SSttaannddiinngg UUnnddeerr ttoo UUnnddeerrssttaanndd A Contextual Reflection on Zaccheus from Luke 19 Names Matter In the Jewish world of the Bible, children were expected to grow into the meaning of their name as part of their destiny. Thus, the naming of children, especially male sons, was a most sacred and solemn task. Jesus’ Semitic name, Yeshua, which means the Lord rescues, is a great example. His name is inextricably tied to His destiny. Zechariah’s name in Luke 1 means whom Jehovah remembers.1 This meaning is an essential part of the irony of the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s life as it seems that God has long forgotten this devout couple (from their perspective) and their unfulfilled longings for a son. Zacchaeus and His Name When Luke tells us about Jesus passing through Jericho on His way to Passover and the Cross in Jerusalem, he records Jesus standing under a sycamore tree and calling down a Chief Tax Collector named Zaccheus. We know nothing about the events, circumstances or issues surrounding Zaccheus’ birth. However, it seems reasonable to infer that Zaccheus’ father was an observant Jew because he gave his son a Hebrew name meaning the just one, righteous one, or pure one.2 This raises an intriguing question: How did someone with a name like that ever end up being a Chief Tax Collector working for Rome? Jesus’ People Perspective Jesus always sees what a person can become in Him, not what he or she was before His call. As bad as a person’s history might be, that is never a showstopper as to what a person can become in God’s Kingdom (witness the demoniac in Luke 8 who became the first missionary of the New Testament!3) In this encounter, Zaccheus is the perfect name to dramatically illustrate God’s gracious purpose. Remember, spiritual journeys are like marathon races; what really matters is how you finish, not from where you started. In God’s plan, Zaccheus’ name signifies Heaven’s eternal destiny for him. But we’re getting ahead of our story. A Tax Collector’s Reality Being a tax collector in Palestine in the First Century meant that you possessed considerable wealth, very few friends and absolutely no hope. Since Rome was considered to be the Kingdom of Evil,4 being a tax collector in Palestine meant that you had willingly sold your soul to the Devil to become a foot soldier in Satan’s army. This was beyond anathema to an observant Jew! With that decision, your family (and clan) immediately disowned you. Furthermore, Zaccheus would be viewed as the worse of the worst. As the Chief Tax Collector, he was responsible for recruiting and training other tax collectors, enticing them to likewise become traitors to their country and their religion. In addition, Zaccheus’ social life was limited to other tax collectors, some Roman officials, and the usual social outcasts, e.g. prostitutes. In the capacity of Chief Tax Collector, he was living off a portion of the income derived by the ordinary tax collectors he recruited. Thus he didn’t know who, or how his tax collectors had specifically cheated merchants, traders and people in their inflated valuations of the goods that they then taxed. Because the rabbis declared that retribution was a prerequisite to being forgiven; by definition, Zaccheus had no way of ever making retribution to those (who he didn’t even know) who were cheated to generate his income. In this religious system, contrition was not enough for God’s forgiveness to be granted to you. It needed to be coupled with retribution. As a result, Zaccheus had no hope of every getting right with God. Have you ever thought of what it must be like to live each day convinced that you can never get right with God? What might that do to your soul? Such was Zaccheus’ daily reality as a Chief Tax Collector – a lot of money, very few friends and absolutely no hope. Before digging into this text, let’s raise some questions that will be helpful in setting the stage for this passage: 1) Where are we? (a geography question), and 2) What happened here before? (a history question). A Low City Geographically, Jericho is one of the lowest cities on the face of the earth. Being almost 1000 feet below sea level5 makes this city delightfully warm in the winter. Think of it as the Palm Springs of its day. In antiquity, Jericho was known for its date palm groves and balsam tree plantations. Since balsams emit a pleasing aroma, it was said of Jericho that when the wind blew, the city was infused with a sweet fragrance. Before the birth of Jesus, Jericho was enlarged and beautified by Herod the Great