Luke19chapter 19

Zacchaeus holds an unusual title — chief tax collector — and Jericho explains it. The town sat on the trade route where goods crossed into Judea, and its balsam groves produced one of the most valuable commodities in the empire. A man who held the collection rights there, with others working under him, would be extremely wealthy and extremely resented.

The sycamore-fig he climbs is a broad, low-branching tree that grows along roads in that valley — an easy climb for a short man, and an undignified place for a rich one. His restitution goes past what the Law demanded; fourfold repayment was the penalty for outright theft of livestock, and he applies it to himself voluntarily.

The parable of the nobleman who travels to a far country to receive a kingdom is drawn from recent history everyone knew. When Herod the Great died, his son Archelaus sailed to Rome to have his rule confirmed, and a delegation of Jews followed to petition against him. Archelaus got a reduced authority and dealt harshly with his opponents on his return. Josephus tells the story, and Jericho, where Jesus tells it, had a palace connected with that family.

The entry follows the road over the Mount of Olives, and the city comes into view suddenly at the ridge — which is where Luke places the weeping. His description of what is coming is a siege in detail: an embankment thrown up, the city surrounded, hemmed in on every side. Rome did exactly that in AD 70, and Josephus describes the wall the legions built around Jerusalem.