Tag Archives: Luke 19

“Right in Front of You”

April 13, 2026 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.
Luke 19:11 (NIV)

There is an art to storytelling.

In novels and in movies, and in the spoken word there is a structure to a well-told story that sucks listeners in, keeps them on the edge of their seats, and leaves them wanting more.

With the advent of streaming and binging entire seasons of television shows it easier than ever to see that writers structure an entire season of episodes like one giant story.

I have always said that all good stories are a reflection of the Great Story.

God is the Master Storyteller.

Luke is a careful apprentice—watching, learning, and telling the story with intention.

He sees the story of Jesus, and he is writing it capably.

One of the hallmarks of a good story is that as the narrative moves towards the climax, the pace of the story speeds up.

Things happen quickly.
Conflicts rise.
Tension builds.

Back in chapter 9 Luke informed us that Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He did so knowing that He would be arrested, tried, and executed. He predicted plainly… twice.

Over the next 9 chapters Luke slowly introduces the conflict with the prominent religious leaders. Jesus’ teachings and parables only stoke the flames of that conflict.

The religious establishment wants a king who conquers.
Jesus insists on a kingdom that transforms.

Jesus repeatedly frustrates them with His description of God’s Kingdom, and criticizes them for their inability to see it or accept it.

Today’s chapter. There’s movement here. Urgency. A heartbeat that quickens as Jesus draws closer to Jerusalem… and everything starts to come to a head.

The chapter unfolds like a series of charged moments:

In Jericho, a wealthy, compromised man named Zacchaeus climbs a tree just to see Jesus—and ends up being seen instead.
Scandalous. Not that Zacchaeus sought Jesus—but that Jesus wanted Zacchaeus. Salvation doesn’t wait for you to clean up. It invites itself into your messy house and sits down at your table like it owns the place.
Jesus tells a parable about servants entrusted with money (the minas), exposing what we do with what we’ve been given while the King is away. The minas aren’t just about stewardship—they’re about loyalty in the waiting. What I do with what God has placed in my hands—my influence, my voice, my time—isn’t neutral. It reveals my heart.
Then comes the triumphal entry—Jesus rides into Jerusalem as a king… but not the kind anyone expected.
Not on a war horse like the religious establishment wants, but a colt. This isn’t power, or intimidation, or conquest…peace. But don’t mistake gentleness for weakness. This King knows exactly who He is… and exactly where He’s going.
And finally, He weeps over the city and clears the temple, confronting a people who missed what was right in front of them.
A haunting moment as Jesus looks at Jerusalem… and cries. Not because He’s rejected. Because they didn’t recognize “the time of God’s coming.” They were looking for God… and missed Him when He stood right in front of them. And the temple cleansing isn’t random anger—it’s surgical. The establishment has turned God’s house into a cash cow of commerce. Religion without presence, activity without intimacy, noise without God — and Jesus won’t have it.

Today’s chapter is about recognition… and the tragedy of missing it.

Here’s where the chapter leans in close… and Holy Spirit whispers something uncomfortably personal.

“Tom? You’re in this story.”

Sometimes I’m Zacchaeus—curious, hungry, hiding in the branches, hoping to see without being seen.
Sometimes I’m the cautious servant—playing it safe, burying what I’ve been given because risk feels… well… risky.
Sometimes I’m a face in the crowd—cheering Jesus when it’s exciting, missing Him when it’s inconvenient.
And sometimes… I’m Jerusalem.

Busy.
Religious.
Close.

And still missing Him.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that God’s Kingdom starts with me. Jesus always begins at the one-on-one relationship.

Not in theory.

Not in theology.

But in the quiet nudge…
The inconvenient interruption…
The invitation that feels a little too personal, a little too close for comfort…

Because Jesus still walks through every town like Jericho.

He still looks up into trees.

He still calls names.

And He still says, “I’m coming to your house today.”

When He does?

Things get rearranged.

Tables flip.
Priorities shift.
Wallets open.
Hearts soften.

And salvation doesn’t just pass by—

It moves in…
kicks off its shoes…
and stays awhile.

