It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
Luke 18:24-25
We will spend one more day considering Jesus’ comment. He made it to his disciples as the rich young ruler, who we read about yesterday, walked away, sorrowful, because he could not bring himself to do as Jesus said. The disciples were startled by the comment. ‘Who then can be saved?’ they asked. I expect they were thinking of themselves because none of them had come from poor families. But Jesus assured them that what is impossible for people is possible for God. Sometime later, they saw the truth of this demonstrated: the story is told in Luke 19.
Zacchaeus was a rich tax collector, which implied that he was corrupt and over-charged people. This was common practice but, as tax collectors served the Roman Empire, there was not much ordinary people could do about it, except to ostracise them. This is why the Gospels often classify ‘tax collectors and sinners’ together.
As Jesus passed through Jericho, a crowd gathered around him. Zacchaeus was a short man who could not see what was going on and, because of his reputation, nobody was likely to let him through to the front of the crowd. He therefore ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a tree to get a good view. As Jesus passed the tree, he paused, looked up, and asked Zacchaeus if he could stay at his house.
Jesus’ request horrified people. It was unthinkable that a respectable religious teacher should even enter the house of a sinner! And I imagine that was why Zacchaeus eagerly obliged.
We do not know what Jesus and Zacchaeus talked about but we know the result: Zacchaeus publicly promised to give half of his possessions to the poor and to repay everyone he had cheated four times over. Did this amount to what Jesus had told the rich young ruler to do: to give away everything? We cannot know but Zacchaeus was an accountant and knew this meant the end of his fortune; moreover, if he began to do his job honestly, it was the end of his comfortable lifestyle.
Jesus’ interpretation of Zacchaeus’ commitment was, ‘Today salvation has come to this house…’ If Zacchaeus heard what the rich young ruler had wanted to hear, it was because Zacchaeus was prepared to do what the rich young ruler would not: to change his allegiance and trust God unequivocally.
In closing, we could usefully speculate on just how corrupt Zacchaeus really was. That he was dishonest is not in question but it seems to me that he was probably no more dishonest than any other tax collector. In modern jargon, he complied with the 'industry standard'. Do we benefit from business practices that it seems everyone takes for granted but nevertheless involve shades of dishonesty?
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2012.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
These Advent Reflections do not teach personal finance skills and where these skills are mentioned the issues have been simplified. Handling money and dealing with money problems and debt can be complicated and neither the author nor anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here.
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