The Son of Man came to seek out and save the Lost
Luke 19:1-10
Beside Jesus, the protagonist of this Gospel story is Zaccheus.
He was a Jewish chief tax collector for the Romans. According to the Gospel he was a sinner.
A well known, public figure, a tax collector. People were quite upset seeing Jesus even just to talk to him.
Visiting his house was completely out of margin, as it was strictly forbidden even to eat together with obvious sinners.
Yes, Zaccheus was a sinner, but his encounter with Jesus, changed his life for ever.
To understand the depth of this change we have to take a look at the contemporary taxation system levied by the Roman Empire in the Province of Judea. The Romans were practical people,
they precisely calculated how much taxes must be paid by each particular town, or each taxation district.
They also knew that the local population massively despised the taxation system enforced on them by the occupiers, thus the Romans outsourced the tax collecting rights to local contractors, like Zaccheus.
The adventurous contractor must have paid the Romans in advance, and after that, how much taxes he collected it was up to him. Whenever he was able to collect more than he paid in advance to Rome, that difference became his profit.
The empire helped the collection with soldiers, but the tax collectors were in charge to assess the people, allocating that who pays and how much and how.
They were blinded by greed, and they particularly targeted vulnerable, defenseless people like widows and orphans, demanding three times, four times, even multiple times more taxes than would have been considered almost normal.
When people were not able to pay, the tax collectors confiscated their houses, their land , their flock, their whatever possessions, even their clothes.
It was no wonder that people hated them for their greedy cruelty and racketeering.
Also, the tax collectors served the Roman Empire, so they collaborated with the enemy, thus they were considered as traitors.
And beyond all of these, the sages, dwelling in Jerusalem challenged the very notion of paying taxes to the enemy. The sages opined against the taxes, though in a whispering propaganda campaign only, because they were afraid of the Roman authorities, and stayed underground.
Refusing to pay taxes would have meant and act of open rebellion or even an act of war.
Nonetheless, according to the Gospel, it happened that in an unfriendly encounter, the agents of the Herod party, asked Jesus openly and publicly on the market place, that dear Master, tell us whether, should we pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?
The Question was tricky and deadly dangerous in the same time. If he had said, yes we should, then he would have lost all his reputation immediately, as a teacher of the nation. If he had said, no, we should not pay, then he would have been arrested on the spot charged with sedition.
However, as it is written in the Gospel that “ Jesus asked them, Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s. Thus Jesus gave them a marvelous answer which became a slogan and an ancient saying.
However it is a common mistake to think that Jesus surrendered to the emperor or deliberately avoided the edge of the sword in the tricky question.
The wisdom Jesus presented them was infallible and uncompromising.
We can start with the tribute money which is called in the King James Bible, the tribute penny. He could have said, I am sorry folks, I do not have a single tax coin, maybe you have one.
And bingo, of course they had it, and it was a so called Roman denarius, a silver coin, the ten is in the name of the den-arius, and it was established that the silver denarius should be given in exchange for ten Roman pounds of bronze.
According to the customs, the ruler’s image and title was supposed to be minted on the coin.
This denarius, the so called tribute penny, had the image of the emperor Tiberius and his title, reading: “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus”, claiming that Augustus, the former Emperor was a god.” and thus claiming that Tiberius is a son of a god.
The fiscally accurate Roman Empire demanded the taxes to be paid in Roman currency, and the Roman currency declared that the Emperor is god.
Maybe it could be a no-brainer in Rome, but not in Jerusalem.
Just having a single coin in the pocket of an observing Jewish person, it would have been immediately a breach of the Ten Commandments, where the first commandment says that You shall not have other gods before me, and where the second commandment says that You shall not make unto you any graven image.
Thus the advice of Jesus was like, give back the idolatry money to whom it belongs AKA the pagan idolatrous Emperor. Jesus did not say that we have to endure evil tyranny, because it must be obvious that, if we give God everything, than the emperor will have nothing.
The whole greedy, cruel, brutal, and also idolatrous tax collecting procedures were handled by the tax collectors, AKA the publicans, who were not only very much hated traitors, but also the public breakers of God’s Law.
The publicans. One of them was Zaccheus the tax headmaster in the big city of Jerico. The Gospel calls him a sinner.
He could have asked, what I have done? He could have said: Everything is legal, justified by the Roman Law. It is a government contract. I am just a crafty man using an opportunity. Nothing should be wrong with it.
However, the Ten Commandments within the Law of Moses declare the opposite. You shall not harm people, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Whenever you committed those things, Zaccheus , you are guilty, charged by the Law of God.
Even the mere greed in the heart is breaking the Law, where the last Commandment says:
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Our duty in serving God is to be generous and magnanimous.
That was the bottomless pit Zaccheus was sitting in when he met Jesus.
It was so deep, it was unthinkable to escape. He needed a helping hand.
And that hand must have been an invincible one. And the helper came.
Meanwhile Zaccheus more than likely had heard about Jesus already, or had heard him before, that is why he climbed the tree, still it should be clear that Jesus came to Jericho and was looking exactly for him. The great healer of the hearts, the Great Shepherd came for the lost sheep, and said to Him:
"Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.”
We all have our own pits, almost each and everyone, from which pits it is unimaginable to escape using our own strength only.
We need healing. We need redemption. We need a mighty helper. Even I am lost, I must be found.
And the Great Shepherd came and said:
For the Son of Man, came to seek out and save the lost.
It does not matter, how difficult someone’s situation is, how things look hopeless,
how the dark forces advance, because there is Redemption, and there is a Redeemer.
His name is Jesus, may his name be Blessed for ever.
And at the end there is a new beginning and eternal life.
MAY ALL SOULS PRAISE GOD. AMEN
