The story of Zaccheus is a familiar one but some contemporary scholars speculate that we have missed the essential point. The traditional translation is: Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” But the verbs translated as “shall give” and “shell repay” are not future tense but present tense — “I give,” “I repay.” In other words, Zaccheus is not showing a sign of repentance by saying how he is going to act differently in the future. Rather, he is describing how he is acting currently which is why Jesus says “this man too is a descendant of Abraham.” If this interpretation is correct then the problem was not with Zaccheus but with the crowd which considered him “a sinner.” The “lost” that Jesus came to save are not limited to a particular class of people or to a specific behavior. Rather, we are all lost, all in need of God’s grace and redemption. To judge others as “a sinner” implies that I’m not and that is takes us down the wrong road.
