The Son of Man’s Journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27)

Zacchaeus, the Tax Collector (1-10)

After Jesus healed the blind man just outside the walls of Jericho, He entered the city. Living in Jericho was a man named Zacchaeus, a man of small stature. Zacchaeus had heard so much about Jesus that he was interested in actually laying eyes on Him. To do so, he needed to run ahead of the entourage surrounding Jesus and climb a tree. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, which meant he had won the bid from the Roman government to collect taxes in Jericho. No Roman tax collector received a salary; they made their livings on what they could collect over the amount they had bid to collect those taxes. 

Zacchaeus would have been a man of some wealth, living in a house of substantial luxury and having servants to attend to his needs, all on the back of overcharging the citizens of Jericho. He would defraud them of their money with threats and mean tactics. In climbing a tree, Zacchaeus was throwing dignity to the wind just to catch sight of Jesus.  

Jesus stopped at the tree Zacchaeus had climbed, looked up at Zacchaeus, and told him that He “must” stay at his home (1-5). Zacchaeus came down the tree, hurried home, and received Jesus. The religious leaders threw their usual fit, condemning Jesus for eating with sinners, especially eating in the comfort of the home built on the money he had ripped off from the townspeople. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus was so taken by Jesus that he gave up half of his earnings for the sake of the poor and used the other half to restore his debt to those whom he had defrauded (6-8). 

Jesus declared Zacchaeus as found, as having Abrahamic-like faith, and as part of the true family of God. Jesus, through this story, defined salvation as Himself having become more valuable to Zacchaeus than Zacchaeus' own money. Zacchaeus would rather have had a reduced lifestyle than live apart from Christ—a simple and accurate picture of salvation (9-10). 

The Parable on Faithfulness (11)

Luke made it clear that Jesus was heading toward Jerusalem and all were aware of His destination. Those following Him had in mind a worldly revolution where the populace’s favorite, Jesus, would claim His throne and begin to throw out corrupted political and religious leaders oppressing them.

Jesus, before He entered Jerusalem, was wanting to set the record straight so He told a parable (11). Most assumed the parable centered on his second appearing, but this is most unlikely. Jesus was seeking to define the purpose of His first appearing. In that day, the Jews were looking for God to come and fulfill His promise of making His home with them in His Temple, bringing His judgment to the earth.

Since the return from exile, the children of Israel were searching for God's presence to come down and abide in the Temple, as He had in the other temples. It had never happened, but Jesus' claim was that He was, at long last, coming to do just that. Jesus was God returning to His people, to Israel, to the Temple, although He was even redefining the Temple and was coming to His Temple in a way people had not imagined. Jesus, in this parable, was seeking to make it plain how He would fulfill those promises. 

The Parable (12-25)

He told a story of a nobleman who was going to take a journey into a far country to receive a kingdom and then return (12). Before his departure, the king gave 10 minas to 10 servants (a mina was about a pound of gold), telling them to engage in business until he returned (13). The citizens, however, hated the king and sent a delegation ahead to the kingdom he was about to receive to resist the nobleman being given the kingdom and to keep him from reigning over them (14).

Jesus was telling a life-like story of Archelaus, the son of Herod the Great, who went to Rome to have his father's will enforced, making him king of Judea. A delegation of Jews was sent to oppose the appointment. The comparison of the two stories stops right there.

In the parable, the unwanted king returned, having received the kingdom, and went to see how his servants had fared or what gains they had made with the minas he had left them (15). In essence, the king in the parable, as well as King Jesus, was returning to a people who wanted the kingdom for themselves. 

In the story, the returning king interviewed three of the servants he had given minas to. The first and second servants had used the minas faithfully and were rewarded (16-19).

The third servant, however, was not like the other two; he had been unfaithful with the mina. He stuck his mina in a handkerchief and hid it, suggesting the king was intimidating, severe, and unjust (20-21). The king condemned the man’s actions, using his own words against him. Had he really believed the king to be harsh, intimidating, and unjust, he would have minimally sought to gain interest from the pound of gold. The truth was, the servant thought the returning king to be insignificant (22-23). 

The final servant was then told that because he viewed the returning king with contempt, hoping he would not return, hoping to keep the mina for himself to invest for himself, he had kept it and not followed the king’s instructions. The king had the unfaithful servant stripped of his mina, which was then given to another (24-25). 

The Parable's Conclusion (26-27)

Jesus then made it clear that He was coming into Jerusalem to witness what had been done with what the leaders had been given. If they sought to hold onto the kingdom, sought to keep the Son from reigning, then they would be slaughtered. Yes, severe language, but of course it is exactly what happened when Rome destroyed Jerusalem. 

Jesus also promised that those who treated their lives and possessions as a stewardship from God, to be used for His Kingdom, would be given more. The essential truth that Jesus wanted to convey about His trip to Jerusalem was that those who used their lives and possessions seeking to keep the Kingdom for themselves would lose everything (26-27).