Cont’d from Part II of Little Man. Big Tree. Part II
The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Not the almost lost. Not the lost who had already started making their way back. The ones still up in trees, watching from a distance, fairly certain they were too far gone to be the ones He was actually looking for.
Diane continues with Verse Mapping Aid:
Chief Tax Collector (architelōnēs): This word apparently appears only once in all of Greek literature, right here in Luke 19:2. Zaccheaus was not just a tax collector but the head of the entire operations, the mob boss if you will…overseeing other collectors maximizing revenue from one of the most commercially lucrative cities in the region.
Fourfold Restitution (tetraplouv): The highest restitution standard in Torah, required in Exodus 22:1 for the theft of livestock. By applying this standard voluntarily to his own case, Zacchaeus was making a legal declaration of serious guilt and committing to the maximum remedy the law allowed.
Son of Abraham (huios Abraam): Not simply an ethnic designation or lineage, but a covenant declaration. Yeshua was publicly restoring Zacchaeus to full standing within the people of God, reversing the social and religious exclusion his profession had caused.
Final Thoughts:
The scandal of this story is the whole point of this story.
Yeshua didn’t help the people the crowd expected Him to help.
He walked past them all and had dinner with the man who had taken those coins.
Grace that only goes to the deserving is not grace. It is a merit system with better branding.
The crowd grumbled because they had a theology that said blessing flows toward those who earn it and away from those who don’t. Yeshua had a different theology entirely. He came to seek the lost…not to reward the found.
Zacchaeus was up in a tree watching from a safe distance, probably not expecting much, when the One person in Jericho he had no right to expect anything from looked up, said his name, and told him to come down because dinner was about to happen.
Dianes’s Bible study questions and action challenges to consider:
Bible Study Questions:
*Read Luke 18:18-23 immediately before reading Luke 19:1-10. Luke placed the story of the rich, young ruler directly before the story of Zacchaeus. Both men were wealthy. What is Luke showing us by placing these two stories side by side?
*Yeshua extended table fellowship to Zacchaeus before any repentance occurred. What does this sequence, grace first, repentance second, tell us about how God pursues people?
*What ‘Zacchaeus’ in your church community has been quietly written off as too far gone or too compromised for real restoration? What would it look like to extend the kind of grace Yeshua extended?
Action challenges:
*Read Luke 15 this week – the three parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Write down every time the initiative come from the One doing the seeking rather than the one who is lost. What do you learn from the pattern portrayed and how does that arrect you?
*Identify one relationship in your life where you have been withholding grace until the other person demonstrates they deserve it. Write a prayer asking God to show you what Yeshua-style grace would actually look like in that situation.
Read Exodus 22:1-4 alongside Luke 19:8. Write a brief reflection on what it means that Zaccheaus’ repentance was concete, measurable, and costly rather than simply emotinal. What would concrete, measurealel repentance look like in an area of your own life?
Diane Ferreira is the founder of She’s So Scripture. She is also author of The Proverbs 31-ish Woman (She received Amazon’s #1 New Release in Religious Humor), and Holy, Hormonal, and Holding On.
I extend my gratitude to Diane Ferreira for sharing her insight into Jewish culture. Rather than to portray a familiar, flannel board story, she opted to present a theologicial earthquake! My hope is that you were enriched by her knowledge and how she applied that knowledge rightly.