Zacchaeus: The Crippled Tree-Climber

Chapter 19 of Luke's Gospel tells the story of Jesus's meeting with Zacchaeus, the tax collector who had climbed a sycamore tree in Jericho to overcome his shortness and get a better look at Jesus. What Luke doesn't tell the reader is why Zacchaeus sought redemption and a meeting with Jesus. In Zacchaeus, the Crippled Tree-climber, a story of conflict, tyranny and love in the time of Jesus, Edward Lagnado builds a compelling, involving narrative around the bare frame of Luke's Gospel. We meet Zacchaeus himself and see the world through his eyes, the eyes of an outcast, who belongs neither to mainstream Jewish society nor to that of his Roman masters. We travel with him as his youthful openness fades and is replaced with a mercenary cynicism and we witness the salvation he finds in Jesus.