Maybe in the simplest of terms. More accurately, we should consider where his wealth come from - loaning sharking, extortion, theft perhaps. The point is, the love of money consumed him, and he likely cared little what he had to do to acquire it.
More importantly, Zacchaeus realized his sins, repented before others, then asked and received forgiveness.
Mr. Bowyer, our Forbes "Contributor", like many, seem to have a difficult time separating wheat from tares, so to speak. His God and savior appears to be accumulation of wealth, and he seems to resent teaching that God expects us to help those less fortunate - as mentioned many times in scripture.
Jesus told his disciples, "I tell all of you with certainty, it will be hard for a rich person to get into the kingdom from heaven.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
I would even go so far as to say, until we know more about Pope Francis, Mr. Bowyer is bearing false witness; but likely true ignorance.
“loaning sharking, extortion, theft perhaps. The point is, the love of money consumed him, and he likely cared little what he had to do to acquire it”
Like the new Pope, you take literary license with scripture and instead of accepting the plain text of the scripture you feel free to speculate on the ways Zacchaeus the tax collector made money, though evidence in scripture or elsewhere is lacking.
“The point is, the love of money consumed him, and he likely cared little what he had to do to acquire it”
No evidence that “the love of money CONSUMED him”. His job was collecting taxes imposed by Herod and Rome. Your slander is no different than the “dirty Jew” libel leveled at the Jews that the feudal lords in Europe appointed to collect their taxes because the Jew was a non-citizen with zero social or legal standing and could not, unlike many local citizens, convert a position of privilege into a position of power.
That is the same kind of libel against mere wealth that arrives in a misunderstanding of the problem a “rich person” has, in getting to the kingdom of heaven.
It is NOT his wealth, it is NOT how much wealth he has, it is NOT being successful and becoming wealthy by that success.
The problem for the “rich person” is the temptations it provides, the tempation to give into lusts, because he can afford it; the temptation to try to buy love, because he can afford it; the temptation to try to buy his way out of a crime, because he can bribe the officials; the temptation to use his wealth as a form of power to deny someone what is rightfully theirs; and many other temptations that become easier to give into, with enough wealth.
The “rich person” has the moral danger of thinking he can afford to “sin” in many ways and get away with it, because wealth, just like any form of power comes with the temptation to abuse what it can do.
That, not the “rich persons” wealth is the “rich persons” delimna, what makes life morally perilous for them, why it is, with all the temptation they have available, navigating life on the straight and narrow moral path is harder.
“Mr. Bowyer, our Forbes “Contributor”, like many, seem to have a difficult time separating wheat from tares, so to speak. His God and savior appears to be accumulation of wealth, and he seems to resent teaching that God expects us to help those less fortunate”
a position/argument without evidence