Luke’s narrative of  Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem, which we’re reading this week, summarizes his whole ministry. It’s a  journey of mercy.

Like Mark and Matthew, Luke says that on his last journey to Jerusalem Jesus passed through Jericho and then took the road up to the Holy City about 20 miles away. At Jericho he met a blind man asking him to cure his blindness. Calling  him over, Jesus gave him back his sight, and the blind man followed him.

 Luke adds a story not found in Mark and Matthew. Jericho’s chief tax-collector, Zachaeus, wants to see Jesus, but because he’s a short man, he has to climb a sycamore tree to get a glimpse of him. Calling him down, Jesus not only speaks with him but asks to stay in his house.

The two stories summarize Jesus’ activity in Galilee where he cured and reconciled so many. Luke’s gospel has been called the Gospel of the Outcasts because Jesus reaches out to so many like them. He brings salvation. As the name implies, outcasts can be hard to take, but Jesus embraced them all. 

Jesus doesn’t take control of the lives of the blind man or the tax-collector either. He doesn’t ask for anything from the wealthy chief-tax collector except a day’s hospitality. He doesn’t tell him to quit his job and get another one. He usually told those he healed, like the bind man, to go back to their families and do what they did before. Maybe he had no home to go to, but the blind man followed Jesus up to Jerusalem. 

In Jericho years ago I took a picture of a sycamore tree in Jericho’s town square. Was it like the one Zachaeus climbed? Could the picture of the road sign (above) be where the blind man sat when he heard Jesus was passing by?