Luke 18 & 19
Luke did not just sit down on a Tuesday and write Luke. He was late to the story, coming to Christ most likely through Paul and Barnabus’ ministry in Antioch. Luke is the only Gentile author in the Bible. An outsider, a physician , a faithful follower of Jesus and chronicler of His life and work who wrote more words in the NT than Paul, over a quarter of it. He was living his life and Jesus invaded and changed everything and Luke loved Him wanted to write His story to some guy named Theophilus and so he interviewed those who knew Jesus, who had looked into His eyes, who knew the sound of His voice and the pace of His gait and the sound of His laughter and he was filled with the Spirit to write Luke and Acts. So when he lays out the story, he does it very much on purpose.
Jesus is teaching a parable about a widow’s persistent prayer coupled with the contrast of the tax collector and the Pharisee praying at the temple followed by Jesus’ rebuke and teaching on how we can only enter the kingdom if we receive it like a little child when this man asks Jesus a question. When we combine the other synoptic Gospels, he is known as the rich young ruler. Probably because he was rich, he was young, and he was a ruler, an archon, someone with status and authority. And he asks Jesus an honest question. I don’t think he’s trying to trick Jesus. “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Seems like a fair question. Jesus doesn’t even answer it. He asks, “Why do you even say that I’m good? Only God is good.” Then into the silence Jesus simply tells the guy that he already knows the rules. The guy says he’s kept all the rules. Jesus says, great, trade all your earthly treasure for treasure in heaven by selling it and giving the money to poor people, then come and follow Me.
Nope. Too far, Jesus. Too much. And the rich young fancy influential guy who went to the right schools and was in the right fraternity and knew all the right people and had all the right keys to the right doors and did all the right things – I mean, he was the guy – the guy you want your daughter to marry – he gets really sad. And then Jesus makes what appears to be a joke at his expense. You see that camel over there? It’s easier for that thing to walk through the eye of a needle than for this guy to enter the kingdom. Not any guy, a rich guy. This guy and all the guys like him. So someone says, “Um, Jesus, wait a second. If the best of us can’t be saved, how can anyone?” And Jesus reminds them that it is impossible for anyone, especially the best of us, to save themselves. Only God can do it.
Skip forward a bit and we get a story found only in Luke. Jesus is in Jericho, where the walls came tumbling down. The lowest city on the planet, 846 feet below sea level, and the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. Zacheus lived there. He was also rich. But he was not the guy you want your daughter to marry. He was a tax collector, which meant he worked for the Romans, where he had to collect a certain amount of taxes and anything above that he could keep. He became filthy rich from taxes the Jews were forced to pay to their occupying oppressors, and they hated him for it. Tax collector was a metonymy for corruption and oppression and injustice and the brokenness of the world – everything the Jews despised. And this wee little man, likely under 5 feet tall, wanted to see Jesus and he climbs a sycamore tree. So undignified. And Jesus walks up to that very tree, stops, and looks up. Jesus stopped what He was doing to talk to this man. I like to think Jesus was smiling as He put his hand up to shield His eyes to peer up into this tree at this tiny tenacious tax collector and says the most unexpected thing:
“Zaccheus! Hey! I know you! I’m coming over for dinner. Let’s be friends. Hurry up and come down because I’m headed over there now.”
What will Zaccheus do? Well, he hurries! Can you imagine how excited he was? But before he can even climb down from the tree, the rumble of grumbles from the folks crescendos to a cacophony, but not about Zaccheus – about Jesus. He was going to be the guest of a sinner, and not just any sinner, but the worst of us. Jesus was inviting Himself over to share a meal with the guy we hate the most.
Zaccheus stops, and instead of addressing the crowd turns to Jesus and says, “Lord, I’ll sell half of my stuff and give it to the poor, and I’ll pay back 4X what I took from people!” What a contrast with the rich young ruler! Jesus hasn’t even asked him to sell his stuff, but Zaccheus understood what it meant to have Jesus invite Himself over. He understood it was mercy. Grace. Kindness. And it is the kindness of God which leads us to repentance. Because Jesus comes to seek and save the lost. Not the people who think they can earn their way into heaven, but those who know they can’t. Those are the only kind of people who can pass through the eye of the needle, the ones who will come to Jesus and ask Him to do the impossible. The ones who come to Jesus and ask Him to save them. The lost. The despised. The enemies. The blue haired liberals and the red hat conservatives. The guy pushing the Target cart down Western Avenue. The gal yelling at the rally. The banker in the Mercedes. The people we grumble about and sneer at and despise – those are the people Jesus is seeking to save. I should seek them too.
Lord, help me. Help me see them high up in the sycamore tree, on the corner, down my street, and in my Insta feed. Lord, save them. Save me. Do the impossible and bring us together through the eye of the needle.
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