Jericho

 We stopped in Jericho for lunch. Jericho is the world’s oldest continuously occupied city.  Jesus visited Jericho. It was in Jericho that Jesus called Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus was the town’s chief tax collector.  He climbed a tree to see Jesus as Jesus was passing by. Jesus stopped and said to Zacchaeus, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly for today I must stay at your house.”  Zacchaeus came down quickly and received him with joy. (Cf Lk 19:1-10).  “For the Son of Man has come to seek, and to save what was lost”

In the town square is a sycamore fig tree that commemorates the place and the event of Zacchaeus’s conversion.

We actually ate lunch at the same restaurant that I ate lunch in 10 years ago the first time I was on pilgrimage to the holy land.  Here’s a picture of me in front of the Zacchaeus tree and at the restaurant 10 years ago.




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