"IN SNATCHING ZACCHEUS OF JERICHO FROM SATAN’S GRASP, JESUS CHRIST CLAIMED THE WORLD FOR HIMSELF."

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 93:1,2
Psalm 65:2,3
Psalm 10:7
Psalm 37:1,4,5
Hymn 41:1,2,3,4

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The account of little Zaccheus climbing that sycamore in Jericho grips one’s fascination; the whole episode is intriguing, if only because we see in the eye of our mind that little man peering through the leaves of that tree.

Why, beloved, are we told about this little man in that tree? We’re told this account, congregation, so that we might today not be discouraged. And Yes, the human eye sees so very much reason to be discouraged; observe all the evil in the world around us, observe too the evils in the church, the evils that remain in ourselves. The fact of the matter is that such observations do get various of us down.

Now your God, beloved of the Lord, tells you –No, not of the little man in the tree; he’s not in the spotlight in these verses- the Lord tells us of the battle of Joshua in Jericho. The second Joshua battled the forces of evil, and triumphed; sovereignly, gloriously He snatched from Satan’s grasp that imprisoned child of the covenant, Zaccheus – and so foreshadowed what He would shortly do on Calvary. We’re told so we might be encouraged in our struggles of faith.

I summarise the sermon with this theme:

To understand how Jesus lays claim here to al1 the earth, we shal1 have to pay attention successively to

1. Jericho (the location of this snatching)
2. Zaccheus (the subject of this snatching)
3. Jesus Christ (the Master of this snatching)

"Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho." These words of our text strike us as insignificant; so the episode surrounding Zaccheus took place in Jericho – so what?

We need to recall, beloved of the Lord, that in the life of Jesus nothing ever happened by chance. In fact, every detail, every event, every place, has meaning. That means this: Jesus was today passing through Jericho because He determined that He had to be in Jericho.

We need to note further what Jesus said to His disciples shortly before He entered the city. We read of it in chap 18. Said Jesus to His disciples:

Jesus, then, was on His way to Jerusalem, to the cross. En route to this cross in Jerusalem, He travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem (cf 9:51ff; 13:22; 17:11). Yet the Lord did not take the direct road; sovereignly He chose to take a longer route that would take Him through Jericho. That again raises the question: why did Jesus choose to travel through Jericho, even though that road was longer? To answer that question, we shall have to understand what place Jericho had in Israel’s history.

Jericho was the first city Israel came to after they crossed the River Jordan and entered the Promised Land. That particular city, though, was very well fortified, so much so that the people of Israel on their own strength were not able to capture it. In fact, this city was so well fortified because Jericho strategically protected the entire eastern flank of the land of Canaan. Anyone who would wish to cross the Jordan and so enter Canaan had to pass by Jericho. So it was that in this city there was a well-equipped garrison of soldiers, there was also that colossal wall to defend the Canaanites from any attacker. In a word, Jericho was the gateway to Canaan.

As it turned out, the city of Jericho fell to the Israelites. Yet this city did not fall as cities normally fall to enemy forces. After they had crossed the Jordan, Israel received from God the seemingly silly instruction to march around the city once per day for six days, and on the seventh day seven times. God further decreed that the priests were to join in the procession blowing trumpets and carrying with them the ark of the covenant, God’s throne. The point of it al1 was that Israel had to know that they would not capture this city by their own muscle and their own ingenuity; this city would instead be captured by the Lord their God who went before them in the ark. That was the message of the presence of the ark and the blowing of the trumpets: here was God going to war.

So it happened. In obedience to God’s command, the armed men of Israel walked around the city of Jericho six times in six days. On the seventh they marched around the city seven times. It wasn’t until after the seventh time on the seventh day that the marching soldiers made any noise; at that time they shouted, shouted in the certain knowledge that the city was now their’ s. And lo, the city was their’s; as soon as the trumpets were blown and the people shouted, the walls of the city fell flat. What it all came down to? This: obviously it was God who captured the city, God who gave this city to His people.

