Reflective Bible Study

While one of Jesus’ twelve disciples had formerly been a tax collector, when we think of stories involving Jesus and tax collectors, the event we will be looking at in our passage for this episode is likely the one that first comes to mind. While Matthew got years of face-to-face time with Jesus and while Matthew ultimately writes an entire gospel dedicated to Jesus’ life, Zacchaeus get’s the top spot in most peoples’ minds when we think of Jesus’ encounters with tax collectors.

However, when we look closely at Zacchaeus’ story, we discover some amazing details that are easily overlooked. In the culture, certain groups of people were stereotypically assumed to be a certain way, and one such group was tax collectors. These groups were simply judged based upon the stereotype, regardless of whether they fit into the stereotype.

Which brings us to a question I want to ask us before reading our passage for this episode: Was Zacchaeus a corrupt tax collector, fitting perfectly into the stereotype, or was Zacchaeus an honest man in a hated occupation?

Let’s read the passage and see if we can find some clues leading to an answer for this question. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus, who was a very important tax collector, and he was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because he was too short to see above the crowd. ⁴ He ran ahead to a place where Jesus would come, and he climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. ⁵ When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. ⁷ All the people saw this and began to complain, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”

As we were reading this passage just now, the statement the crowd made stood out to me. After Zacchaeus has been seen by Jesus and after Jesus basically invites Himself over to Zacchaeus’ home, the crowd grumbles the statement in verse 7, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”

I’m not sure exactly why this phrase sounds funny in my mind, but perhaps it has something to do with the small detail that if Jesus stayed with anyone, regardless of who they were, He could be accused of staying with a sinner.

This statement is funny and profound at the same time. It is funny because the people who were grumbling and complaining in the crowd about what they saw happening could have had the exact same complaint and accusation tossed their way if Jesus had chosen one of them. This statement is profound because it tells us that God doesn’t mind associating with sinners – especially sinners whose hearts are ripe for redemption.

So then let’s return to our question: Was Zacchaeus a sinner? Yes.

Was Zacchaeus a corrupt tax collector who fit the stereotype? Let’s look at the evidence.

If we were to build a case for Zacchaeus being corrupt, three details are present that could support this claim. First, we have the detail that Zacchaeus was wealthy. If Zacchaeus was one of the wealthiest tax collectors in the region, then that could be because he acquired his wealth in a dishonest way.

Next, we have the detail that the people’s perception of Zacchaeus was that he was a sinner. If Zacchaeus was honest, or in any way atypical of the norm, we would likely see the crowd sharing a different response.

Thirdly, after having met with Jesus, Zacchaeus determines to give his wealth away. It stands to reason that having this wealth wouldn’t be an issue if it was acquired honestly, but if it was acquired dishonestly, then Zacchaeus would morally need to get rid of it as part of his repenting and turning to God. Since Jesus validates Zacchaeus’ decision to give up his wealth, we could logically conclude it was because Zacchaeus acquired it dishonestly.

For those three reasons, we could conclude that Zacchaeus was dishonest and fit perfectly into the stereotypical tax collector.

However, what are some counter reasons to suggest that Zacchaeus was atypical.

To our first point, wealth is simply wealth. While it can be acquired dishonestly, nothing says that it is only ever acquired this way. Zacchaeus may have inherited a good percentage of his wealth, or he may have simply been an excellent saver. As an important or chief tax collector, he may have had a higher government salary for the position he held, which could account for the extra income and/or wealth.

The second point stands to reason that many people likely knew of Zacchaeus but didn’t know him personally. If Zacchaeus was a manager of other tax collectors, people could project their dislike of the whole profession onto Zacchaeus without knowing him personally. It is easy to judge people without knowing their situation. In the same way, it is easy to judge Zacchaeus simply because of the stereotype, and not because of anything specific to Zacchaeus himself.

The third point speaks to generosity more than dishonesty. After meeting Jesus, it is perfectly possible for Zacchaeus to have a change of heart from being a hoarder or a saver, which is something that can be done honestly, to being a generous giver. Zacchaeus may have had an unhealthy focus on acquiring wealth, and while he acquired wealth honestly, he had let that wealth become an idol in his life.

Now that we have three alternate points to the points that Zacchaeus was dishonest, there is one big point that doesn’t add up if Zacchaeus fits the dishonest stereotype. The way Zacchaeus handles his gift doesn’t allow for much dishonesty. Verse 8 tells us Zacchaeus’ response while He was with Jesus: “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”

If I’ve done the math correctly, Zacchaeus could have cheated no more than 12% of those who he collected from before bankrupting himself. The stereotypical tax collector would have cheated much more than this. I arrive at this number because Zacchaeus first pledges half of his wealth away, leaving him with only 50%, and he promises to pay 4 times any amount that was cheated. Fifty divided by four equals 12.5%.

However, Zacchaeus also challenges those present by saying “if I have cheated anyone”. This is a challenge and an invitation for all those who were cheated to come forward. It’s possible there were some who did, but it is also very possible that Zacchaeus just broke out of the stereotype. If Zacchaeus’ pledge and promise were not doable, I doubt Jesus would have praised him.

From reading the details of this event, I fully suspect that Zacchaeus was honest in his position, and that Jesus’ praise for Zacchaeus was based on Zacchaeus’ change of focus from hoarding wealth to being generous.

Following this event, nothing is mentioned about Zacchaeus leaving his occupation of tax collecting. Jesus doesn’t give Zacchaeus an invitation like He gave Matthew. After meeting Jesus, at the very least, if Zacchaeus had not been honest before, he would be honest from that point forward.

