Read the Gospels in 40 Days

The calling of Zacchaeus

19 They went into Jericho and passed through. ² There was a man named Zacchaeus, a chief tax-collector, who was very rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a small man, he couldn’t, because of the crowd. ⁴ So he ran on ahead, along the route Jesus was going to take, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him.

⁵ When Jesus came to the place, he looked up. “Zacchaeus,” he said to him, “hurry up and come down. I have to stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried up, came down, and welcomed him with joy.

⁷ Everybody began to murmur when they saw it. “He’s gone in to spend time with a proper old sinner!” they were saying.

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood there and addressed the master.

“Look, Master,” he said, “I’m giving half my property to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I’m giving it back to them four times over.”

⁹ “Today,” said Jesus, “salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ You see, the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The king, the servants and the money

¹¹ While people were listening to this, Jesus went on to tell a parable. They were, after all, getting close to Jerusalem, and they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at any moment.

¹² “There was once a nobleman,” he said, “who went into a country far away to be given royal authority and then return. ¹³ He summoned ten of his slaves and gave them ten silver coins. ‘Do business with these,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ ¹⁴ His subjects, though, hated him, and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

¹⁵ “So it happened that when he received the kingship and came back again, he gave orders to summon the slaves who had received the money, so that he could find out how they had got on with their business efforts. ¹⁶ The first came forward and said, ‘Master, your money has made ten times its value!’

¹⁷ “ ‘Well done, you splendid servant!’ he said. ‘You’ve been trustworthy with something small; now you can take command of ten cities.’

¹⁸ “The second came and said, ‘Master, your money has made five times its value!’

¹⁹ “ ‘You too—you can take charge of five cities.’

²⁰ “The other came and said, ‘Master, here is your money. I kept it wrapped in this handkerchief. ²¹ You see, I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man: you profit where you made no investment, and you harvest what you didn’t sow.’

²² “ ‘I’ll condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked scoundrel of a servant!’ he replied. ‘So: you knew that I was a hard man, profiting where I didn’t invest and harvesting where I didn’t sow? ²³ So why didn’t you put my money with the bankers? Then I’d have had the interest when I got back!’

²⁴ “ ‘Take the money from him,’ he said to the bystanders, ‘and give it to the man who’s made ten of them!’ ²⁵ (‘Master,’ they said to him, ‘he’s got ten coins already!’)

²⁶ “Let me tell you: everyone who has will be given more; but if someone has nothing, even what he has will be taken away from him. ²⁷ But as for these enemies of mine, who didn’t want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in front of me.”

The triumphal entry

²⁸ With these words, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹ As they came close, as near as Bethany and Bethphage, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples on ahead. ³⁰ “Go into the village over there,” he said, “and as you arrive you’ll find a colt tied up, one that nobody has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you should say, ‘Because the master needs it.’ ”

³² The two who were sent went off and found it just as Jesus had said to them. ³³ They untied the colt, and its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴ “Because the master needs it,” they replied.

³⁵ They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and mounted Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he was going along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

³⁷ When he came to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to celebrate and praise God at the tops of their voices for all the powerful deeds they had seen.

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your disciples to stop that.”

⁴⁰ “Let me tell you,” replied Jesus, “if they stayed silent, the stones would be shouting out!”

Jesus cleanses the Temple

⁴¹ When he came near and saw the city, he wept over it.

⁴² “If only you’d known,” he said, “on this day—even you!—what peace meant. But now it’s hidden, and you can’t see it. ⁴³ Yes, the days are coming upon you when your enemies will build up earthworks all round you, and encircle you, and squeeze you in from every direction. ⁴⁴ They will bring you crashing to the ground, you and your children within you. They won’t leave one single stone on another, because you didn’t know the moment when God was visiting you.”

⁴⁵ He went into the Temple and began to throw out the traders.

⁴⁶ “It’s written,” he said, “ ‘My house shall be a house of prayer; but you’ve made it a brigands’ cave.’ ”

⁴⁷ He was teaching every day in the Temple. But the chief priests, the scribes and the leading men of the people were trying to destroy him. ⁴⁸ They couldn’t find any way to do it, because all the people were hanging on his every word.

