Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Zacchaeus

Last year, I heard a teaching where the speaker, who was talking about the story of Zacchaeus, mentioned how it was unheard of for a Middle Eastern man to run. 

After his talk, I asked this speaker where I could learn cultural information like this about Bible culture. He replied with two words: Kenneth Bailey.

So I went home, ordered the below book on Amazon, and began to study. 

Bailey has a really interesting perspective, because he lived in the Middle East for 40 years. As a Bible scholar, he is able to explain cultural practices in the Bible so that a modern Westerner (is that term redundant? I think so...) can understand. In Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, Bailey focuses primarily on the Gospels, looking not only at the actions and the words, but their styling, syntax and symbolism as well.

We're going to look at some cool examples from this book in the coming weeks, but for now, here's what Bailey has to say about the Zacchaeus story. First, let's recap the story from the song we learned in Sunday School as kids:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man

and a wee little man was he. 

He climbed up in a sycamore tree; 

the Lord he wanted to see. 

And as the Savior passed that way, 

he looked up in the tree, and said, 

"Zacchaeus! You come down! 

For I'm going to your house today (repeat).

Interesting, the song says nothing about him running... but that's what the Bible says he did. "Luke 19:4 records Zacchaeus' first action with the words, 'So he ran on ahead.' Middle Eastern adults do not run in public if they wish to avoid public shame. Furthermore, powerful, rich men do not climb trees at public parades anywhere in the world. Zacchaeus knew this only too well. So he ran ahead of the crowd and, trying to hide, climbed into a tree with dense foliage hoping no one would see him..... Sycamore fig trees have large leaves and low branches. One can climb into them easily and just as easily hide among their thickly clustered broad leaves.... Additionally, such trees were only allowed some distance from town. Zaccahaeus chose to climb a tree growing outside Jericho, assuming the crowd would have dispersed by the time Jesus reached the tree" (page 177).

The tree itself is also interesting. It was grown for its branches, which could be used in buildings. But there was an interesting Middle Eastern practice that came with trees—the idea that they were kind of a "tent" and any ceremonial uncleanliness that happened beneath them transferred to anyone under the tree. For this reason, branches that hung over property lines were always cut. So, because sycamores have such wide-spreading branches, they were only allowed to grow outside of town, not within the boundaries. This is how we know Zacchaeus' location during this story (page 178) and that Zacchaeus broke with his strong cultural practices 2x in order to see Jesus. 

So, the crowd is still with Jesus, and they see Zacchaeus too. The Jews hated tax collectors (Zacchaeus' profession), because they were seen as the worst form of traitors. They collected the taxes to give to Rome, but also kept large cuts for themselves. So, we can imagine Jesus standing there, looking up into the tree, and everyone around Him yelling insults at Zacchaeus. 

Jesus could have admonished Zacchaeus. Instead, He says He's going to spend the night at Zacchaeus' house, which is a BIG deal. Since Jesus was seen as a rabbi (for more on this topic, see posts about Lois Tverberg's books here), hosting Him was a BIG deal for the host. And that fact that Jesus was choosing to eat with him and be hosted by him was shocking. 

But Bailey points out something else significant. Jesus walked all the way through the town (we know this from the beginning of the story, which I didn't cover in this post) and was leaving it behind. He was going somewhere else for the night. But, "having signaled that He does not intend to spend the night in their town, Jesus changes His mind and invites Himself into the house of the town collaborator. This is both unthinkable and unprecedented.... For more than 40 years, I [the author] was entertained in countless Middle Eastern towns and homes. As is typical anywhere, the community selects the form of hospitality, not the guest....No guest selects his own host, nor does any guest (especially in a situation of oppression) invite himself in public into the house of a despised collaborator!" (page 180).

This explanation really struck me—from the description of the cultural practices to the location of the sycamore tree signifying their location as being outside of town. How does knowing that Jesus was quite a ways from the town change or enhance your understanding of this story?

Bailey continues on for the rest of the story, but I'm going to leave this here—for the rest, make sure to check out this book!