Yet it wasn’t just a city that God sovereignly and mercifully gave to His people. The city God gave in this miraculous way was none other than Jericho, that fortification meant to protect Canaan’s eastern flank. So, with the city God gave to His people the gateway to Canaan. With the fall of Jericho, the whole of the Promised Land lay open before the people of the Lord. So the wonderful fall of Jericho was itself a promise to Israel from the Lord: I give you all of the Promised Land, this city is the first-fruit, is the foretaste of the victory I will give you over the whole land of Canaan.

How was it possible, though, for this city to fall to the Israelites? How could God give the city to them, give them this first-fruit of the land? That, congregation, was possible only because of the faith of the people. Hebrews 11: "by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days" (vs 30).

As such, congregation, the ruins of the city were a constant reminder to Israel of the power of faith; by faith one can move mountains, can break down city walls, can capture powerful strongholds, defeat whole nations, receive from God Almighty the land of promise. Here is also the reason why God forbade the rebuilding of the city’s walls; Israel was not to rely on military muscle to protect themselves from invaders, but were instead to rely on the strength and the mercy of their covenant God. What was to protect the Promised Land was not to be a sword of iron, but rather the sword of faith.

Jesus was on His way to the cross in Jerusa1em, to the cross on which He would do battle with the devil, would seek to destroy the kingdom of Satan and in its place establish the kingdom of God. On the cross He would, in a word, capture for the people of God the Promised Land, Paradise Restored.

On His way to the cross, on His way to the Battle for the Promised Land, Jesus consciously makes a point of travelling through Jericho, through that historical entrance into the land of Canaan, through that city that long ago prophesied to God’s people that God would sovereignly give the whole Promised Land to His people. This second Joshua follows in the footsteps of the first Joshua....

But see, what does He find when He comes into Jericho, that gateway to the Promised Land, that evidence of the power of faith? Does Jesus find proof that the inhabitants of this border town still rely on God and God alone to defend and preserve the Promised Land? Do the ruins of the collapsed walls of the city still remind the present inhabitants of the city that the Promised Land was a gift received by faith alone, a gift that can be retained by faith alone?

No, my brothers and sisters, tragically the answer is No. What Jesus finds is a new fortification. Despite the command of God not to rebuild the walls of Jericho, those walls were rebuilt (cf I Kings 16:34ff). Those rebuilt walls through which Jesus had to pass as He entered the city were evidence not of faith, but of unbelief, unbelief at the entrance to the Promised Land!

Yet not only was it so that Jesus found evidence of unbelief in that the walls of the city had been rebuilt. Unbelief was shown up too by the fact that Roman troops were present in the city. More, Herod had built an elaborate winter palace in Jericho. But see: Herod and Roman soldiers were foreign persons, were non-Israelites in the Promised Land! At the time when Jericho fell in the days of Joshua, the Lord commanded Israel to rout out al1 foreigners; more, God promised that Israel would be able to live freely in the land God graciously gave to them without being dominated by foreign peoples. But behold – here were foreigners in the land of Promise! How that was possible? According to God’s revelation in Dt 28, the presence of foreign rulers over God’s covenant people was evidence of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God’s covenant. Jericho, with its walls plus its Roman soldiers and Herod’s palace, rattled with evidence of unfaithfulness in Israel.

But unfaithfulness itself, congregation, is evidence in turn of Satan’s presence. Make no mistake: one is either for God, or against Him; there is no in between. And again, that unfaithfulness, this evidence of the presence and influence of Satan, was pointed up to Jesus not just in any city, but specifically in that historical gateway to the Promised Land. Here was symbolised for Jesus, then, that the sons of Abraham as a whole –to whom the Promised Land had been promised- did not live by faith alone, was evidenced that the sons of Abraham as a whole were lost in the grip of Satan.

2. Zaccheus (the subject of this snatching)

Just how real Satan’s grip on the gateway to the Promised Land actually was is pointed up by the man Jesus met in Jericho. Zaccheus was "a son of Abraham" (vs 9), a covenant child. As such he was possessor of very rich promises; to him was given the promise of forgiveness of sins and righteousness before God. Well did his parents, then, give to him the name ‘Zaccheus’, a name meaning "righteous".

