Luke 19:1–27 | Repentance, Grace, and Faithful Stewardship

In this episode of Jim Cantelon Today Podcast, Jim Cantelon explores Luke 19:1–27, explaining how repentance is more than admitting we've sinned. It's evidence that God's grace is already at work in our hearts, calling us to new life. Through the stories of Zacchaeus and the Parable of the Ten Minas, discover what it means to respond to God's grace with faithful obedience and wholehearted stewardship.

Jim Cantelon Today Podcast brings trusted, verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Jim Cantelon. Each episode explores God's Word with practical insight, historical context, and a focus on applying biblical truth to everyday life.

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Stacey 0:00

You're listening to Jim Cantelon from Jim Cantelon Today. Today's message comes from Luke 19: 1 -27.

Jim Cantelon 0:09

Just as a wave of reminder, Luke is a remarkable book. Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, and John. I include Acts, because Acts really is one of the Gospels in that it's volume two of Luke. Acts was written by Luke. And the interesting thing about Luke is that he was a Gentile, probably born and raised and trained as a physician in Alexandria, but eventually found himself up a little closer to the action in the Middle East. And somehow met those who followed Jesus. And he was an historian. He was fascinated with this story. And so he began to do what we call primary research. In the process, of course, I think he had become, or had already was before he began, I don't know, a believer. And he writes this history of Jesus in Luke and then in Acts, the history of the impact Jesus had in what we know as the early church. Theologians and historians love his writing. They say it's classical Greek. He was obviously very well educated. And a real historian, you can trust Luke. So we're in chapter 19, and let's read it and then I'll comment. First one of chapter 19 of Luke. 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 because he was short, he couldn't see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree, a kind of a fig tree, to see him. And since Jesus was coming that way. So when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, He's gone to be the guest of a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I'll pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Now, it's an interesting scenario here. Having lived and pastored in Israel, in Jerusalem specifically for seven years, I used to drive through Jericho every week, down from Jerusalem, down through the Judean Hills, down to that very low sea, below the sea level, ancient city, the oldest city in the world. And I used to drive by a few seconds trees, and you know, a lot of Christian tours say they say, now is that the tree? No, it's not the tree. But there are sycamore trees there as you enter Jericho. And it's a kind of an oasis town. There's a spring that is still issuing water along a channel now through Jericho, fresh, clean, cold water. And because of that water, the town grew up around it and the the citrus groves, and it was it's a really a beautiful place. I used to love stopping there to get some fresh squeezed orange juice on my way up the Jordan Valley towards southern Lebanon, where the radio station was, where I used to broadcast a few shifts once a week. Okay, so Jesus is coming down the Jordan Valley. He's on his way to Jerusalem, and he's probably following the easier route on the east side of the Jordan River. If he'd gone directly up to Jerusalem, it's a very arduous climb through all the Judean hills. I mean, they're mountains and deep valleys and very hot and dry and dusty and dangerous. Much better to come along the Jordan Valley, which is what he did. But then when you get to Jericho, you cross over and then you can take the road up to up to Jerusalem. So anyway, he is doing this, and as he comes into Jericho, there's a huge crowd, of course, milling around. I mean, Jesus was like a mobile medical clinic, as far as many people were concerned. Everybody wanted to be healed. And Zacchaeus wanted to see him too, but he's too short. He can't see over the crowd. He's jumping, can't see. Gets an idea. Climb the tree, I'll be able to see him from there. So that's exactly what he does. And as Jesus passes by, he shouts down to Jesus. And you know, so look, look up there. There's look at that guy up in the tree. So Jesus looks up and calls him down with a stunning announcement that he wants to stay that night in his house. And the people say, What? Don't they know that this guy is a notorious tax collector? I mean, he's gouging all of us here in getting taxes for the Romans, and we know that he's gouging us because the Romans want one shekel and he's asking for three shekels, but if we don't give him three shekels, he has the authority of Rome to throw us into jail. We hate this guy. He's got the biggest house in town, he's the richest guy in the whole region. People hated tax collectors, absolutely hated them because they were not only gouging them, but they were also fellow Jews. And what are you doing working with the Romans? The Romans are the occupying force here. You're a you're a traitor, you're betraying the nation. That's how they saw tax collectors. And so the people are shocked, and they're saying to one another, doesn't he know Jesus? No, he's going to be the guest of a sinner? Because that's how tax collectors are seen, sinners. You know, persona non grata was Zacchaeus' status. He was the scum of the earth, in the people's view. And so they're amazed that this son of David would associate