A Year in Luke/ActsNäide

Things in the narrative are now beginning to heat up and come to a head. Jesus’ long journey to Jerusalem ends in chapter 19, and things are looking very good as he is welcomed to Jerusalem as a king. But the first thing Jesus does in the city is going to make him very unpopular…

But first we meet Zaccheaus, the small man who climbed a sycamore tree to get a glimpse of Jesus, and has gone down in infamy. The thing is, if we didn’t have Luke’s gospel we would never know about Zaccheaus, since this is the only gospel that tells us the story. This point again highlights the theme that Luke is driving home: Jesus and his kingdom are for those that we would least expect.

In contrast to the rich man in the last chapter, Zaccheaus makes the journey through the eye of the needle and sees salvation come to his house.