These are the last texts before the Passion Week events in the Gospels so I want to treat them separately.
We’ll hold off on Matthew 21 until tomorrow when we read Mark 11 and look at The Triumphal Entry.
Today, I want to look at only 3 things…
(top off your coffee, this one got long…)
- Zacchaeus
- Parable of the 10 Servants
- The Anointing at Bethany (2 of 3)
ZACCHAEUS
🤓 Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.
🤔 Was he a Scot? 🏴
🤓 Of course not. Why?
🤨 Well, who else says “wee little man” but a Scotsman?
I have a bit of a wee problem with the lyrics of that song. See if you can spot it:
Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was HE
He climbed up in the sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to SEE
And as the Savior passed that way
He looked up in the TREE
(And He said) Zacchaeus, you come down
For I’m going to your house to-DAY
😐 Boy they really fumbled the rhyme on that last line didn’t they?
It’s horrifying. And I don’t know if it’s my imagination or a vague early memory or just my songwriter’s brain protesting against such an overthrow of an anticipated rhyme, but I feel like the original lyric might’ve been (in keeping with the Scottish “wee little man”), “I’m going to your house for TEA.” That would’ve rhymed nicely with he, see, and tree. AND it would still reflect the text since Jesus stays with Zacchaeus as a guest, which surely included the evening meal or what an old-fashioned Scot called “tea.”
What IS this world coming to when you can’t get a decent rhyme in a Sunday School song?
But let’s look at the text…
It’s fascinating to think of Jesus (Aramaic: Yeshua/Joshua) at Jericho where the walls came tumbin’ down. Back then, another sinner was saved: Rahab the harlot, who became part of Jesus’ family tree. So Jesus is in the location where g-r-e-a-t grandma Rahab met g-r-e-a-t grandpa Salmon (Mt. 1:5)
It’s very likely that this is the same visit to Jericho we just read about where Jesus healed blind Bar-Timaeus. In fact, the crowd that Zacchaus can’t see over may be the crowd surrounding Jesus as He is healing Bar-Timaeus. These two stories might actually overlap.
Zacchaeus is called “the chief tax collector.” The way Roman tax-collection worked was that tax collectors could add any fees they desired as long as Rome got their money. So tax collectors regularly extorted people for far more than they were legally required to pay. Imagine if the government put the Mafia in charge of collecting taxes…
🤨 Uh… have you ever dealt with the IRS? What’s to “imagine”?
Ok. Cool it. Let’s not anger the Mob, I mean, the IRS.
First century tax collectors became “rich” like Zacchaeus because they were good at being pushy and intimidating and dishonest.
Ironically enough, the name Zacchaeus comes from the Hebrew word zakkay which means “pure.” And zakkay comes from zakak which means to be transparent or clean. That’s like a Mafia Don with the name “Honest Abe.”
Zacchaeus was mikros in stature.
🤓 Is that where we got the word “micro”?
The very one.
There are two main genetic types of dwarfism: proportionate and disproportionate. The most common type of dwarfism is a disproportionate type called Achondroplasia. It’s the type of dwarfism of the folks on the tv show…
Proportional Dwarfism is more rare and generally involves more serious health challenges. One type, called “Primordial Dwarfism” leads to incredibly small people like Hannah from the UK who was fully grown at just 39 inches tall and 19 years old when this picture was taken in 2015.
There’s no way of knowing if Zacchaeus was indeed a dwarf, (usually defined as shorter than 4ft 10in (147cm) or less at maturity), or if he was just “a wee bit” shorter than average. In either case, he wanted to get a look at the famous Galilean rabbi.
We see something of the cleverness of Zacchaeus and probably why he was so wealthy. He thought way ahead of everyone else. He anticipated Jesus’ path, ran ahead of the crowd, located a tree and climbed up it to wait for Jesus to pass by. This is the kind of tree he climbed:
It would be much easier to climb than the North American sycamore tree:
It’s a great scene – Jesus stops at the tree where Zacchaeus thinks he’s going to watch unobserved. He looks up, and when Jesus starts talking up into the tree, I’m sure the whole crowd looks up too.
I wish we knew more about what brought about Zaccheaus’ change of heart. If I was going to speculate, I would wonder if it’s because Jesus was perhaps the first rabbi to ever speak a kind word to him. We see the reaction of the crowd.
“But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.”
Luke 19:7 NLT
I wonder how many sinners out there in the world would repent if they actually believed God would accept them… They know they are a wreck and that they have done some really bad things. And I think they know instinctively that they are not right with God. What they don’t seem to know is that they can be made right with God through Jesus.
I think that Satan has convinced a lot of people that God has written them off for good and so they write themselves off and try to make light of the fact that they know they are on a “Highway to Hell.”