But despite his status as a covenant child, this Zaccheus wasn’t righteous at all . This son of Abraham chose for himself a career in tax collecting. So good was he in collecting taxes, and so ambitious too, that he was elevated to the post of chief tax collector. For as things were, Jericho was still the border town to Judea, and al1 traders who entered Judea from the east had to travel through Jericho - and pay some sort of an entrance tax; import duty, shall we say.

Now, to be a tax collector, you had to be a certain type of person. The thing was that the law stipulated how much tax each resident and each trader was to pay. It was the task of the tax collector to go out and collect this tax, and then hand it over to the authorities that be for deposit in the Roman treasury. But that left nothing for the tax collector to live from. So it was customary for tax collectors –and the law turned a blind eye to it- to milk the people and the traders of more than the law stipulated, so that there might be an income for themselves. It implied, in other words, that a tax collector had to be ruthless, unfeeling to those to be taxed.

Zaccheus, that son of Abraham with the rich promises, was tax collector, chief tax collector, was even rich. Implied in his wealth is the fact that Zaccheus was a dishonest man, was good at extortion, knew how to defraud. In a word, this son of Abraham lived in total disregard of God’s command not to steal , ignored that summary of the law to love the neighbour as oneself. In Jericho Zaccheus had a reputation of being a "sinner" (vs 7), and that assessment, on the basis of the Word of God, was not at all wrong; Zaccheus lived in blatant sin. And he lived in that sin in no other place than in Jericho, that city that should have been a constant reminder that it is God who fights for His people gives them their needs. Zaccheus, though a son of Abraham, did not understand a thing of what Jericho was all about. Here, indeed, is all the evidence one would wish to have of the influence and dominance of Satan in the Promised Land.

Jesus is on His way to the cross, on His way to that confrontation with Satan, on His way to destroy the kingdom of Satan and establish the kingdom of God. Sovereignly Jesus chose to travel through Jericho, chose to approach Jerusalem through that historic gateway also used by Joshua. But here is now the question: shall Jesus pass through this fortification built on the border of the Promised Land, this fortification so successfully manned by Satan and the unbelievers who follow him? Shall He pass through and do no more? "Jesus entered … Jericho," says our text, entered that fortification built out of unbelief, that fortification inhabited by men of unbelief, that city in which the power and the influence of Satan over all the land was so strong. "Jesus entered … Jericho" to pass through. But, beloved of the Lord, would your Saviour simply pass through the city and do no more?! Or would Jesus do battle with the prince of the realm of darkness who sat enthroned in the gateway to the Promised Land? Shall Jesus be a second Joshua and conquer this entrance to the Promised Land, or shall He not??

3. Jesus Christ (the Master of this snatching)

Here, beloved, is where the gospel of our text appears. Jesus entered the city, and straightaway did battle with Satan. Thousands of people lived in that city, 0 yes, and countless of them were firmly in the grip of the evil one. But one of those who was firmly in the grip of the devil Jesus publicly plucked out of the devil’s grasp. For in the heart of Zaccheus God worked faith. That ruthless little tax collector who had but one obsession in life was moved by the Spirit of Jesus Christ to desire to see the Rabbi from Nazareth. Instead of that plucky character elbowing his way to the front of the crowd and so being caught up by whatever mood the crowd might have, Zaccheus chose a quiet spot above the people from which to observe the Lord more closely; he climbed that sycamore tree.

When Jesus passed under the particular tree in which the curious tax collector was perched, He made a point of looking up and speaking to the man in the tree. For Jesus knew where Zaccheus was, knew what the man’s name was, knew that Zaccheus had a house. This in itself was already a show of heavenly strength in the stronghold of Satan. But a greater show of heavenly strength was still to come; said Jesus: "Zaccheus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." Sovereignly, majestically, Jesus declares that it is necessary for Him to stay, to spend time, in this city of unbelief, to stay specifically at the house of an apostate no less than Zaccheus the chief tax co1lector. You see, congregation: here is an affront to Satan. Satan cannot keep Jesus outside Jericho, Satan cannot bind Jesus in Jericho; Satan must watch helplessly as Jesus sovereignly prepares for Himself a place to stay, as Jesus settles down in the home of His choice.

