Zacchaeus responds by offering to give half of his possesssions to the poor, and offering to repay what he has cheated four times. He must not consider money quite as important as he once did. Or perhaps he thinks that now he is rich, but in a different way....The following parable (which is similar to Matthew's Parable of the Talents) also deals with money. Where Zacchaeus distributes his money to the poor (redistribution of wealth), the parable ends by stating that 'everyone who has will be given more, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.' This is a scripture verse I've had a problem with since hearing Billie Holiday sing, "God Bless the Child." It seems to fly in the face of the extravagant grace-giving God that I encounter in other portions of scripture. I'm doing a little background study, and I'll get back to you. In the meantime, anyone who has an idea about this verse, let me know.
Jesus enters Jerusalem then, to cheering crowds and grumbling Pharisees. He weeps over Jerusalem, and then clears the temple. The house of prayer has become (in my version of the Bible) a house for crooks.
In Jerusalem, Jesus gets right into controversies, with Pharisees, Saducees and other legal experts. We have heard this before, and how he figures out how to answer every question, and confounds them all. He also tells the story of the tenant farmers who reject the son of the owner of the vineyard as well as all of the messengers he had sent before.
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, Jesus quotes Psalm 118. A fitting entry to the next few days.
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