Chapter 21: Dining with Jesus
The Romans conquered Jerusalem and forced the Jews to pay taxes to them. The Romans hired Jews to be the tax collectors, called publicans, and paid them well. The Jews despised their fellow countrymen who worked for the Romans. Levi was a tax collector. One day he prepared “a great feast in his own house” for “a great company of publicans” and invited Jesus to join them, which He did. The scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus, asking: Why does he “eat and drink with publicans and sinners” ( Luke 5:29-30 )? Jesus dined with those who invited Him. Zacchaeus was also a publican, the chief publican in the town of Jericho. He was rich and he was short. When Zacchaeus heard that Jesus had come to Jericho, he wanted to see Him as did many others. Zacchaeus could not see over the crowd, so he ran ahead and climbed a tree. “When Jesus came to the place, he looked up, ...