I am taking a couple of days off. See you on Thursday.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Kings and Kingdoms

January 3, 2024 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

As [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”
Luke 19:41-42 (NIV)

In yesterday’s chapter, I talked about the meaning that is hidden in plain sight, waiting to be found in the connection between the episodes in a given chapter. Once again this morning, I found spiritual treasure in connecting the dots.

Dr. Luke wrote back in chapter 9 that Jesus “resolutely” set out for Jerusalem. In today’s chapter, He finally arrives. But Dr. Luke adds two key episodes to give me, the reader, to put that arrival in context.

As He enters Jericho, Jesus sees a man who has climbed into a tree to get a better view of Him. This wasn’t just any man. His name was Zac, and he was a regional director for the Internal Revenue Service of that day. Just like every human system of government, the system in which Zac was an authority was filled with corruption. Zac profited from that corruption. He was part of the system that fed the evil Herod Administration and the occupational forces of Rome. He was ostracized and held with contempt by the fundamentalist religious system. Like Jesus’ disciple, Levi, Zac had chosen in to the corrupt system in order to get rich and live the good life. His own people despised him for it.

Jesus invites Himself to Zac’s house for dinner. In doing so, Jesus sets off a host of mean tweets from those who had chosen in to the fundamentalist religious system of that day in order to appear righteous and holier-than-thou. Ironically, Jesus found this system to be no less corrupt than the one to which Zac belonged. Jesus’ visit to Zac’s house ends with Zac repenting of his greed and making a decision to give away half his wealth while making restitution to those he wronged by paying them four times what he’d cheated out of them. Jesus celebrates this prodigal son who has found his way home to God’s kingdom affirming that Zac’s transformation is evidence of the kingdom He came to bring.

Jesus then tells a parable about a man of noble birth who goes to a distant land to be made king. The people despised and rejected this king. He leaves and puts people in charge of his wealth while he was away. Some invested the wealth, made a huge return, and were rewarded. One man did nothing and was stripped of what he’d been given and sacked.

First, Jesus goes to the house of a sinner so that he might find personal salvation that transforms his life and all those who know him. Jesus says, “This is what my kingdom is all about.”

Next, Jesus tells a parable about a king who goes to a distant land to be made king (much as He left heaven to bring His kingdom to earth) and leaves his followers in charge (much as He will, in about a week, leave His followers to care for the mission of His kingdom on earth). The king eventually returns and settles accounts (much as Jesus promises a Day that He will return to settle spiritual accounts).

Jerusalem is the epicenter of the Great Story. It is David’s capital city. It is where Solomon built the temple. It is where the prophets proclaimed God’s Message. But since banishment from the Garden in Genesis 3, the kingdoms of this world, under the dominion of the Prince of this World, always stand in opposition to the Kingdom of God. It happened in the wake of David’s kingdom, and Jesus knew it must happen again just as He had described in his parable earlier in the chapter: “his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’”

So the “King” enters Jerusalem as Jesus weeps for the larger spiritual tragedy that is unfolding, saying, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

With this statement, Jesus prophetically describes the very thing that will happen in 40 years when Rome lays siege to Jerusalem and destroys the city and the temple with it.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself reminded of an observation I’ve made along my spiritual journey. I find that humans, myself included, want God to be like us and the Kingdom of God to be like the earthly kingdoms we know. This is the fatal mistake that Jesus is calling out in the saving of a major sinner named Zac, in the parable of the King whose subjects hated and rejected, and in the prophetic proclamation of the city and the earthly kingdoms who were going to execute Him in a few days time.

As a disciple of Jesus, I’ve had to learn along the way that when my thoughts, words, actions, and worldview start looking like a kingdom of this world, then I’m out of sync with the Kingdom of God that Jesus invested in me, His disciple, just like the administrators in His parable. In the parable, the King’s subjects were given money to invest. In the case of Jesus, His disciples were given love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to invest.

