Jesus entered Jericho and was walking through the town.
A man named
Zaccheus was there, a chief tax collector who was rich.He was trying to see
who Jesus was,
but he could not because of the crowd and the fact that he
was short. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see
Jesus, because he was going to come that way. 5 When Jesus got there, he looked up and said, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, because today I must
stay at your house.” 6 He came down quickly and with joy took Jesus home
with him. 7 When the people saw this they complained, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the lord, “Look, lord, I will
give half of all I own to the poor, and to anybody I have cheated of anything, I
will repay them four times as much.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come
to this house today, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 The Son of Man
came to seek and save what was lost.” 11 While they were listening, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because he
was near Jerusalem and the people were thinking that the Kingdom of God
was going to appear immediately.
[454] 12 So he said, “There was a nobleman
who went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and to return. 13 He called ten of his servants and gave them each 10 minas. ‘Invest this
money in business until I come back,’ he said to them. 14 But his people hated
him, and sent a group after him. ‘We do not want this man to be king over
us,’ they said.
[455] 15 When the king returned, after receiving the kingdom,[456]
he ordered that his servants be brought to him. He wanted to know what they
had gained by investing the money he had given them.
16 The first servant
came and said, ‘Master, your mina has made ten more minas.’ 17 The king said
to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you were faithful in a small way, I
am now putting you in charge of ten towns.’ 18 The second servant came and
said, ‘Master, your mina has made five more minas.’ 19 The king said, ‘And I
am putting you in charge of five towns.’ 20 Another servant came and said,
‘Master, here is your mina which I kept wrapped in a cloth. 21 I was afraid of
you, because you are a harsh man. You take out what you did not put in, and
you harvest what you did not sow.’ 22 The king replied, ‘I will judge you by
your own words, you worthless servant. You say you know I am a harsh man,
who “takes out what I did not put in, and harvests what I did not sow.”
23 If
that is the case, then why did you not at least put my money in the bank, so
that when I came back I could have collected it with interest?’ 24 The king said
to his attendants, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who
has ten.’ 25 They replied, ‘But master, he already has ten minas.’ 26 The king
said, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from
whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken away. 27 But as for my enemies who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and
slaughter[457]
them in front of me.’” 28 After he had said these things, Jesus went towards Jerusalem, walking on
ahead. 29 As he got close to Bethphage and Bethany, near the hill called the
Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village up
ahead, and as you enter you will find a colt tied there which no one has ever
ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying
it?’ just say, ‘The lord needs it.’” 32 So the two disciples went and found
everything just as Jesus had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its
owners asked, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They answered, “The lord
needs it.” 35 They led the colt to Jesus and threw their coats over it, and Jesus
sat on top. 36 As he went along, they were spreading their coats on the road. 37 As he reached the place where the road descends the Mount of Olives, the
whole crowd of disciples began to shout joyful praises to God for all the
miracles they had seen. 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the
Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” they shouted. 39 Some of the
Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, reprimand your disciples.” 40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if they become silent then the stones will
shout aloud!” 41 As he got closer to Jerusalem, Jesus saw the city and wept over it. 42 “If
you had realized today, even you, the things which would lead to peace!” he said. “But
now they are hidden from your sight. 43 For the time is coming when your enemies will besiege you, surround you and shut you in on every side. 44 They will level you to the ground with your children within your walls, and they will
not leave in you one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time
of your visitation.” 45 Jesus went into the Temple and started throwing out the people selling
there.
46 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer,’
but you have turned it into a robbers’ den.” 47 He was teaching every day in the Temple. But the chief priests, the
religious teachers and the leading men among the people kept on trying to
find a way to get rid of him. 48 However they could not find a way to do this,
because all the people were hanging on to every word he said.
Commentary
Luke
[453]
This is the key question for us all. Jesus is the promised Messiah, Son of God (Lk. 1:35; Mt. 1:18: genesis, origin; 1:20). Certainly not God the Son, which is a post-biblical concept only possible when the unitarian creed of Jesus (Mk. 12:29; Jn. 17:3) was left behind, shaking the foundations of the Bible. The results in splintered denominations are obvious. Unity among believers will be possible only when we all agree to the first command of Jesus that “the LORD our God is one LORD” (Mk. 12:29).
[454]
The assumption that the Kingdom of God would be inaugurated when the Messiah was near
the capital of the Kingdom, Jerusalem, was of course absolutely right and biblical. The crowd was well
educated in the Messianism of the Hebrew Bible. The Kingdom will appear at the future Second
Coming of Jesus. Jesus is coming back to the earth and will then inherit the throne of David. Many
Bible readers have been taught mistakenly that Jesus does not really come back to the earth! This
would be a sort of “drive-by.” In fact, the saints will go out to meet the returning lord in the air (1
Thess. 4:13ff) and escort him to his residence on the earth. Jesus has a one-way ticket when he returns
from his present session at the right hand of the One God in heaven (Ps. 110:1).
[455]
This is the chronic attitude of all those who despise Jesus and his claims to Messiahship as Son
of God miraculously begotten in Mary (Lk. 1:35; Mt. 1:20: “begotten in her”).
[456]
Placing the Kingdom of God, as typically in the NT, at the return of Jesus. The Gospel is also
about that great future event (see Dan. 7:18, 22, 27).
[457]
Showing that the time for judgment and punishment will come at the future return of Jesus to
establish the Kingdom on earth. The book of Revelation, inspired by Jesus (1:1) gives much fuller
detail about the future arrival of Jesus in glory. Revelation unpacks the final “week” of Daniel’s famous
prophecy of 70 “weeks,” the last half of the last 7 years being critically important (Rev. 11:1-2, etc).
That final period of trouble is introduced often in the OT, especially the LXX of Zech. 12:3, cited by
Jesus in Luke 21:24 and Rev. 11:2. A savage attack on the city and sanctuary in Jerusalem will precede
the coming of Jesus (cp. Mt. 24:21; Mk. 13:14, where the Abomination is a person “standing where he
ought not to”). See Zech. 13:8-9; 14:2.
Luke