Zacchaeus seems like a man who was just waiting for someone to tell him and show him that he had a chance; that he wasn’t just the scum of the earth. And Jesus does that. We don’t read about Jesus preaching to him, though it’s likely that they talked about the Kingdom of God. Jesus just valued him.
Here is the portion of the Law that applies to Zacchaeus:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Suppose one of you sins against your associate and is unfaithful to the Lord. Suppose you cheat in a deal involving a security deposit, or you steal or commit fraud, or you find lost property and lie about it, or you lie while swearing to tell the truth, or you commit any other such sin. If you have sinned in any of these ways, you are guilty. You must give back whatever you stole, or the money you took by extortion, or the security deposit, or the lost property you found, or anything obtained by swearing falsely. You must make restitution by paying the full price plus an additional 20 percent to the person you have harmed. On the same day you must present a guilt offering. As a guilt offering to the Lord, you must bring to the priest your own ram with no defects, or you may buy one of equal value. Through this process, the priest will purify you before the Lord, making you right with him, and you will be forgiven for any of these sins you have committed.”
Leviticus 6:1-7 NLT
Zacchaeus is genuine in his repentance. He doesn’t just give back the money he took plus the 20% (1/5) required by the Law. He says he will give back 4 times (400%) what he took.
Then notice what Jesus does. It’s pretty radical. Before Zacchaeus has taken a ram to the temple for a guilt offering, before a cent has actually left his pocket, Jesus says that “salvation has come” to his house that very day. And Jesus says that he is “also a son of Abraham.”
🤔 Aren’t all Jews sons of Abraham?
Well, Jesus just recently told the leading priests and Pharisees that they were not in fact sons of Abraham, but rather sons of the Devil (Jn. 8:39-47). Jesus is changing the definition of what it means to be a son of Abraham. Isaac was the son of Abraham who was born by the promise and power of God and as a result of Abraham and Sarah’s faith.
And this is how those who are born of the Spirit are born too; by faith and through the promise and power of God. By this definition, even the Gentiles can be the sons of Abraham and “children of promise,” as Paul will unpack in Rom. 9 and Gal. 4. This is how “Father Abraham had many sons…”
🤓 And many sons had Father Abraham…
😏 Boy, we’re all about the Sunday School songs today, I see.
Well, as fun as they are, it’s time to move on.
PARABLE OF THE TEN SERVANTS
Matthew will record a very similar parable called “the Parable of the Ten Talents” (Mt. 25:14-30).
THIS parable involves minas [men-uz].
😏 Sounds like Hillbilly fish bait. 🐟
I like the heading used in the NLT, “The parable of the ten servants” because it really is more about the servants than the money.
Minas and talents were not coins. They were units of measurement. That’s why the term is often translated as “pounds” because that’s a unit of measurement we know.
“The standard unit for weight will be the silver shekel. One shekel will consist of twenty gerahs, and sixty shekels will be equal to one mina.”
Ezekiel 45:12 NLT
I don’t know if the Jews ever adopted the 60-shekel-mina in practice. Historical records show that by the time of the inter-testimental period, for whatever reason, the mina was equal to 50 shekels.
Depending on the metal – gold, silver, bronze, or even iron – 10 minas of that metal could be worth a little, or a whole lot. Here are some rough estimates based on a $15 USD minimum wage and (probably) a silver mina.
- 1 mina = $18,000
- 5 minas = $90,000
- 10 minas = $180,000
Before we even get into the parable, Luke very helpfully states WHY Jesus gave it.
“The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away.”
Luke 19:11 NLT
No one, including the disciples, has the slightest concept of a Messiah Who comes to earth and then goes away without establishing an earthly kingdom to rule over the nations. And that’s not really their fault. As we have read through the OT, the prophecies about Messiah are often split right in the middle of a sentence; half referring to Messiah coming to save, and the next clause referring to His everlasting reign. We have the benefit of our perspective at this point in time. No one then knows there’s a gap in between Messiah’s suffering and His reign.
This is not a bug, it’s a feature.
The great Captain of our Salvation does not publish His battle plans for His enemies to read. He had things planned that were not on anyone’s radar yet. The main one being the inclusion of the Gentiles of all nations in the kingdom.
Jesus is walking a razor thin line. He needs to explain some things to His disciples to prepare them for the coming week when He will be arrested and crucified. But He can’t say too much so that they interfere or that it tips His hand to the Powers of Darkness.
This parable has been a gift to the Church in all centuries. We are the ten servants who are told to “Do business until I come back.”
In the story – and I can’t wait to hear Jesus tell stories in PERSON! – the nobleman has 10 servants and he gives each one the same amount of money to invest.
There is another group besides the servants in this parable. There are citizens. And they do not want this nobleman to be their king. He goes away as a nobleman and comes back as a king.
When he returns as king, here is what happens:
- His servants (not the general population) stand before him and give an account of what they have done with what they were given.
