A Tale of Two Rich Men

 

Text: Luke 18:18-27, 19:1-10 

Most Bible readers are familiar with “the rich young ruler” and Zacchaeus, but I’ve never seen or heard them compared (kudos to those who have—the body of Christ is BIG...and so is the body of literature!). While reading through the gospel of Luke lately, I noticed some striking similarities and differences between these two men, as well as the juxtaposition of their encounters with Christ in Luke 18 and 19. Some of them are found in the table below.

 

	Rich Young Ruler (RYR)	Zacchaeus
Name given?	No	Yes
Times the gospels mention him	3 (Mt. 19:16-24; Mk. 10:17-25; Lk. 18:18-27)	1 (Lk. 19:1-10)
Physical description	young man (Mt. 19:20, 22)	little of stature (Lk. 19:3)
Ruler?	Yes (Luke 18:18)	Chief among the publicans (Lk. 19:1)
Rich?	Very (Lk. 18:23)	Yes (Lk. 19:1)
Runs?	Yes—to meet Jesus (Mk. 10:17)	Yes—ahead of the crowd to see Jesus (Lk. 19:3-4)
Other physical actions	Knelt before Jesus (Mk. 10:17); showed visible sorrow (Lk. 19:23-24)	Climbed a tree (v. 4), came down (v. 6), stood before the Lord (v. 8)
Jesus shows him affection	Yes (Mk. 10:21)	Yes (Lk. 19:5)
Saved?	No (Lk. 18:26)	Yes (Lk. 19:9-10)
Describes his personal righteousness (level of obedience to the law) to Jesus	Yes (Lk. 18:21) [affirms Jesus’ description]	Yes (Lk. 19:8)
Willing to give possessions to the poor	No (Lk. 18:22)	Yes (Lk. 19:8)

I think that the last comparison is the most critical, since the RYR’s refusal to give to the poor excludes him from salvation under the law. The setting here is before the cross and the revelation of both the gospel of grace (Eph. 2:8-9) and the one-body mystery (Eph. 3:1-6), so works are required to prove the validity of a saint’s faith (James 2:22-24), which is NOT the case today (Eph. 2:8-9, 2 Tim. 1:9, Titus 3:5). 

But the Lord probes even deeper than outward obedience to show what both men loved and trusted in (Mk. 10:24). For the nameless RYR, who remains unknown to Christ, it was his great possessions (Mt. 19:22, Mk. 10:22), which he ultimately allows to possess him. But Zacchaeus, in describing his personal righteousness to Jesus, cuts right to the chase: Lord, I don’t love money (Lk. 19:8). Christ is satisfied with his explanation and asserts his salvation as a “son of (faithful) Abraham” (Lk. 19:9-10)! In giving up his riches, Zacchaeus could say, like the heroic Sydney Carton in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”