Luke 19

Jesus knew who Zacchaeus was. The fact that Jesus determined to stay at his house was offensive to some people, but Jesus knew his name, and he knew everything that other people knew about him and more. He knew what Zacchaeus would be. He knew that Zacchaeus was at just the right point in his life to receive Jesus joyfully. He knew that this chief tax collector would repent of his sins, and that he would pursue both justice and mercy by the grace of God. He knew that salvation would come to this man’s house.

Salvation is more than an individual experience; it is the coming of a kingdom. This kingdom has a King whose faithfulness extends beyond suffering and the cross, and who reigns in a land of resurrection glory. This great King calls on us to repent, and then to live a life of faithfulness, with an understanding that what we have been given comes from Him, and is His; and that it should be used in accord with the purposes of His kingdom. This King is not a man who has no concern for His subjects. He loves to see us prosper and to enjoy the good gifts that He gives to us, but He recognizes that the opportunity to suffer for Him and for His kingdom is itself one of these good gifts. The King is well aware that the fullness of kingdom salvation is yet to come. He understands that there are great rewards for us in the age to come that make our suffering for Him now a great opportunity that must not be missed.

In that kingdom to come there will be cities, and some good management of affairs in a world of sinless blessing. To use the King’s resources faithfully in this life is not a burden, but a blessing and a preparation for greater gifts that will one day be given. Yet this can only be appreciated by those who have an accurate assessment of the King. He is very powerful, and it is normal to fear those who could do us great harm; but this King is not an oppressive man. He is generous, and He has proven His good will toward us through His life and His death. Yet some cannot seem to receive this testimony. Such men will be exposed one day for what they are. They have believed the worst about the King and have hated Him. Their actions are not consistent with fear alone. The man in the parable with one mina, if he only had fear, would have at least put that mina on deposit, and gained interest for the master. He did not do this. He resented the idea that profit would come to the master. He hated the master.

The kingdom that Jesus is building is comprised of those who have come to see the beauty of our King. We have been granted a great gift, even the blessing of suffering for Him now, and we will be given much greater gifts in the age to come. Those who do not want such a great King to reign over them will have a different end.

But now the time has come for this Messiah King to be faithful to the end. He comes into Jerusalem as a humble man, but as a true King who is fulfilling the prophecies concerning the Messianic Son of David. His many disciples rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they have seen. Here is the Psalm 118 King who comes in the Name of the Lord. Here is the One who has the blessing of heaven, and who alone can make peace between God and man with His blood. This cross is what His Kingdom is all about, because it alone is the way for us to understand the truth, the truth about the holiness of God, the truth about the sinfulness of man, the truth about the need for a sinless substitute to bear the burden for us, to pay the debt that we owed, the debt that was beyond us, the truth about God and His glory, and the truth about the glorious Kingdom that was now being established.

The Pharisees did not like this, because they did not like Him. The Father, on the other hand, loved the Son, and would have caused even the stones to cry out in favor of Jesus Christ on that great day. The Father chose instead to use people, as He uses us now to praise Him, and to be living stones in the kingdom temple that He is building. It is an interesting contrast to consider what the Pharisees might have wanted to do with stones at that moment. The Father’s way is far better than this, though it also involves the death of Jesus Christ, but not through stoning. The plan that is shared by the Father and the Son has a great life-giving purpose. The Son will be lifted up, that He might draw all men to Himself. In order to do this, Jesus must be the Sacrifice of Psalm 118, a Sacrifice that we will somehow boast in, for this is the day that the Lord has made.

But now Jesus weeps for the Old Covenant city of God, Jerusalem. She is blind, and her enemies will soon come and destroy her, and the remains of the ceremonial life with a temple that performed animal sacrifice will be gone. Not even one stone will be left upon another in that place, but the Stone which the builders rejected will become the Chief Cornerstone, and this will be marvelous in the Father’s eyes and in our eyes. We, as living stones, will be built up into a new temple in the Lord, and we will praise Him forever in the new kingdom He is gathering through the church.

The time for the old temple will be over, and this fact is acted out before them as the Lord drives out of the temple of God everything that offends. Yet in the midst of a city that does not know the time of the visitation of the true Son of David, a surprising new temple will be established among the thousands who will hear and believe. They will repent and be baptized, and they will worship the Father through the Son, the King of this new kingdom. Men and women as unworthy as Zacchaeus will find salvation, and He shall reign forever and ever.