I am concerned about the situation of today’s believers, including our situation. Some of us may still be spiritually blind. We may need to pray, “O Lord, have mercy on me. I need You to heal my blindness. Lord, I want to receive my sight.”
Mark 4:12 indicates that we may see and not perceive and hear and not understand. Since this may be our condition, we need to pray that the Lord will have mercy on us. We also need to empty ourselves in order to see the spiritual reality of the kingdom of God.
The Pharisees thought that they saw a great deal, and they regarded themselves as somebody. Actually, they were nobody. They were even more empty than the tax collectors were. Likewise, although the disciples followed the Lord Jesus from the beginning of His ministry and saw the things that took place in His ministry, they continued to be blind. As we have pointed out, we also may be spiritually blind. Some of us have been in the Lord for years. Subconsciously we may think that we know a great deal. But actually we still may be blind, not seeing the things that we need to see. Therefore, we need the Lord’s healing. In the presence of the Lord, we need to have the deep conviction that we are nobody, that we know nothing, and that we need Him to give us sight.
In our reading of the Gospel of Luke, we may wonder why the case of the healing of a blind man near Jericho is recorded so far along in the narrative. We may think that such a case belongs much earlier in the book, perhaps in the section that records the Lord’s ministry in Galilee. Nevertheless, in chapter eighteen, when the Lord is very close to Jerusalem, we have the account of the healing of this blind man. This case indicates that the followers of the Man-Savior need Him to heal their blindness.
In 19:1-10 we have the record of the Lord’s saving Zaccheus in Jericho. Verse 1 says, “And He entered and was passing through Jericho.” We have seen that Jericho is a city of curse (Josh. 6:26; 1 Kings 16:34).
Luke 19:2 says, “And behold, there was a man whose name was called Zaccheus; and he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.” Tax collectors were those who collected the taxes levied by the Romans. Nearly all of them abused their office by demanding more than they should by false accusation (Luke 3:12-13; 19:8). To pay taxes to the Romans was very bitter to the Jews. Those engaged in collecting them were despised by the people and counted unworthy of any respect (Luke 18:9-10). Often they defrauded the people. Hence, they were classed with sinners (Matt. 9:10-11).
According to Luke 19:3-6, in order to see the Lord Jesus, Zaccheus, who was small in stature, climbed up in a sycamore tree. When the Lord came to that place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down; for today I must stay in your house” (v. 5). Zaccheus came down and welcomed the Lord, rejoicing. But those who saw this “grumbled, saying, He has gone in to lodge with a sinful man” (v. 7).
In 19:8 Zaccheus said, “Behold, the half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusations, I restore four times as much.” Here we see that once a sinner receives the Savior, the issue of this dynamic salvation is his dealing with material possessions and the clearance of his past sinful life.
The Greek word for “taken anything” in verse 8 is the same as that used in 3:14. It is a mild way of speaking of extortion. The tax collectors used to put a higher value on property or income, or increase the tax of those unable to pay, and then charge usury.
Zaccheus told the Lord that if he took anything by false accusations, he restored four times as much. That was according to the law’s requirements for restoration (Exo. 22:1; 2 Sam. 12:6).
In Luke 19:9 the Lord Jesus went on to say to Zaccheus, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” However evil this tax collector was, he was nonetheless also a son of Abraham, a chosen heir of God’s promised inheritance (Gal. 3:7, 29).
In verse 10 the Lord says, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.” This indicates that the Savior’s coming to Jericho was not accidental but purposeful. He came to Jericho purposefully to seek this unique lost sinner, just as He sought the sinful woman in Samaria (John 4:4).