Zaccheus Converted

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² And there was a man called Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector [a superintendent to whom others reported], and he was rich. ³ Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, but he could not see ^[a]because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. ⁴ So he ran on ahead [of the crowd] and climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. ⁵ When Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” ⁶ So Zaccheus hurried and came down, and welcomed Jesus with joy. ⁷ When the people saw it, they all began muttering [in discontent], “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a [notorious] sinner.” ⁸ Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “See, Lord, I am [now] giving half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will give back four times as much.”^{(A) 9} Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this household, because he, too, is a [^[b]spiritual] son of Abraham; ¹⁰ for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

¹⁶ I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation [from His wrath and punishment] to everyone who believes [in Christ as Savior], to the Jew first and also to the Greek.