Zacchaeus and the Tree

Zacchaeus and the Tree

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus;

he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

He wanted to see who Jesus was,

but being a short man, he could not, because of the crowd.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree

to see Him, since Jesus was coming that way.

Luke 19:1-4

Several years ago, my middle daughter and I were talking about my latest gardening project, and somehow that morphed to Zacchaeus and the sycamore tree. She was pondering how in the world the very short Zacchaeus could have climbed the massively tall sycamore trees that she had seen here in the eastern United States.  How, indeed?

As I looked at the text of this story in Luke 19, I noticed that the NIV Bible calls it a sycamore-fig tree.  I’d never read the “fig” part before; it certainly is not part of the little song I have been singing since childhood.  I decided it was time for some research.  I found that the American sycamore tree is actually a maple tree (The Great Maple).  It is a rapidly growing tree, reaching a mature height of fifty to sixty feet, and is a native of Central Europe, especially the forests of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  This was not the tree that was growing in Jericho.

The tree that Zacchaeus scrambled up in his quest to see Jesus was a Ficus Sycomorus, called a sycamore-fig or a mulberry fig.  This is a very large-branched, thick tree characterized by lower branches that grow close to the ground.  It is much easier to see how the little tax collector of Jericho could have scrambled up this tree and found a nice fat branch to sit on.  His ingenuity brought him face to face with the Master, a moment that changed his life forever.

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Zacchaeus was a wee little man,

And a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree

For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior passed that way

He looked up in that tree.

[ (spoken) And Jesus said, “Zacchaeus, you come down!]

For I’m going to your house today

Yes, I’m going to your house today"