JESUS STAYS IN THE HOUSE OF A “SINNER”

LUKE 19:1–10

While Jesus was passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem for Passover just prior to his crucifixion, a great crowd had gathered to see him. This included a tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus, in whose home Jesus said he “must [Greek, dei] stay” (Luke 19:5).

Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector in the region (Luke 19:2), which meant that although he was a Jew, Zacchaeus had become part of the Roman tax machinery. During the first century, Rome occupied and controlled the Promised Land, collecting a variety of taxes in the process.24 The actual collection was accomplished by locals like Zacchaeus who pledged their support to the Roman effort and promised to deliver the appropriate tax for their district. For their trouble, tax collectors were allowed to add a commission to the amount due.25 So we find Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, involved in keeping an eye on the income derived from the lucrative agricultural and commerce industry that passed through the Jericho area.26

The professional life of Zacchaeus had made him powerful at the expense of being viewed as a traitor by the people of the land. Because tax collectors were associated with the hated Roman occupation and because dishonesty and abuse of power was so closely allied with the tax collection process, this profession was counted among the despised trades.27 The stigma that clung to this occupation had even been used as an example in Jesus’s earlier teaching about love: “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?” (Matt. 5:46).

Sarcophagus scene (fourth century) of Zacchaeus climbing a sycamore tree to see Jesus.

View looking west from Herod’s northern palace toward the Cypros fortress.

As Jesus passed through Jericho, there was a crowd around him. On his way, he looked up into a sycamore-fig tree, and called to the short man above him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). The disciples must have cringed as others in the crowd muttered, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner’” (Luke 19:7). Of all the places he could have gone, why did he go to the home of Zacchaeus?

Jesus stayed at the home of Zacchaeus because there was something different about this tax collector, and his visit affirmed that difference. Luke tells us that Zacchaeus “ran” and “climbed a sycamore-fig tree” (Luke 19:4) in order to see Jesus.28 When these actions are combined with his words promising to give half his possessions to the poor and to pay back four times the amount to any he might have cheated (Luke 19:8), we can appreciate why it was necessary for Jesus to be a guest in this man’s home. He wanted Zacchaeus and all those who observed this event to know that even tax collectors could become members of his Kingdom; the unthinkable was possible in the Kingdom of God. “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:9–10).

Mosaic of the Wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne. Scenes similar to this would have been seen in homes of Hellenized Jews.

Jericho bath (pool complex), an example of Jericho’s lavish homes and palatial estates.