Hey all,
Sorry for not posting for a while but the other day, I realize posting every single day was a lot of work and I’m not sure anyone checks everyday anyway so I took a bit of a break.
But I am now back and writing this as I eat ice cream as my first meal of the day as my lunch.
Okay, first off, I will look at the story of Zacchaeus at the beginning of Luke 19. The story itself is very strange. Here’s how it kind of goes:
- Jesus comes to Jericho
- Zacchaeus climbs up a tree to try to get a glimpse of Jesus
- Jesus walks over and tells him to come down and says he’s gonna eat at his house
- Zacchaeus rejoices
- Crowd grumbles about Jesus eating at a house of a sinner
- Zacchaeus repents and vows to give half his goods to the poor and fourfold to the ones he stole
If you don’t believe me, you can read it for yourself:
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
Luke 19:1-8
Wait, hold up. So what you’re saying is Jesus literally did nothing except invite himself to Zacchaeus’ house and he repents? Well. Yeah.
I don’t like making a lot of assumptions in terms of “oh, maybe someone said ‘blank’ but it just wasn’t written.” On the other end, you could very well just as easily say “If God wanted that in his bible, he’d have put it there by now.” So I’m not going to go down that route.
Instead, I’m only going to look at the actual information provided in the text and use those clues to see if we can figure something out.
First off, when we have a story like this, it’s helpful to look at the other gospels to see if there’s a similar story because more often than not, there is.
Unfortunately, for this one though, there is not.
What DO we have though?
- Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and a rich one at that
- Jesus invites himself to his house
- The crowd grumbles at the sight of Jesus going in to “be the guest of a man who is a sinner”
Judging from bullet points 1 & 3, Zacchaeus was probably not the best dude. To be a tax collector was a despised profession and to be a Jewish one was looked down upon and almost a betrayal against your people. Judging from how the Pharisees talked about them when Jesus spent time with them, I’d even go as far to say they were probably outcasts in their communities considering how highly respected the Pharisees were.
One example of this happens even earlier in Luke:
And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:29-32
So what’s so unique about Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus? The very fact that a rabbi, a teacher, someone who was very well respected by the people would dare to speak to someone like him, let alone eat with him. We are told in verse 7 that this man’s very townspeople looked down on him. Yet, when he met Jesus, Zacchaeus knew that this man was different.
The second part of Luke 19 I’m going to write about today is Luke 19:46.
saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
Luke 19:46
This verse really stands out to me because the first time I kind of heard someone explain this to me, I thought it was absolute astounding so I kind of want to share it here as well.
One small pet peeve I have is sometimes when we read something in the Bible and struggle to understand it, our first instinct is to kind of to “guess and figure it out” when the whole time, the answer is just there in the text and we have to put a bit of effort into looking.
One quick (and one of my favorite) examples: Elijah and the rain.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”
1 Kings 17:1
You’re probably reading this and wondering, “why is Elijah stopping the rain?” (partly, this may due me providing absolutely no context and thus, you not being sure what the story is about). But, before we start making guesses, maybe, just maybe, there’s an answer in the text!
Well, just so happens there is. It appears twice in Deuteronomy and Leviticus when God talks about curses for disobedience.
and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
Leviticus 26:19
And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
Deuteronomy 28:23-24
I guess you could make a point that the Leviticus reference isn’t that clear but the Deuteronomy one seems to be talking about the same event and I’d say it’s fair to say that making “the rain of your land powder” is somewhat synonymous to no rain.
Now about the Luke 19:46, I’m just going to restate it since I’ve gotten really off track:
saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
Luke 19:46
OK, before we go on guessing, let’s see if there’s any similar phrases in the text…
these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Isaiah 56:7
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 7:11
Hey, those verses sound kind of familiar.
What is the context of those verses though?
In Isaiah’s case, it’s essentially about God’s salvation being available to the outcast and the foreigner:
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
Isaiah 56:3-8
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
The Lord God,
who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
“I will gather yet others to him
besides those already gathered.”
What about the Jeremiah one?
“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?
Jeremiah 7:8-10
It talks about people declaring they are delivered, only to go on doing evil deeds.
