Zacchaeus meets Jesus
1 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 fig 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 who does bad things.’
8 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 cheated some people. If so, I will give back four times as much money as I took from them.’
9 Jesus said to him, ‘Today God has saved people in this home. Now Zacchaeus also belongs to the true family of Abraham.