So, how does my investment portfolio look? What will be the return on those investments Jesus finds on the Day when He returns to settle accounts?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Open Spiritual Eyes

January 21, 2020 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.
Luke 19:47 (NIV)

I’m am spending a couple of days this week working on-site with a client. I will meet with members of my client’s inside sales team and talk to them about the service they’re providing customers on the phone, which we have assessed. We’ll listen to calls together and I’ll share tips and strategies for improving the customer’s experience in those “moments of truth.”

Over the years I have learned, however, that there is something much broader that is always going on when I’m on-site with a client. The agents I train don’t work in a vacuum. There are all sorts of things going on around them, systemically, that affect their behavior and attitudes which spill out, often unintentionally, in their conversations with customers. Office environment, corporate policies, relationships with managers, and crazy-makers on the team can all have a significant impact on an individual agent’s thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. If I don’t have my antennae up to understand the larger picture, I’m going to be ineffective at helping my client focus on what he or she needs to do.

When reading through a chapter, it is so easy to focus on the individual stories and lose sight of the larger context of what is happening. In today’s chapter, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for His final, climactic week.

Politically, the hottest issue of that day was Rome’s occupation of Judea. There was constant tension between Rome and the Jewish leaders. The temple was more than just a religious center. It was the epicenter of power and finance in the area. The religious leaders of Jerusalem who held sway had a very lucrative racket going.

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for the biggest religious festival of the year. The Passover attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims to Jerusalem and the temple. Jewish faithful were required to offer sacrifices and offerings while they were at the temple. Often those sacrifices and offerings were sold outside the temple, but the temple had its own currency. Pilgrims first had to exchange their currency before they could buy their sacrifices. The leaders were making money on both the exchange rate and the sacrifices and offerings they were selling.

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, He tells a parable about servants who are given money by their employer to invest while he’s away. It’s a parable that Jesus has told before, but on the eve of His arrival in Jerusalem He changes it. In this telling, the employer leaves to be made King, much like the local monarch, Herod, would have traveled to Rome to be given authority for the area by the Roman Empire. The pending ruler’s people in Jesus revised telling do not want this person to be King. Nevertheless, he returns as King and pays back his followers based on how they’d invested what had been given.

Jesus immediately heads into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling an ancient prophecy, as His followers proclaim Him as King. The religious leaders vehemently complain much like those in the parable who did not want the protagonist of the story to be King.

Upon His arrival, Jesus goes to the Temple and drives out the money changers and vendors selling sacrifices. Again, it relates directly to the parable Jesus just told. Those leaders of God’s people who had been entrusted with oversight of God’s people and God’s law. Rather than investing in love and generosity, the leaders perverted it for their own self-centered power and personal wealth while treating others with self-righteous contempt and condemnation.

Jesus was not the first “messianic upstart” the religious leaders had dealt with. They had a well-worn playbook of getting rid of anyone who threatened their power and wealth. Jesus was in their sites. Jesus knew it.

As He entered Jerusalem, Jesus offered a lament for the city and its religious leaders. They didn’t see, perceive, or understand what God was doing and saying through Jesus. Like the parable, they would suffer the consequences. Within a generation, the political resistance to Rome would boil over. Rome will surround the city and fulfill Jesus’ prophet words. The city and the Temple would be utterly destroyed.

On Sunday Wendy and I were traveling. We were talking about our “word” for the year, and conversing about where we find ourselves in our spiritual journeys and our life journeys. We don’t want to live in a vacuum, unaware of what God is doing in us, through us, and around us. We prayed together, seeking for those things to be revealed and not hidden.

This morning I’m praying for spiritual eyes that are open to see what’s happening systemically in my client’s office, to see the subtext of what’s going on in today’s chapter, to see the bigger picture of what God is doing in and around me and Wendy as we walk this journey together.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…
Ephesians 1:18a

Chapter-a-Day

Contrasts in Corruption

August 29, 2014 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Luke 19:2, 45-46 (NIV)

In Jesus’ day corruption was everywhere. I realized as I read this morning that today’s chapter is bookended with a fascinating parallel. It begins with the story of Zacchaeus.

