Zacchaeus meets Jesus

19 Jesus went into Jericho and he was walking through the city. ² There was a man there called Zacchaeus. He was a leader of the men who took taxes from people. He had become very rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was. There was a big crowd there and he was a small man. So he could not see Jesus. ⁴ He ran on in front of the crowd and he climbed up a tree. He could see Jesus more easily from the tree, because Jesus would walk along that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up at Zacchaeus. He said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly. Today I must stay in your home.’

⁶ So Zacchaeus came down immediately and took Jesus into his home. He was very happy about this. ⁷ The people saw what had happened. They were not happy, and they were saying, ‘Jesus has gone to stay in the home of a man that does bad things.’

⁸ Later, Zacchaeus stood up in front of everyone. He said to the Lord Jesus, ‘Listen, Master! I will give half of all the things that I have to poor people. I may have taken too much money from some people. I will give back to them four times as much as I took from them wrongly.’

⁹ Jesus said to him, ‘Today God has saved people in this home. Now Zacchaeus also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ I, the Son of Man, came to look for people who are far away from God. They are in danger and I have come to save them.’

Jesus tells a story about 10 servants

¹¹ While the people were still listening, Jesus told them a story. He did this because the people had wrong thoughts. He was now getting near to Jerusalem. So the people with him were thinking that God would begin to rule his people immediately.

¹² Jesus said to them, ‘An important man left his home and he travelled a long way to another country. There he would receive authority to rule his own country. After that, he would return home and he would be king. ¹³ Before he left, he asked ten of his servants to come to him. He gave each of them ten pounds of silver.^[a] “Use this money to get more money for me while I am away,” he said.^[b]

¹⁴ But the people who were living in his country did not like the man. So they sent some of their people to the foreign country with a message. They said, “We do not want this man to rule over us.”

¹⁵ Then the man returned home and he was now their king. He asked those ten servants to come to him. He had given them each some money. Now he wanted to know how much more money they had now. They should have bought things with it and then they should have sold those things again for more money.

¹⁶ The first servant came to him and said, “Master, your money has made ten more pounds for you.” ¹⁷ The king was happy and said to his servant, “You have done well. You are a good servant that I can trust. You have used a small amount of money well. So now you will rule over ten cities.”

¹⁸ The second servant came and said, “Master, your money has made five more pounds.” ¹⁹ The king replied, “You will rule over five cities.”

²⁰ Then another servant came. He said, “Master, here is your money. I put it away in a piece of cloth to keep it safe. ²¹ I did this because I was afraid of you. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take things that you did not work for. You take food from fields where you did not plant any seed.”

²² The king replied, “You are a very bad servant! I will use your own words to show you that you have done the wrong thing. You say that I tell people what they should do all the time. That I take things that I did not work for. That I take food from fields where I did not plant any seed. Did you know all that about me? ²³ Then you should have put my money into the bank. When I came home, I would have received my money back, with extra money.”

²⁴ Some other servants were standing near to their master. He said to them, “Take the money from this bad servant. Give it to the servant that has ten pounds.” ²⁵ “But, master,” they replied, “that servant has ten pounds already.”

²⁶ “Let me tell you this,” the king said. “Some people have received good things. They will all receive more. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. ²⁷ Now I must punish these other people that did not want me to rule over them. Bring them here and kill them in front of me.” ’^[c]

Jesus goes into Jerusalem

²⁸ When Jesus had said all this, he went on in front of them. He was going towards Jerusalem. ²⁹ He was getting near to two villages called Bethphage and Bethany.^[d] They were on the Mount of Olives.^[e] Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further. ³⁰ He told them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will find a young donkey. Someone has tied it there. Nobody has yet ridden on it. Undo the rope and bring the donkey here to me. ³¹ Someone may ask you, “Why are you taking the donkey?” Then say to them, “The Master needs it.” ’

³² The two men went into the village. They saw everything there that Jesus had told them about. ³³ While they were taking the young donkey, some men spoke to them. It was their own donkey. They asked, ‘Why are you taking the donkey?’ ³⁴ ‘The Master needs it,’ the disciples replied.

³⁵ They brought the donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on its back. Then they helped Jesus to sit on it. ³⁶ While he was riding along, the people were putting their coats down on the road in front of him.

³⁷ Jesus got near to the lowest part of the Mount of Olives. The whole crowd of his disciples were very happy. They began to praise God with loud voices. They thanked him for all the great things that they had seen. ³⁸ They said:

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, stop your disciples from saying these things.’

⁴⁰ ‘Let me tell you this,’ Jesus replied. ‘If these people were quiet, the stones of the city would shout out instead!’

⁴¹ When Jesus got near to the city, he looked at it. He cried because he felt very sorry for the people in it. ⁴² He said, ‘You need to know what would really help you. Then you could have lived without trouble. But now, you are unable to understand properly. ⁴³ As a result, days of trouble will come to you. Your enemies will build a wall round you. They will shut you in completely, and they will not let you leave. ⁴⁴ So your enemies will knock you down. They will completely destroy your city and all the people who live in it. They will not leave even one stone on top of another stone. You did not understand that God had come to save you at this time. That is why these bad things will happen to you.’^[f]

Jesus teaches in the temple

⁴⁵ Jesus went into the yard of the temple. Some people were selling things there. He began to make them all leave that place. ⁴⁶ He said to them, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people come to pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’

⁴⁷ Jesus was teaching every day in the temple. The leaders of the priests and teachers of God's Law wanted to kill him. Some other important people also wanted to kill him. ⁴⁸ But all the people were listening to him very carefully. They wanted to hear everything that he was saying. So those leaders did not know how they could kill him.