaeus was a sinner, especially a publicly-known sinner (Luke 19:7), as it shows that one can attain this hunger for Christ anytime in their life. Jesus changed Zacchaeus’s life around as he went from corrupted tax collector to a man who gives to the poor and repaid those who were wronged (Luke 19:8). Zacchaeus’s hunger for Jesus changed him into a new man.

Hunger and thirst are physical reactions to not having the nutrients we need. As Christians, we must also strive to hunger for his Word and desire to be filled by it. We need to see God’s word as food and water to our spiritual lives.