Putting this all together, what do we have? Why is Jesus critical of the temple?
- It has not been a “house of prayer for all nations” – gentiles are not being welcomed into this family of God
- It has become a “den of robbers” – a place where people come to declare their deliverance only to do evil deeds
Are those things we see happening when we read the gospels?
Well, In Luke 4:24-29, we see the Jew’s hostility against Jesus’ mentioning God working among two gentiles.
Then, In Luke 11:37-52, Jesus speaks of the woes of the Pharisees and teachers of the law.
Onto Luke 20.
As you read Luke 20, you’ll realize that most of the stuff in this and the next few chapters are very similar to the stuff that happens around the end of Matthew and Mark. So much so that *Parable of the wicked Tenants in Luke 20 is almost identical to the *Parable of the Tenants as told in Matthew 21
(* – as titled in the ESV, also I haven’t stated this anywhere but if you’re wondering which version I am using for all these references, it’s all ESV unless explicitly stated otherwise)
And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Luke 20:9-18
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Matthew 21:33-44
I don’t want to go in depth into dissecting the parable but what seems to be the roles in the parable:
- Master of the house – God
- Vineyard – Israel
- Tenants – Religious Leaders
- Servants – Prophets
- Son – Jesus
Hopefully you can figure out the parallels there.
Funnily enough, the “scribes and chief priests” actually recognize he’s talking about them too.
The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
Luke 20:19
The next few sections are the parts the REALLY stood out to me as I read them first in Matthew and now here:
There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. And the second In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” Afterward the woman also died. And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”
Luke 20:27-38
So here’s how the conversation kinda goes:
Sadducees: “How can there be a resurrection if ‘blank’ is a problem”
Jesus: Well first of all, ‘blank’ is not a problem. And how do we know there is a resurrection? Well. first off, Moses called God “the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” in the present tense, over all these dead people. But, we know that “he is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Basically, he asks the question “how can God be a God of the living, if he’s God over all these dead people?”
In Matthew the proposal is a bit more clear with:
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Matthew 22:29-32
And obviously, the scribes are left speechless:
Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Luke 20:39-40
Another really cool one is in Luke 20:41-44 where Jesus leaves the scribes with a dilemma:
For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? until I make your enemies your footstool.”‘ David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
Luke 20:41-44
He doesn’t directly quote this passage but it is implied it so I’ll put it here for context:
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
2 Samuel 7:12-13
So what’s the first thing we know about the Christ to come? Well, he’s gonna be an offspring of David.
What else do we know?
The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Psalm 110:1
Well, David calls that offspring “Lord.”
Hey, wait a second. Why in the world David calling his offspring “Lord?” Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
The answer is most definitely so.
So what does Jesus do here? He offers an almost unimaginable answer to a then unanswerable question.
Luke 21 is interesting, Jesus talks about the destruction of the temple aaaand seemingly the end times? It’s kind of funny because when we read these next few passages in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, there’s an assumptions that a lot of these lines talk about the end times but when we take a closer look, it’s actually a bit more vague than we give credit for.
Matthew 24 has:
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Matthew 24:3
While Luke is devoid of it, only having:
And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”
Luke 21:7
And at the very same time, you could make the point that when he’s talking about the “end of the age,” he could very well be talking about the age they’re in right now at the time of it’s writing.
So I’m not going to get too caught up on when/where/why/how/etc it applies.
BUT, that does not devoid the chapter of lots of interesting things.
Let’s read Luke 21:12-13
But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.
Luke 21:12-15
Hey, didn’t we already read something like this?
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Luke 12:11-12
Hey, that looks kind of similar.
Something else interesting: Luke 21:21
Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it
Luke 21:21
Sounds kind of familiar to the end of Luke 17 where we had:
On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.
Luke 17:31
OK. Next. Luke 21:24
They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Luke 21:24
There’s some Romans 11 vibes in that passage:
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in
Romans 11:25
Hey, didn’t we literally talk about Romans 11 just earlier in Luke?
Maybe it’s all connected? Crazy thought.
I think that’s all for today.
Thanks for reading!
Jason
Jason Reads the Bible 