Journey
Zacchaeus and the tax collectors
Levi at his tax booth, a publican praying from afar off in the temple and a rich man up a tree: people many despised, and the teacher who ate with them.
People in this journey
Opening stop: Exact no more, Luke 3:12
Publicans sat at the receipt of custom (Luke 5:27), and John's answer names the temptation of the work, taking more than was appointed. Zacchaeus will later offer fourfold for anything he took by false accusation (Luke 19:8). Acts 5:37 remembers Judas of Galilee, who rose up in the days of the taxing and drew people after him. A saying of Jesus pairs the publican with the heathen as someone to keep apart from (Matthew 18:17).
Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?
King James Version
The chapter opens with a list of rulers and high priests and says the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. John preaches the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins around Jordan, and the narrator quotes Esaias on a voice crying in the wilderness. John calls the crowds a generation of vipers, tells them not to rest on descent from Abraham, and warns that the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Three groups ask what they shall do: the people are told to share coats and meat, publicans to exact no more than is appointed, soldiers to do violence to no man and be content with their wages. When the people wonder whether he is the Christ, John says one mightier is coming who shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Herod the tetrarch, reproved over Herodias, shuts John in prison. Jesus is baptized and prays, the heaven opens, the Holy Ghost descends in a bodily shape like a dove, and a voice calls him beloved Son. A genealogy then runs from Joseph back through David and Abraham to Adam, which was the son of God.
Continue the journey
This journey has 9 stops. The opening stop is free. Premium opens the rest of the guided path, and every Scripture chapter stays free to read.