56 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
56 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Luke 19:1–10"
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date = "2023-01-17"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk19.1-10)
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You've likely heard how the song goes: "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a
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wee little man was he." We can't know exactly how short he was, but it was
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enough that he couldn't see over the crowds who had gathered to see Jesus when
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He was going through Jericho. News had probably also spread about the healing
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of the blind man at the gate, so it would be even more difficult to get a good
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look at Jesus.
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One thing the song doesn't tell us is that Zacchaeus was a "chief tax
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collector" (_v. 2_), which is apparently not a phrase encountered anywhere
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else. But Jericho was a large city near a major trade route, so the Romans had
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almost certainly set up a hierarchy of tax collectors there to oversee the
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commerce. Zacchaeus was in charge of all of them, and had therefore grown quite
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rich because of it.
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And yet, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. "He was seeking" (_v. 3_), Luke says,
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which indicates that it wasn't just a passing curiosity. He needed to see
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Jesus, and he was willing look a bit foolish and climb a tree by the roadside
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in order to do it. Imagine a Wall Street investor climbing a tree to see a
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passing celebrity.
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But then Jesus does something amazing. He sees Zacchaeus up in the tree, and
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invites Himself to stay at his house. This is even better than Zacchaeus had
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hoped for, because he scrambles down and happily takes Jesus to his house. The
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crowd doesn't like this, because Zacchaeus might be the most hated man in
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Jericho. Not only is he working with the foreign invaders, he's managing all of
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the other guys who are fleecing them to line the Romans' pockets (as well as
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their own).
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Zacchaeus is no fool, so he does what he can to show Jesus the sincerity of his
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heart. He pledges half of all his wealth to give to the poor, and anything he
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has gotten unfairly he promises to repay it back four times. That makes me
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wonder how he could afford it, if all his gains were ill-gotten. But it might
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be that Zacchaeus hasn't been charging more taxes than he ought to have done,
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and the amount he just committed to pay back was 0 as far as he was aware. That
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would make this more of a boastful promise, in the sense that he's guaranteeing
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that he has done the right thing or he will take a more severe penalty if he is
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wrong. The Law of Moses only required fraudsters to pay back an extra fifth of
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what they had stolen, not four times as much.
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Whatever his accounts looked like, Jesus declares the impossible has happened:
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a rich man has been saved and entered the kingdom of God. Unlike the rich,
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young ruler from before, Zacchaeus recognized that there was something to
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treasure more highly than his treasures. God had been working in his heart long
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before Jesus arrived in Jericho.
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* * *
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May our treasure vaults be full in heaven because we have prioritized Your
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kingdom over our own.
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