Following the telling
of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Luke recounts a scene in
which there is an issue with people bringing their babies for Jesus to touch
them. Some did not appreciate this, “and began to scold those who brought
them” (18:15b). However, “Jesus called for the children, saying, ‘Let the
little children come to Me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God
belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.’” (18:16-17)
Now how could this
possibly relate to Zacchaeus? Because Zacchaeus was said to be short
(19:3) should one equate that with being a child? Of course not.
Rather, one must look at the fact that he wanted to “get a look at Jesus”
(19:3a), but because he was short “he could not see over the crowd, So he ran
on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him” (19:4a). Quite
simply, men did not climb trees. In an honor and shame culture, climbing
trees was not dignified---it was considered to be a shameful activity for a
man. Such things were left to children. So in climbing the tree,
Zacchaeus attempts to come to come close to Jesus by acting like a child.
In addition to that, it is possible to tie in the story of the healing of the
blind beggar, who most certainly, like Zacchaeus, wanted nothing more than to
get a look at Jesus. Luke indeed is a
skilled constructor of narrative.
Returning again to
the eighteenth chapter of Luke, Luke reports that “a certain ruler” came to
Jesus and “asked Him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’”
(18:18) Rather than get sidetracked into a dissertation about the point
of the question and Jesus’ initial response to it, it is best to skip down a
few lines and hear Jesus tell this man to “Sell all that you have and give the
money to the poor” (18:22b). What is it that is heard from
Zacchaeus? “Lord, half of my possessions I now give to the poor”
(19:8b). Now, that doesn’t sound like he is selling all that he has and
giving the money to the poor---it sounds like he is committing to giving half
his possessions to the poor. However, the follow-on statement, which was
“and if I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much”
(19:8c), is likely going to require him to dispose of the remaining half of his
possessions.
In chapter eighteen
Luke records that “when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was
extremely wealthy. When Jesus noticed this, he said, ‘How hard it is for
the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’” (18:23-24) Hard? Yes.
Impossible? No. Jesus says “What is impossible for mere humans is possible
for God” (18:27). To prove that this is the case, Luke offers the story
of Zacchaeus giving away all that he had, entering the kingdom of the Creator God
as a “son of Abraham.” By the way, the man that came to Jesus in chapter
eighteen was said to be a “ruler.” Zacchaeus was also something of a
“ruler,” being a chief tax collector.
Lastly, it is with
interest to note that rather than simply indicating that Zacchaeus has entered
into the kingdom of Israel’s God (acceded to Jesus’ kingdom principles) by his
actions, Jesus refers to him as a son of Abraham. Why make this type of
statement? Well, any mention of Abraham is bound to call to mind the
Creator God’s first words to Abraham, in which the man that was then named
Abram was told that he was going to exemplify divine blessing. It would
certainly not be a stretch to say that Zacchaeus, by giving in the manner that
he proposed, was going to exemplify divine blessing. In so doing then, he would truly become a son
of Abraham.
That exemplification
of divine blessing has been spelled out, to some extent, by Jesus, a bit earlier
in Luke’s Gospel, where Jesus can be heard to say “Blessed are you who are
poor, for the kingdom of God belongs to you. Blessed are you who hunger
now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you
will laugh” (6:20b-21). Certainly Zacchaeus’ actions blessed the poor and
brought a measure of satisfaction to the hungry, whereas those whom he had
cheated, who had no doubt wept as they slipped further and further into
mounting and perhaps insurmountable debt, who perhaps came to find themselves
in a position in which they were unable to feed themselves and their families
and forced to consider lives of slavery because of that debt, were comforted
with a joy that resulted in laughter at the four-fold reparation.
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