- Those who were faithful were rewarded with authority and they partnered with the king in his reign. They “reigned with him.”
- Those that did not rightly estimate the character of the king and made excuses for their failure to carry out his wishes, even their initial investment was taken away. They aren’t destroyed but they are basically disgraced.
- The rebel citizens who didn’t want the nobleman to be their king are all killed.
This is what will happen when the Kingdom of God appears. And it should motivate us to be about our Lord’s business until He comes.
I’m not sure what the minas represent exactly, but whatever they are, each servant is given the same as the others and it is something that can be invested, developed, and taken away; which, to me, sounds a lot like spiritual gifts. What are you doing with what you have been given?
When He announced the Kingdom, Jesus said that it didn’t come with observation, it wasn’t something you could see. Rather, the Kingdom of God is within you. That was His first-coming.
When He returns “Every eye will see Him.” And Jesus will explain in Matthew 24 that in the same way the lightning lights up the sky and you can’t miss it, when He comes the second time, the Kingdom will be highly visible. In fact, the word apocalypse means “revealed” or “uncovered.”
- 1st-coming: Invisible Kingdom inside
- 2nd-coming: Visible kingdom outside
THE ANOINTING AT BETHANY (2 of 3)
After this close read-through of the Gospels, I think I am coming to the decided view that Jesus was anointed by 3 different women, on 3 separate occasions. There are too many differences for it to be one, or even two instances, in my opinion. Your milage may vary.
- A Sinful Woman anointed Jesus’ FEET at Simon the Pharisee’s house, (probably in Capernaum), early in Jesus’ ministry, Luke 7:36-50.
- Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus’ FEET, probably in the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany, 6 days before Passover, John 12:1-8
- An Unnamed Woman anointed Jesus’ HEAD in Simon the Leper’s house in Bethany, 2 days before Passover, Matthew 26:1-13, Mark 14:1-9
I cannot get one event out of those details. The texts are VERY specific. The response of the disciples is similar in the last 2 and Jesus’ defense is similar each time, but unless someone can show me how there’s a straight up error in translation (six days vs two days) that can conflate the 2nd and 3rd anointings, I think we are looking at 3 total. If so…
There are some interesting structural observations.
- In anointings 1 & 3, the women are unnamed but the men are named and they are both named Simon.
- One Simon is a Pharisee in Capernaum, the other is in Bethany and seems to be a former leper that Jesus healed (because if he were still leprous, he couldn’t have guests in his home).
- Mary is the only named anointer. Every time Mary of Bethany appears in the text of the Gospels, she is at the feet of Jesus. (Martha is again serving)
These final anointings, Jesus said, were to prepare His body (head to toe as it were) for burial. In a way, they bookend the myrrh given by the Magi at Jesus’ birth. Myrrh was a fragrant but bitter liquid used in preparing bodies for burial.
I find it interesting that the only other place in the Bible that mentions “spikenard,” (besides Jesus being anointed before the cross), is in the Song of Songs. Look at this – it could’ve been written about John 12:2-3:
“While the King sitteth at his table, My spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”
Song of Solomon 1:12 KJV
“There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”
John 12:2-3 KJV
Mind. Blown.
And I know that newer translations have “couch” rather than table. Fine. Jesus was reclining in a couch-like fashion anyway or perhaps on a low couch.
I bought a little vial of spikenard in Israel. I had no idea what it smelled like, I just recognized the name as the scent Mary poured on the feet of Jesus so I bought it. I opened it up, smelled it, and immediately began to cry in wonder.
It was a revelation.
Y’all… spikenard smells exactly like…
…a wood shop.
Shavings. Tree sap. That masculine, woodsy smell of fresh-cut lumber. 🪵
It was like smelling the cologne of someone I knew and loved but had never seen in person.
It’s precisely how a carpenter would smell.
I was also oddly relieved that Jesus didn’t smell like a flowery grandmother on His way to the cross.
😐 You thought Jesus smelled like a flowery grandma? 🌸
Well… I didn’t know. He was doused with perfume…owned by a woman. What was I supposed to think? What scent does the word “spikenard” suggest to you?
🤓 Cactus? 🌵
🤔 Do cactuses have scent?
☝️🤓 Cacti. The plural of cactus is cacti. 🌵🌵🌵🌵
🙄
This was like essential oil, not a cheap body spray with a scent that vanishes in an hour. Jesus skin and clothing would’ve smelled like Mary’s oil even as He sat in the dungeon at the end of the week awaiting death.
And that’s what we begin in tomorrow’s reading. The Passion week. But like I said before the pacing is going to slow WAY down. It’s going to take us the next 3 and a half weeks to read through this one week of Jesus’ life.
🤨 And if you don’t start writing shorter blog posts, it’s going to take a whole month!
(Sigh) I know. I’m trying.
🤓 Maybe… you should try just a little less.
To The Reader 