Before ending our episode, I have one more observation to share with you. Early on in our year podcasting through Luke’s gospel, we read about John the Baptist preaching along the Jordan River. Jericho was a city that was near the Jordan River. In Luke chapter 3, when Luke is sharing a summary of John the Baptist’s teaching and the impact it had, we learned that corrupt tax collectors asked John what to do. This can be found specifically in verses 12 and 13.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Zacchaeus had heard John’s message many years before. It wouldn’t surprise me if Zacchaeus had been corrupt before and had turned his actions and attitude around at that point. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Zacchaeus was honest before that point, and that it was other tax collectors Zacchaeus knew who were most affected by John’s message.

More than the wealth we have, God is interested in our focus. If our focus is on building our wealth, then it doesn’t matter whether the wealth is being built honestly or dishonestly, we have a bad focus. However, if our focus is on helping others and on using what God blesses us to be a blessing to others, than we have a better focus. I see Zacchaeus shift from a poor focus on his wealth to a better focus, and Jesus applauds this decision of an atypical, honest, tax collector.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to live your live with a spirit of generosity and use the wealth God has blessed you with to help others.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each day. Don’t let anyone get between you and God and filter the messages you hear through the lens of the Bible!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue forward in our year focusing on prophecies and connection points between the Old Testament and Jesus’ ministry, we arrive at a set of passages in the Old Testament that are easy to skim over, but ones that speak out for Jesus being the Messiah in an amazing way. While a number of our previous prophecies could be claimed as simply being phrases Jesus chose to use while teaching, preaching, or sharing God’s message, what we will read about in this episode’s passages is something that would be entirely outside of Jesus’ control.

To set the stage for the amazing detail Jesus’ life fulfilled, let’s first turn our attention all the way back to near the end of the time the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. In the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter 12 we discover the last plague God sends on the Egyptians, as well as the origins of one of the greatest celebration feasts in the Jewish calendar. Reading from the New American Standard Bible, and starting in verse 43:

⁴³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it; ⁴⁴ but every man’s slave purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. ⁴⁵ A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. ⁴⁶ It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.

In this brief description of the Passover sacrifice and the Passover meal, one key description of the lamb that was sacrificed and eaten is that none of its bones were to be broken. While this description also points forward to Jesus’ disturbing challenge regarding eating His flesh that is found in John’s gospel, when we frame Jesus’ words as referring to Himself being the Passover sacrifice, we can understand that He came to fulfill what the Passover sacrifice pointed forward to. In an amazing way, the Passover both looked back in remembrance of God freeing the Children of Israel from Egypt, but it also pointed forward to the Messiah freeing God’s children from the penalty of sin.

To also emphasize the symbolic nature of the Passover Lamb not having any of its bones broken, we move forward to the book of Psalms. In Psalm, number 34, starting in verse 15, David writes:

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
And His ears are open to their cry.
¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against evildoers,
To cut off the memory of them from the earth.
¹⁷ The righteous cry, and the Lord hears
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
²⁰ He keeps all his bones,
Not one of them is broken.
²¹ Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
²² The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

In this psalm, it is interesting in my mind that David includes a description of bones being kept intact, and that not even one bone would be broken. While the immediate context of this psalm is that this is describing those who are righteous, a technical look at this framing results in the ultimate conclusion that the only truly righteous person is Jesus. This then means that even if David is describing a larger group of God’s people, included within those he describes would be the Messiah.

Moving forward to the New Testament, and to the point after Jesus has taken His last breath, we discover how Jesus came very close to failing this prophecy. After Jesus had died, as the day was nearing its end and the Sabbath was about to begin, we read about some of the religious leaders wanting to speed along the deaths of those who were hanging on the crosses that day.

In John’s gospel, chapter 19, starting in verse 31, we read:

³¹ Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. ³² So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; ³³ but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. ³⁴ But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. ³⁵ And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. ³⁶ For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.”

In this passage, John, who was an eyewitness to the crucifixion, shares the detail that while both of the other crucified men had their legs broken to hasten their deaths, when the soldiers came to Jesus to do the same thing to Him, they chose not to, on account that He was already dead.

It is amazing in my mind that under any other set of circumstances, Jesus’ legs would have been broken. If the religious leaders had requested this sooner, or if Jesus had lived even a little longer, it is not a stretch for me to picture Jesus’ legs being broken. However, while I imagine that Satan wanted to do everything he could to break Jesus out of matching prophecy, God’s timing in this event succeeded.

Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice, and after He had breathed His last breath, His bones remained unbroken. Jesus’ death ultimately becomes the perfect Passover sacrifice because Jesus’ life and body fulfills the requirements of the Passover sacrifice. Jesus is the only individual to have avoided being stained by sin and Jesus’ bones were not broken after the point of His death.

While some people might look at the requirements placed on the Passover sacrifice and claim that they are impossible to reach, these requirements were put in place because there was only ever going to be one Person able to reach them. That person is Jesus, and His life fulfilled the foreshadowing of the Passover for all of God’s people.

Like we’ve touched on in our last several episodes, Jesus came to solve the sin problem in this world. Sin became a problem for humanity before you and I ever took our first breath, and Jesus came to solve the problem sin created also before our first breath. The choice is now up to us whether we will choose sin and all its penalties, or whether we will move forward in our lives leaning on Jesus and actively stepping forward into eternity with Him.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to lean on Jesus for the strength to move forward in life. Place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice to be your solution to the problem of sin in the world.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through regular prayer and Bible study, discover who Jesus is and just how much He loves you and wants you with Him in heaven.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or drift away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!