The question about Jesus’ authority

20 On one of those days, while Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple, and announcing the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up with the elders, and said to him, ² “Tell us: by what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority?”

³ “I’ve got a question for you, too,” said Jesus, “so tell me this: ⁴ was John’s baptism from God, or was it merely human?”

⁵ “If we say it was from God,” they said among themselves, “he’ll say, So why didn’t you believe him? ⁶ But if we say ‘merely human,’ all the people will stone us, since they’re convinced that John was a prophet.”

⁷ So they replied that they didn’t know where John and his baptism came from.

⁸ “Very well, then,” said Jesus. “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

The parable of the tenants

⁹ Jesus began to tell the people this parable. “There was a man who planted a vineyard, let it out to tenant farmers, and went abroad for a long while. ¹⁰ When the time came, he sent a slave to the farmers to collect from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He then sent a further slave, and they beat him, abused him, and sent him back empty-handed. ¹² Then he sent yet a third, and they beat him up and threw him out.

¹³ “So the master of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I’ll send my beloved son. They will certainly respect him!’ ¹⁴ But when the farmers saw him they said to each other, ‘This is the heir! Let’s kill him, and then the inheritance will belong to us!’ ¹⁵ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“So what will the master of the vineyard do? ¹⁶ He will come and wipe out those farmers, and give the vineyard to others.”

When they heard this, they said, “God forbid!” ¹⁷ But Jesus looked round at them and said, “What then does it mean in the Bible when it says,

¹⁸ “Everyone who falls on that stone will be smashed to smithereens; but if it falls on anyone, it will crush them.”

¹⁹ The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him then and there. But they were afraid of the people, because they knew that Jesus had told this parable against them.

On paying taxes to Caesar

²⁰ So the authorities watched Jesus, and sent people to lie in wait for him. They pretended to be upright folk, but were trying to trap him in something he said, so that they could hand him over to the rule and authority of the governor. ²¹ So they asked him this question.

“Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach with integrity. You are completely impartial, and you teach God’s way and God’s truth. ²² So: is it right for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”

²³ Jesus knew they were playing a trick.

²⁴ “Show me a tribute-coin,” he said. “This image . . . and this inscription . . . who do they belong to?”

“Caesar,” they said.

²⁵ “Well, then,” replied Jesus, “you’d better give Caesar back what belongs to him! And give God back what belongs to him.”

²⁶ They couldn’t catch him in anything he said in front of the people. They were amazed at his answer, and had nothing more to say.

Marriage and the resurrection

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees came to Jesus to put their question. (The Sadducees deny that there is any resurrection.)

²⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, leaving a widow but no children, the man should marry the widow and raise up a family for his brother.’ ²⁹ Well, now: there were seven brothers; the eldest married a wife, and died without children. ³⁰ The second ³¹ and the third married her, and then each of the seven, and they died without children. ³² Finally the woman died as well. ³³ So, in the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be? The seven all had her as their wife.”

³⁴ “The children of this age,” replied Jesus, “marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are counted worthy of a place in the age to come, and of the resurrection of the dead, don’t marry, and they are not given in marriage. ³⁶ This is because they can no longer die; they are the equivalent of angels. They are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection.

³⁷ “But when it comes to the dead being raised, Moses too declares it, in the passage about the burning bush, where scripture describes the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ God is God, not of the dead, but of the living. They are all alive to him.”

³⁹ “That was well said, Teacher,” commented some of the scribes, ⁴⁰ since they no longer dared ask him anything else.

David’s son and the widow’s mite

⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “How can people say that the Messiah is the son of David? ⁴² David himself says, in the book of Psalms,

⁴⁴ “David, you see, calls him ‘Lord’; so how can he be his son?”

⁴⁵ As all the people listened to him, he said to the disciples, ⁴⁶ “Watch out for the scribes who like to go about in long robes, and enjoy being greeted in the market-place, sitting in the best seats in the synagogues, and taking the top table at dinners. ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses, and make long prayers without meaning them. Their judgment will be all the more severe.”