Luke 19:1-10

¹Jesus came into Jericho and made his way through the town. ²Something wonderful happened to a man named Zacchaeus who lived there. He was a chief tax-collector and was rich. (Tax-collectors were a hated group, as they were notorious for extorting more money than was required.)

³Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was but because he was short, he couldn’t see over the crowd that had gathered. ⁴So because Zacchaeus was determined to see Jesus, he ran on ahead and climbed up a sycamore-fig tree to see him, as Jesus was going to pass that way.

⁵When Jesus came to the place just below the tree where Zacchaeus was, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly, because I must stay at your home today.’ ⁶So Zacchaeus immediately climbed down the tree and was delighted to welcome Jesus into his home. Amazingly, Jesus wanted to spend time with him!

⁷However, everyone who saw what had happened began to grumble, ‘Jesus is staying at a sinner’s home.’

⁸But Zacchaeus stood up and declared to the Lord Jesus, ‘Look, Lord! Right now I give half of my possessions to people who are poor. Also, I’ll pay back four times as much to the people I’ve cheated.’

⁹Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house,’ and he said to them, ‘because even this man has trusted in the God of Israel and so is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰I say this because I, the Son of Man, came to search for and save people who are lost.’