19 ^1-2 As Jesus was passing through Jericho, a man named Zacchaeus, one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax-collecting business (and, of course, a very rich man), ³ tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowds. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed into a sycamore tree beside the road, to watch from there.