Jericho and Central Benjamin Plateau Update, Part 1

Friends,

I just returned from another 11-hour field trip. Yesterday we set out to explore the Jericho road, Old Testament Jericho, New Testament Jericho, and the Central Benjamin Plateau. We ended the day with an inspiring walk along the Emmaus Road. This is the road where a resurrected Jesus appears to some of his followers in Luke 24.

The Jericho road was an amazing road with tons of history behind it. This is the road where the Good Samaritan story/parable takes place. It is also the road that Jesus walked along when he was traveling from Jericho to Jerusalem right before his crucifixion. The story of the Good Samaritan is so amazing when placed back in its original cultural context. More on this story in a later posting. Today I want to focus on one of the most important stories that took place in Jericho, the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector.

It is so important to understand the cultural background of this story. The first thing that is important is the occupation of Zacchaeus. He was a tax collector working for the Sadducean priests. Also, he lived in Jericho, which was where many of the wealth Sadducean priests had their vacation homes. The Sadducees made a fortune off of the temple taxes, but they had a problem collecting these taxes because of the purity laws they followed. It was believed they would be made unclean if they touched any money with Caesar’s image. This was due to the fact that the money represented a graven image, or idol, and by touching it they would be unclean. So what the Sadducees did was basically hire a bunch of people to do their “dirty work,” and collect their money. So by doing this they created a whole class of people who were unclean. These tax collectors couldn’t worship in the temple, couldn’t touch their family members, and weren’t allowed to touch any other clean people. This is one reason many scholars believed Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree to see Jesus. He couldn’t be amongst the crowds because he would’ve made them all unclean. Also, the tax collectors were some of the most despised people in the country. The Jewish people in Jesus’ day were taxed somewhere in the 80-90% range. So Zacchaues probably wouldn’t want to be out in public that much.

Jesus comes Jericho and meets Zacchaeus in Luke 19. During this meeting Jesus uses an amazing teaching technique that we sometimes miss. This technique came to be known as “remez” during medieval times. Remez means “hint” or “allusion.” This was a technique used by some of the best Rabbis to make their point. By using remez you would quote the beginning or the end of the verse but leave out the ending. Your audience would know the rest of the verse (b/c almost all Jewish people in Jesus day had the Bible memorized) and fill in the rest for themselves. It would be a more powerful point to your audience b/c they had to “do the work” to find out the point you were making.

I’ll try to give some examples of this to help make more sense. Hopefully I have some Star Wars fans out there. Let’s say you came to me and said, “Rob, “is it possible to try to be a disciple?” And I said to you, “think of Yoda and the X-wing fighter.” Now, having seen the movie you might realize during this scene Yoda says, “Try not, do or do not, there is no try.” This would be an example of me using remez. I gave you a hint or allusion to the point I was trying to make, and you had to fill in the rest to see the point I was making.

Lets try one more example. Say you came to me and said, “Rob, how can I see the Kingdom of Heaven?” To use remez in this situation I would simply say, “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Ruling Council.” Having your Bible memorized, like a good first century disciple, you would know I was referring to John 3. You would be able to fill in the blanks and realized that Jesus tells Nicodemus, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Now back to the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Jesus runs into this unclean tax collector Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus says, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back 4 times the amount.” Jesus replies with the most brilliant statement ever. He simply says, “Today salvation (Jesus) has come to this house, because this man, too, is a Son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.”

Jesus uses a brilliant remez here. The phrase “Son of man came to see and save what was lost” is a quote from Ezekiel 34. Look it up in your Bible and see if you can think what Jesus was hinting at by quoting Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel is talking about how the spiritual leaders of Israel have failed, and are leading all of the people astray. He then goes on to say that God is going to destroy the spiritual leaders of Israel because of this; and God will seek and save the lost because the spiritual leaders have failed to do so.

So Jesus is basically slamming the Sadducees for the way they have been treating the people. They have made people like Zacchaeus unclean, and failed to lead them spiritually. Jesus maintains that God will punish the Sadducees because of this, and Jesus will seek and save the lost. In his statement Jesus also lifts up Zacchaeus by referring to him as a “Son of Abraham.” By doing this he is basically telling Zacchaeus that he is still one of God’s chosen people, and God still loves him. Jesus is saying Zacchaeus, even though you are broken, lost, and hurting, God still loves you and wants to save you. What a powerful image.