And here we are to note too Jesus’ word that He must stay at Zaccheus’ place. That’s to say: this is God’s will for Him. Jesus is on His way to the cross, is on His way to confront Satan in that greatest of battles. On His way to that cross it is imperative –says He- imperative for Him to spend time at the house of the sinner Zaccheus. Why? To demonstrate at the entrance of the Promised Land that Satan is not greater than He. So Jesus walks into the house of that hardened sinner Zaccheus, and Satan can do nothing about it. More, He takes that hardened sinner Zaccheus and rescues him from Satan’s clutches, restores Him to God’s side. The evidence that Jesus in fact does snatch this sinner from Satan’s grasp is clear: Jesus works faith in him, gives him a new heart so that he is willing to give half of his wealth to the poor, and pay back fourfold whatever he had defrauded. Here is pointed up to Satan and to all who have eyes to see that the victory belongs to none else than to Jesus Christ.

So it is also, beloved, that Christ’s coming into the house of Zaccheus, working faith in the heart of this one inhabitant of Jericho, boils down –in essence- to a repeat of the destruction of the walls of Jericho in Joshua 6. In as much as the fall of Jericho in the days of the first Joshua foretold the coming destruction of all the Canaanites, so also this fall of one child of Satan from Satan’s hands foreshadowed the coming destruction of Satan and his whole domain. "Today salvation has come to this house," declared Jesus, and so it was indeed. For Zaccheus came to faith in Jesus Christ and so enjoyed forgiveness of sins and righteousness before God; he was now truly Zaccheus, righteous. But salvation came that day in a much fuller sense than only in the conversion of Zaccheus; salvation was guaranteed that day to all the world because Christ entered the stronghold of Satan and bound the strong man so as to release one of his victims – and so He opened for Himself the whole land for victory.

This event in Jericho, then, was also encouragement for Jesus. He came to the gateway of the Promised Land, understood the symbolism of Jericho and the influence of Satan in the city and in the land, and with one word sent the walls of Satan’s kingdom crashing down. What this means for the Christ is that He can now proceed on the way to Jerusalem, the land lies open before Him, and Satan has been demonstrated to be the lesser in the coming struggle. Yes, this second Joshua can go forward with confidence to the battle on Calvary.

And that confidence, beloved of the Lord, was not put to shame. On the cross Jesus Christ engaged in mortal battle with the Enemy of enemies. Satan attacked Him, brought out all the hosts of hell in defence of his satanic kingdom. The principalities, the powers, the world rulers of this present darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places: all were assembled together at Calvary in a desperate bid to stop this Jesus-who-had-taken-Jericho from taking the whole of Satan’s domain. For a while it appeared for all the world that these hosts of darkness were going to triumph, for the Son of God was rejected on the cross; indeed, on top of the hellish fury that Satan and his hordes poured on Jesus, there was wrath from God poured out on Jesus Christ too. Yet the victory foreshadowed in Jericho was perfected on Calvary; Jesus Christ single-handedly bound the evil one and his hosts. And that meant nothing else than that the kingdom of Satan fell in favour of the kingdom of God!

Then it’s true that today Satan still battles on; though conclusively defeated on Calvary, he does not give up. The song of Luther says it so aptly: this world is with devils filled, and they’re all threatening to undo us. Indeed, beloved, make no mistake: the battle today is still real. The naked eye sees Satan making great progress in the world of today.

But whatever one may say of the battle today, brothers and sisters, it is this you may know: Christ has been victorious on Calvary; more, even before He destroyed the kingdom of Satan on the cross, this second Joshua entered the gateway of the Promised Land, and took it.

Here is encouragement for you and me today; it’s only a matter of time before the whole Promised Land lays open before us, only a matter of time before we inherit the New Earth! Amen.