Zacchaeus

19 Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. ² In Jericho there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a wealthy, very important tax collector. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was too short to see above the crowd. ⁴ He ran ahead to a place where he knew Jesus would come. He climbed a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus. ⁵ When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and saw Zacchaeus in the tree. He said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus came down quickly. He was pleased to have Jesus in his house. ⁷ All the people saw this and began to complain, “Look at the kind of man Jesus stays with. Zacchaeus is a sinner!”

⁸ But Zacchaeus said to the Lord, “I will give half of my money to the poor. If I have cheated anyone, I will pay that person back four times more!”

⁹ Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today. This man truly belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”

A Story About Three Servants

¹¹ Jesus traveled closer to Jerusalem. Some of the people thought that God’s kingdom would appear soon. ¹² Jesus knew that the people thought this, so he told them this story: “A very important man was preparing to go to a country far away to be made a king. Then he planned to return home and rule his people. ¹³ So the man called ten of his servants together. He gave a bag of money^[a] to each servant. He said, ‘Do business with this money till I get back.’ ¹⁴ But the people in the kingdom hated the man. So they sent a group to follow him and say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king!’

¹⁵ “But the man became king. When he came home, he said, ‘Call those servants who have my money. I want to know how much they earned with it.’

¹⁶ “The first servant came and said, ‘Sir, I earned ten bags of money with the one bag you gave me!’ ¹⁷ The king said to the servant, ‘Fine! You are a good servant. I see that I can trust you with small things. So now I will let you rule over ten of my cities.’

¹⁸ “The second servant said, ‘Sir, with your one bag of money I earned five bags!’ ¹⁹ The king said to this servant, ‘You can rule over five cities.’

²⁰ “Then another servant came in. The servant said to the king, ‘Sir, here is your bag of money. I wrapped it in a piece of cloth and hid it. ²¹ I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You even take money that you didn’t earn and gather food that you didn’t plant.’ ²² Then the king said to the servant, ‘You evil servant! I will use your own words to condemn you. You said that I am a hard man. You said that I even take money that I didn’t earn and gather food that I didn’t plant. ²³ If that is true, then you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came back, my money would have earned some interest.’

²⁴ “Then the king said to the men who were watching, ‘Take the bag of money away from this servant and give it to the servant who earned ten bags of money.’ ²⁵ They said to the king, ‘But sir, that servant already has ten bags of money!’ ²⁶ The king said, ‘The one who uses what he has will get more. But the one who does not use what he has will have everything taken away from him. ²⁷ Now where are my enemies who didn’t want me to be king? Bring them here and kill them before me.’”

Jesus Enters Jerusalem as a King

²⁸ After Jesus said this, he went on toward Jerusalem. ²⁹ Jesus came near Bethphage and Bethany, towns near the hill called the Mount of Olives. Then he sent out two of his followers. ³⁰ He said, “Go into the town you can see there. When you enter it, you will find a colt tied there. No one has ever ridden this colt. Untie it, and bring it here to me. ³¹ If anyone asks you why you are taking it, say, ‘The Master needs it.’”

³² The two followers went into town. They found the colt just as Jesus told them. ³³ The followers untied it, but the owners of the colt came out. They asked the followers, “Why are you untying our colt?”

³⁴ The followers answered, “The Master needs it.” ³⁵ So they brought it to Jesus. They threw their coats on the colt’s back and put Jesus on it. ³⁶ As Jesus rode toward Jerusalem, the followers spread their coats on the road before him.

³⁷ Jesus was coming close to Jerusalem. He was already near the bottom of the Mount of Olives. The whole crowd of followers was very happy. They began shouting praise to God for all the powerful works they had seen. They said,

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your followers not to say these things!”

⁴⁰ But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if my followers don’t say these things, then the stones will cry out.”

Jesus Cries for Jerusalem

⁴¹ Jesus came near Jerusalem. He saw the city and began to cry for it. ⁴² Jesus said to Jerusalem, “I wish you knew today what would bring you peace! But you can’t know it, because it is hidden from you. ⁴³ A time is coming when your enemies will build a wall around you and will hold you in on all sides. ⁴⁴ They will destroy you and all your people. Not one stone of your buildings will be left on another. All this will happen because you did not know the time when God came to save you.”

Jesus Goes to the Temple

⁴⁵ Jesus went into the Temple. He began to throw out the people who were selling things there. ⁴⁶ He said, “It is written in the Scriptures, ‘My Temple will be a house where people will pray.’^[b] But you have changed it into a ‘hideout for robbers’!”^[c]

⁴⁷ Jesus taught in the Temple every day. The leading priests, the teachers of the law, and some of the leaders of the people wanted to kill Jesus. ⁴⁸ But all the people were listening closely to him and were interested in all the things he said. So the leading priests, the teachers of the law, and the leaders did not know how they could kill him.