Zac was a “chief tax collector.” In the days of Roman occupation, the empire broke up territory into tax regions. The tax collectors were locals who knew their neighborhoods, local businessmen, and had first hand knowledge of where the local money was. Tax collectors had a base amount of tax that the Roman Empire demanded they raise and send to Rome. There were, no doubt, others in the regional political machine getting their cut, but beyond that the tax collectors could keep whatever they could extort from their own people. The more money they squeezed out of their neighbors the richer they became, and Zac was a very wealthy man. As a “chief tax collector” Zacchaeus would not only have extorted his own share, but he was likely getting a piece of the action from other collectors in his territory. He was a extortionist and racketeer, the first century equivalent of a local mob boss.

Contrast this with the Pharisees and religious leaders who ran the temple. They judged Zacchaeus as a traitor and a sinner and they would look down their ecclesiastical noses at the extortionist. But, the religious leaders were total hypocrites. They had a thriving racket of their own. Good Jews were required to make regular pilgrimages to the temple to make sacrifices and offerings for their sins. Jews regularly came from all over the known world to make their annual sacrifices. To take advantage of this, the Pharisees in charge of the temple minted their own currency and the priests demanded that people buy the supplies for their offerings from the approved temple merchants. Of course, the temple merchants only took temple currency, so people would have to visit the temple “money changers” to exchange their local currency at exorbitant exchange rates. At least with Zac and the money changers there was no pretense about what they did with their money. The high priest and the religious leaders were corrupt extortionists, but they cloaked their racket in pious religiosity. They used God to launder their public image and both social and religious leverage to line their own pockets.

Jesus visits Zacchaeus’ house (creating all sorts of gossip, whispers and condemnation from all the good religious people). By the end of the visit, Zac’s heart and life had changed. He agrees to give away half of his wealth and make amends with all whom he’d cheated (the list was likely to be very long).

Jesus visits the temple. Unlike the sinner, Zac, the Pharisees and religious leaders refuse to repent of their extortion and racketeering. They choose, instead, to plot to have Jesus killed. His teaching, and his driving of the money changers from the temple were a threat to their power and their income. They would have none of it. Jesus needed to be rubbed out.

God’s Message teaches that sin is common to all. Both the tax collectors and the religious leaders were infected with the same appetite for greed and power. There was no difference in their sin, only in their response to Jesus. The traitorous “sinner” Zacchaeus opens his heart to Jesus’ words and turns away from his racketeering ways. The good religious people close their hearts to Jesus’ words and sink to even lower into corruption in order to safeguard their wealth and power.

Today, I’m thinking about the contrast in these two stories. I’m aware some people think of me as a good, religious person like the Pharisees, but I don’t ever want to be like the temple leaders who played a religious game to hide their lust for wealth and power. I’m also aware that some religious people think that I am not being religious enough and I don’t tow the line on their religious standards. I am divorced, I have tats, I don’t hide my love for a pint of good beer and an occasional cigar. And, I hang out with those sketchy artists and theatre types.

I am admittedly not perfect, but I hope that, like Zacchaeus, my heart and soul will always be open to Jesus’ teachings and that my life will always be enthusiastically responsive to Spirit and Truth.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Luke 19

December 15, 2010 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

“He said, ‘That’s what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.” Luke 19:26 (MSG)

When you shave your head, you get all sorts of reactions. I had co-workers who fielded calls from clients wondering if I had cancer. When I would explain to inquiring acquaintences that I shaved my head to play Daddy Warbucks in a community theatre production of Annie, it was common to receive looks of bewilderment. Clearly, some people thought I was crazy.

People were surprised at my willingness to shave my hair off for a part in a play, and I suppose that it seems drastic to some. While I admit that the first swipe with the electric clippers required a deep breath, it really wasn’t a huge deal for me. First, I knew the hair would grow back quickly. Second, being bald was a great marketing tool because it created a buzz, was a conversation starter, and got people talking about the show. Most of all, however, I was really committed to playing the part well – and everyone knows Daddy Warbucks is bald. For me, the risk was small, the yield was great in its context.

Accomplishments, both small and large, involve risk. Faith itself is a risk. Acts of faith are riskier still. Jesus constantly rewarded those who stepped out in faith without being asked, and he constantly called out those who played it safe.

What are you willing to risk?