as the site of his winter capital.6 It was a one-day’s walk from Jerusalem (which is 2500+ feet above sea level and often cold in the winter) down to Jericho along the Roman road on the southern rim of the Wadi Qilt. Thus it was an ideal location for the winter villas and gardens of the Jerusalem aristocracy (you can still see today the remains of Herod the Great’s palace).7 As a result, Jericho developed a strong “establishment” presence. That’s significant especially after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead some 40 days earlier.8 Since then He has been a marked man and (so to speak) his “Most Wanted” poster is on every palm tree in this “establishment” city. Jericho was strategically located on two major trade routes. As a result, it was a logical place to levy tariffs on goods coming and going on the Arabia-Damascus route. Also, being located near the jurisdictional borders of Judea and Perea, the city was a gateway to Western Palestine and Jerusalem making it an ideal place from which to oversee that region’s tax-collecting efforts. History Often Matters In Jericho’s long history, two events stand out as being significant to this encounter of the Divine with Zaccheus: O The conquest of Jericho under Joshua opened up the Promised Land to the Israelite nation. In a similar vein, Jesus is passing through Jericho on His way to Jerusalem and the Cross to open up the doors to an eternal Promised Land bringing with Him an aroma of forgiveness and acceptance to those without hope. In addition, Jesus’ Hebrew name, Yeshua, comes from the same Semitic root word as Joshua.9 O Jericho was the home of Rahab, the prostitute who befriended the Israelite spies when they first explored Canaan.10 From Matthew’s opening chapter, we know that Rahab (1:5) is part of Jesus’ lineage. Thus, Jesus is passing through the home of one of his ancestors who was a person of ignoble reputation. So we shouldn’t be surprised to find another outcast brought into the Kingdom in this place. The Shocking Call of Levi Early in Jesus’ ministry, He called Levi, a despicable port tax collector in Capernaum, to become one of the Twelve.11 Therefore it should not be startling that as Jesus approaches the end of His earthly ministry, He reprises that shocking (to his disciples) call of Levi by welcoming an equally despicable Judean Chief Tax Collector into His fellowship. Repetition is always highly significant in the Scriptures. Sycamore Trees The more one digs deeper into context, the more one marvels at how each and every word inspired by God’s Spirit is there for a reason. We may not always know the reason, but that does not detract from the fact that each word has been deliberately chosen to be part of the story line. So when Luke gives us the detail that Zaccheus was a short person who climbed up into a sycamore tree, we should assume that those two facts are important to this encounter. And rightly so! This Middle Eastern sycamore tree is not like the sycamore species we see in North America. The Judean species is part of the mulberry-fig tree family and 1) it can grow into a very large, spreading tree; 2) its leaves are large with a dense foliage pattern; and 3) its major lower limbs are mostly horizontal branching off from the main truck about 6-10 feet above ground. Furthermore, its figs do not grow along the branches; rather, they grow out of the trunk. These figs are not appealing for human consumption because of their low sugar content.12 Over time the figs fall to the ground where the birds feed upon them and leave their droppings in exchange – a rather off-putting scene! What is important to the text is that the rabbis of Jesus’ day considered the sycamore to be an “unclean” tree. Consequently, sycamores were not permitted to grow within 75 feet of a town/city limits.13 Furthermore, the rabbis ruled that if any part of a sycamore tree became unclean, that ritual impurity extended to the entire canopy of the tree.14 This in part explains why Zaccheus needs to remain hidden. He is an unclean person in an unclean profession. If detected in the tree, he will have made those walking under that tree ritually unclean. Setting the Stage Luke sets the stage for Jesus’ encounter with Zaccheus by recording Jesus’ bringing sight to a blind man as He approaches Jericho. The crowd following Jesus is comprised of the typical peasants from the surrounding area (remember 80+% of the people in Palestine in the First Century are peasants living on the edge of poverty)15 along with Passover pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.