with such a man. Zacchaeus, interestingly, without preamble, made this announcement. Lord, look, I am now, as of this moment, giving half of my possessions to the poor. If I've cheated anyone of anything, I'll pay back four times the amount. What's going on here? Obviously, there was something about the presence of Jesus that struck him with his graft and his sin. And immediately he's repenting. And repentance is not confession. Confession is saying, yeah, I did it, often with emotion. Repentance is I'll never do it again. I'm going to turn around and walk in the opposite direction. And then to do so, I'm going to make it right with all the people I've robbed. Whoa. He was, in a sense, a kind of a sort of a poster boy for repentance. You know, both John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, and Jesus preached repentance as the key to entry into the kingdom of God. And in response to Zacchaeus' repentance, which is what it was, right there, Jesus declares him saved. Salvation has come to this house. Because this man too is a son of Abraham. For those who are questioning this remarkable event, Jesus going to this penultimate sinner's home, he reminds them, I didn't come for righteous people. I came for sinners. I came for those who are lost. That's what I've come for. No. This is a vital point, and it needs to be stressed. There's something in all of us that looks at ourselves, knowing full well that we are guilty of all kinds of sins, if not, you know, on the outside, on the inside. And we feel unworthy. We don't deserve God's interest, we don't deserve his love. We've got too many debts to pay morally and spiritually, which in all of our cases is true. I mean, we are all of us, you know, as the book of Job says, born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. We're all sinners, every one of us. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, the Bible tells us. But the Bible is very clear, and Jesus, you know, demonstrated this. It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy that he has saved us. Not by works of righteousness that we have done, and not by works of sinfulness that we have done that we're damned. We all have this sense that we deserve to be rejected, we deserve to be damned, if you will. We deserve to be cast out. There is this word called grace, and there is a wideness in God's grace and in his mercy. And if we have this sense, like the parable Jesus tells on another occasion of the tax collector, like Zacchaeus, praying at the temple, God be merciful to me a sinner. If we have a sense of contrition and admission that we too are sinners, what that tells me is that the grace of God is already working in your life. If the grace of God is not working in your life, you're not going to have contrition, you're not going to want to repent, you're not going to want to live differently. You just want to continue the way you are and keep sinning and looking after number one. But if you have this sense that no, I have done wrong and I need to make things right, what that tells me is God, the Holy Spirit, is beginning to shed grace, if you will, on your soul. The thing to do then is to follow it up. If in fact God's already working in your life, it's not because of your goodness, it's because of your badness. The only thing you can bring to God, any of us, is our sin. But if we have an awareness of that sin, if we have a sense that we should make things right, the Lord is already drawing you to himself. And as Jesus said, nobody comes to the Father except the Father draws him. You're being drawn to him. This is good news. Luke follows this Zacchaeus story up with what I call a warning to the risk averse. And it's about 16 verses here, and I'm gonna take the time to read it because it's very important. Let's pick it up in verse 11 of 19. While they were listening to this, he went on, now, while they were, while the people of Jericho were listening to this interaction between Jesus and Zacchaeus, he went on to tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem, and the people thought the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said, A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king, and then to return. So he called ten of his servants, gave them ten minas. That's just a medium of exchange at that time. Put this money to work, he said, until I come back. But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, We don't want this man to be our king. He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, Sir, your Mina has turned has earned ten more. Well done, my good servant, his master replied. Because you've been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities. Wow. The second came and said, Sir, your Mina has earned five more. His master answered, You take charge of five cities. Then another servant came and said, Sir, here is your Mina. I have laid it away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you're a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow. His master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servants. You knew, did you, that I'm a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not sow. Why then didn't you put my money on deposit so that when I came back I could have collected it with interest? Then he said to those standing by, Take his Mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas. Sir, they said, He already has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me. Now, this is a story, okay? And and Jesus is speaking to a culture that had very harsh rules, very harsh rules of civil law. Stoning, beheading, spearing, you know, common ways of dispatching