Verse 2
‘And he was rich.’
These words speak volumes. He had plied his evil trade successfully and had creamed off large amounts of money from the helpless people around. Many were the grudges that would be held against him, and great would be the hatred in which he was held. We can imagine people’s total surprise therefore when later they heard the knock on the door and found a collector of taxes bringing them some money back. In those days that was unheard of.
‘And he was rich.’ In the light of what we have seen before of the teaching of Jesus it is being made clear that he was an unlikely candidate for conversion. He was one of those who would find it hard to enter under the Kingly Rule of God (Luke 18:24). And on top of it he was a traitor, an outcast, and no longer accepted as a son of Abraham. Why, it would require the impossible!
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