Preaching and the Land - Luke 19:1-10

Jericho's Popular Sycamore Tree

Most of us have favorite biblical stories.  If I were pressed to name just one, I would choose the story of Zacchaeus found only in Luke.  Our children also loved the story.  We sang the song and performed all the prescribed hand-motions.

Sometimes our favorite stories suffer from "familiarity."  The meanings that they hold are never lost, but new insights and meanings do not readily come.  We know the story perhaps too well.

In such cases, the Fifth Gospel can serve us well.  Let's consider less familiar aspects of this story from the perspective of the geography of salvation:

• Jesus was in the final hours of His journey to Jerusalem
• Jericho was the last potential rest-stop on the journey, but Jesus appeared to be simply "passing through"
• Jericho drew (and still does) its abundant life from an ancient water source
• Today it is called Elisha's Springs after the prophet who restored its purity
• Zacchaeus was a "chief tax collector and rich," cause for more intense hatred
• The crowd placed Zacchaeus in the same category as all tax collectors, dishonest and unclean, thus the murmuring later against Jesus for his actions
• The sycamore tree's low-lying, large branches were perfect for such occasions
• Zacchaeus' awkward positioning in a tree perhaps indicates his prior knowledge of the prophet's acceptance of people like himself, thus justifying anything that's necessary in order to see Jesus
• The opinion of the crowd was unjustified, and Zacchaeus defended himself to Jesus
• Zacchaeus spoke in the present regarding his charity to the poor up to half of his goods
• Furthermore, he declared his stance as one of fourfold restoration if he erred in defrauding someone
• Jesus, the latest prophet to visit Jericho, restored (salvation) not water but a son of Abraham to the community of Israel
• "For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost" is one of the most cherished verses in all of scripture

Zacchaeus no longer was a "wee little man," neither "up a tree."