Word of the Day: Sinner (ἁμαρτωλῷ)
“There are some important parallels between the story of the blind man (Luke 18:35-43) and the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).
Both stories involve men who cannot see – one because he is blind (Luke 18:35), and one because he is short (Luke 19:3).
Both stories involve crowds, particularly, crowds that stand in opposition to the men in the stories (Luke 18:39; 19:7).
Both stories involve men who try to get Jesus’ attention – one by calling out (Luke 18:38), and one by climbing a tree (Luke 19:4).
Both stories involve Jesus’s transformative interaction – Jesus heals one man (Luke 18:42), and has a meal with the other (Luke 19:5).
Luke connects these stories because they make a similar point: God loves the outcast.
The importance of this story is evident in the contrast between Jesus’ acceptance of Zacchaeus and the crowd’s rejection of him. After Zacchaeus promised to repay and compensate those he had extorted, Jesus declared that salvation had come to his house and that he was a true son of Abraham.
Then, recapitulating his earlier teaching that he had not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31- 32), Jesus communicated the point of the story: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).”
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Hebert, A. C. (2015). Shaping Church Culture: Table Fellowship and Teaching in Luke-Acts.