Jericho is a border town and was a major centre for the collection of customs. Here we find the man Zacchaeus, who is a chief tax collector, in other words a very rich man. He wants to see Jesus but is very short in stature and, so, climbs a tree to catch Jesus' act. Jesus sees him, calls him down, and invites himself to Zacchaeus' house. That move scandalizes the crowd who berate Zacchaeus as a sinner. They are, of course, technically correct, because Zacchaeus is in a precarious employment situation, as an agent of the hated occupying Roman Power and a traitor to his fellow Jews.
Before arriving and going into his house, Zacchaeus defends himself before the crowd, stating that he gives half of his income to the poor and compensates anyone defrauded at a 400% rate. That is quite astounding. The NRSV mistranslates, having him state that in future he will do these things, but in the Greek and the Latin, he uses the present tense and that is reflected in the old bedrock translations, the King James and Douay-Rheims. Accepting the present tense for his assertion is further suggested when we see that Zacchaeus does not confess or repent, and Jesus does not commend his new faith or a change of heart. It would seem that salvation is upon his house because in his behaviour he far exceeds the requirements of the Law and therefore demonstrates true righteousness from the heart. Jesus commends him as a true "Son of Abraham." Jesus is always doingd the unexpected and siding with the outsider who often turns out, like the Good Samaritan, to be the real servant of God, the one truly justified before God.
No comments:
Post a Comment