Reflective Bible Study

When reading the gospels, I am always surprised at how informed Jesus was about what was happening. In John’s gospel, following Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, we get a brief glimpse of the Jewish leaders’ council meeting and their ultimate decision.

John tells us that, “From that day on the Jewish authorities made plans to kill Jesus. So Jesus did not travel openly in Judea, but left and went to a place near the desert, to a town named Ephraim, where he stayed with the disciples.” (v. 53-54)

Following the council meeting, Jesus had a target on His head. But Jesus was not surprised by this.

I am curious if Jesus’ actions and choice to not travel openly in Judea made the Jewish authorities believe that Jesus was not ultimately moving towards death. In their minds, maybe Jesus acted this way because He wanted to avoid death. After all, their picture of the Messiah did not involve that Messiah’s death.

But looking at the gospels from a bigger picture, we can see that Jesus’ actions likely were simply delaying His ultimate mission until the exact right moment in time.

Jesus didn’t just come to die. If this were the case, there were plenty of opportunities for Him to die all throughout His life and ministry. Instead, Jesus came to die a death on the cross – and at the specific time when a rebel could experience and accept salvation.

Jesus also wanted time with the disciples. He wanted to teach them and to help them understand what was coming. If at all possible, He did not want them to be surprised when He ultimately would be betrayed and arrested.

In these two verses, we can see Jesus responding in the best way that allowed Him the most time with His followers while also holding on to His mission. By delaying His death, Jesus opened the way for more people to have faith in Him, and He also kept the option open for meeting a rebel who would ultimately be crucified next to Him. Jesus’ delay allowed for at least one more person to be saved.

Have you ever had an impression of someone, simply from what other people have said about them, but then found out later that they were not what you had thought? In some cases, the person you meet came as a high recommendation from someone you trust, but you find out after meeting them that they are not as great as you imagined.

In other cases, the rumor mill has run wild and someone has a horrible reputation – whether it is because of their occupation, their friends, or simply because they are in the spotlight – when in reality, they are a much better person than their reputation suggests.

When I read this story of Zacchaeus, I am presented with two sides of a coin. On one side, we have the traditional view, which Zacchaeus being the stereotypical cheat – the reputation that tax collectors had in those parts of the Roman empire. Looking at Zacchaeus from this view is easy and it is what people have done for years.

On the other side of the coin, I am presented with a different picture – one that will take a little bit of math to explain. One morning, as I was reading and studying this passage, this other view changed how I saw Zacchaeus from that point forward.

To begin this shift in thinking, I began with the logical assumption that Zacchaeus was good at math. As someone who was the head tax collector in the region, he would have had ample experience crunching the numbers – whether it was “creatively” doing the math or accurately doing the math.

Next, I looked at Jesus’ positive response, which affirmed Zacchaeus’ response and generosity, and concluded that in Zacchaeus was being genuine and honest in his promise to give his money away. Jesus would not have reacted positively if Zacchaeus did not mean what he was saying, or if the promise was empty.

Then, I crunched the numbers of what Zacchaeus promised. First he starts by allocating half his wealth to go straight to the poor, and then secondly, he promises to repay anyone he cheated four times the amount that was cheated. Let’s do the math:

• We start at 100% and give 50% away to the poor. We now have 50% left. That is the easy part.

• With the 50% left, Zacchaeus then promises to repay 4x the amount anyone was cheated by him. Leaving investments and other ways of growing money aside, we must divide the remaining 50% by 4 which leaves us with 12.5%.

The conclusion is that no greater than 12.5% of Zacchaeus’ money was gained through cheating – otherwise he would have bankrupted himself in this request. If Zacchaeus was exaggerating and over-promising in this declaration, I don’t believe Jesus would have responded positively. If Zacchaeus was bad at math, he probably wouldn’t have acquired/kept the money in the first place.

So what does this mean? Where was Zacchaeus spiritually before this encounter – since Jesus’ response implies that salvation was not a part of Zacchaeus’ life before that night?

What I came to realize after doing the math, and analyzing what happened, is that this event is less about the numbers, or even about the generosity, and more about the focus and the heart. The Zacchaeus event was not recorded as a statement that warrants all “rich” people must give away their money, or that all “rich” people obtained their riches dishonestly.

The Zacchaeus event was recorded because it amplifies a temptation we all face: Do we place accumulating (i.e. saving) ahead of giving when it comes to our resources?

Zacchaeus was an excellent saver and investor, but a horrible giver. When his heart changed, his focus changed, and salvation came to his house that very day.

When we let Jesus change our heart, and when we change our focus from what we can get to what we can give, salvation knocks at the door of our hearts as well. Zacchaeus is a model of where we are before Jesus and how our lives and focus change after encountering Him as our Savior.

In one of the most impressive healings that we can find in the gospels, we also are left with a group of people (not the disciples) that are actually scared of Jesus. After Jesus has cast the legion of demons out of the man living among the tombs in the region of the Gerasenes, Mark tells us that the people living there were scared of Jesus.

In the healing, Jesus had permitted the request of these demons to enter a herd of pigs, and this in itself was an odd thing for Him to do. After the herd of pigs commits mass-suicide by stampeding off of a cliff, Mark tells us that “Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.” (v. 14-17)

What strikes the people the most about the situation they encounter is not that their livestock had just been killed. I wonder if this had happened before. Maybe the demon-possessed man had done something that would have caused the death of earlier herds of pigs. It is not the loss of the pigs that scared the people – it was when the saw they formerly demon-possessed man sitting, dressed, and in his right mind.

Healing this man was something they likely had tried to do many times. Perhaps some of the chains they tried to bind the man with was to get him close to a priest to do a formal exorcism. But the demons were too strong, and none of their plans had worked.

After learning that Jesus was more powerful than the demons living in the man, that it was the demons who recognized this, and that Jesus had granted the demons’ request to enter the pigs instead, their fears were confirmed that Jesus was really more powerful than they had imagined. They were scared of Jesus and pleaded with Him to leave their region.

What could have been the launch of a whole region turning to Jesus was instead undermined by the fear of a group of shepherds and livestock owners. Perhaps this is why Jesus tells the man He had just healed to stay and share what God had done for Him. Maybe this man’s testimony could help shift the perception of those present about whether Jesus is safe.

The big thing this teaches me is that we should be willing to push past our fears to grow closer to Jesus. If being near Jesus scares us, we might want to look into why that is. Everything Jesus did in this event is kind and/or loving. While the pigs died, it was because He was kind to the demons. The demons chose to kill the pigs. In this event, Jesus elevates that value of every human life because that is the reason He came! Jesus came to give His life so that each of us can have a new life in Him. While that may be scary on one hand, it is empowering for those who are ready to join Him.