Young Child, Wealthy Elite, Despised Tax Collector

Status Reversals on the Approach to Jerusalem (Luke 18:15-19:10)

Abstract

Reversals of status and position figure prominently in the Gospel of Luke. This feature of Jesus’ mission poses a challenge to individuals outside the disciple group, and it also shapes the peculiar character of the community of disciples. This essay explores the role of status inversion in three episodes as Jesus approaches Jerusalem at the close of his public ministry: the embrace of young children as exemplars of God’s realm (18:15–17); an exchange with a wealthy elite man, in which disciples are also interlocutors (18:18–30); and an encounter with the chief tax collector Zacchaeus (19:1–10).