people. Life was cheap. You know, when my wife Kathy and I and our children lived in Jerusalem for seven years, the first few years we were taking language lessons, and one of the words we earned learned real real quickly was the word meod primitive. Now, meod primithivi means very primitive. Jesus is speaking to a very primitive culture, and so harsh penalties for disobedience on the part of servants often included beheading or spearing or some kind of quick and sudden death. Jesus is not affirming that, he's telling a story that relates to that culture, okay? So don't be shocked by this story. It's a brief parable in terms of its poignant application. It's a story Jesus told predicated on the people's mistaken expectation that the kingdom of God was about to appear. I mean, that was the whole deal. You know, what they would call Jesus son of David, you know, this was a messianic term. And they were already declaring him Messiah because, you know, he's healing people, he's raising people from the dead, he's saying things that no one has ever heard before, and it's radical, and it's new, and it's fresh, and it's challenging, and it's life-changing. And there had been hope for 400 years since the last of the Old Testament prophets. A kind of a burning ember, you know, almost out, but not quite. Little groups of people throughout that area meeting together in synagogues and praying for the coming of Messiah. And so there was this expectation. And then John the Baptist would come along, and a lot of people thought he was the Messiah, but he said, no, no, I'm not I'm not the guy. But the expectation for Messiah was at a fever pitch, and so they have this expectation that Jesus is the one. Now, the fact of the matter is that they were right, but they were way, way ahead of the curve in terms of the outworking of history. But they figured the kingdom of God was about to appear. And what this parable does is it teaches a very blunt lesson, something we all need to hear. The king will arrive in his own time. There is nothing you can do to hasten it, there's nothing you can do to make it easier, there's nothing you can do to make the way straight for his return. And you also have to understand this when you examine that fevered expectation, there's something wrong with your agenda because it's too personal. You have a kind of a political slash religious agenda. You've become a religious nationalist, you've become a triumphalist, and you expect that everything will change when the king of heaven comes, and you'll be a part of the plus side of that change, not the negative side of that change. You know, you see this emerging, friends, in in our modern world. There's all kinds of Christians out there who figure that a nation needs to be entirely Christian, and if that nation becomes entirely Christian, this will somehow bring about the coming of the kingdom. And in that focus, there is a religious nationalism that can emerge. And I'm not pointing my finger at any nation, you you can interpret me as you will. But the fact of the matter is, friends, that it's not our agenda that heaven responds to. So much of the world has yet to hear about Jesus. And we'll see a little later as we go further in Luke, as he talks about, Jesus talks about the end of time, that there is this definite word from Jesus that the time of the Gentiles or the times of the Gentiles must be fulfilled before everything comes to a culminated end. In Matthew, Jesus talks about the whole world being reached with the message before Jesus returns. So, you know, when I was living in Jerusalem, our the church we established, it's called King of Kings today, drew all kinds of people from around the world, a lot of them with kind of prophetic agendas, who figured that being in Israel they could somehow hasten the return of Christ. I remember a couple of organizations being established while we were there, and their their whole reason for being was if we do this, it will hasten Jesus' return. Jesus will have none of that. The king is coming in his own time. Your agenda is irrelevant. So what's he saying with regard to these two productive and one unproductive servants? He's saying invest your lives productively. But if you're afraid of failure, if you find your faith becoming faint in terms of your sense of the presence of the kingdom of heaven, let alone its coming, watch out. Risk averse, the third servant was. Now, you know, when Jesus told these parables, not everyone would have gotten it. In fact, there are other places where he says the whole point of parables is that some people will get it and some people won't. The truth of the parables, usually one truth in each parable, can polarize people, can divide people. And what we need to do when we hear the parable is say, what is the message and how do I apply that message to my life? Well, here's how you apply that message to your life. Anyone fearful of failure in this whole kingdom story will lose. Invest your lives productively and let your light shine. And then let the Lord, in his time, with his agenda, not only see the kingdom totally fulfilled, but see you rewarded as well as a member of that kingdom.

Stacey 21:21

You've been listening to Jim Cantelon from Jim Cantelon Today. This episode first aired on July 5th, 2026, on Jim Cantelon Today.

Jim Cantelon 21:33

Hi, Jim Cantelon here from Jim Cantelon Today. I'm the founder of Working for Orphans and Widows. I'm committed to being the hands and feet of Jesus who are dying and at risk orphans and widows in Africa and India.

Stacey 21:45

To learn more about Jim Cantelon and WOW - Working for Orphans and Widows, visit WOWMission.com.