LukeChapter 19

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¹Then Jesus came into Jericho and was passing through the town. ²A man named Zacchaeus lived there. He was a chief tax collector, and he was very rich. ³He was trying to see who Jesus was. But he was a short man, and he couldn't see over the crowd. ⁴So he ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him. Jesus was about to come that way. ⁵When Jesus reached that spot, he looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today." ⁶So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Jesus with joy. ⁷Everyone who saw this began to grumble. "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner!" they said. ⁸But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! I'm giving half of everything I own to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay them back four times as much." ⁹Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man is a son of Abraham too. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to look for the lost and to save them." ¹¹The people were listening to this. So Jesus went on to tell them a story. He did this because he was near Jerusalem, and they thought the kingdom of God was about to appear right away. ¹²He said, "A man from a noble family went to a faraway country. He went there to be made king and then come back. ¹³Before he left, he called ten of his servants. He gave them ten minas. 'Do business with this money until I come back,' he told them.a ¹⁴But the people of his land hated him. They sent a group of messengers after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.' ¹⁵He was made king, and then he came back. He sent for the servants he had given the money to. He wanted to find out what each one had earned. ¹⁶The first servant came and said, 'Master, your mina has earned ten more minas.' ¹⁷His master said, 'Well done, good servant! You have been faithful with a very small thing. So you will be in charge of ten cities.' ¹⁸The second servant came and said, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.' ¹⁹The master said to this one, 'You will be in charge of five cities.' ²⁰Then another servant came and said, 'Master, here is your mina. I kept it put away in a piece of cloth. ²¹I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you didn't put in. You harvest what you didn't plant.' ²²His master said, 'You wicked servant! I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I'm a hard man? You knew I take out what I didn't put in and harvest what I didn't plant? ²³Then why didn't you put my money in the bank? Then when I came back, I could have gotten it back with interest.' ²⁴Then he said to the people standing nearby, 'Take the mina away from him. Give it to the servant who has ten minas.' ²⁵'Master,' they said, 'he already has ten!' ²⁶He answered, 'I tell you, everyone who has something will be given more. But the one who has nothing will lose even what he has. ²⁷And bring here these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their king. Kill them in front of me.'" ²⁸After Jesus said this, he went on ahead of them, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹He came near Bethphage and Bethany, at the hill called the Mount of Olives. Then he sent out two of his disciples. ³⁰He said, "Go into the village ahead of you. As you go in, you will find a young donkey tied there. No one has ever ridden it. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.'" ³²So the two who were sent went off. They found everything just as Jesus had told them. ³³As they were untying the young donkey, its owners asked, "Why are you untying the donkey?" ³⁴They answered, "The Lord needs it." ³⁵Then they brought the donkey to Jesus. They threw their cloaks over it and put Jesus on it. ³⁶As he rode along, people spread their cloaks on the road. ³⁷He came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives. Then the whole crowd of his disciples began to praise God with joy. They praised him with loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. ³⁸"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!" ³⁹But some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell your disciples to stop!" ⁴⁰"I tell you," he answered, "if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will shout out." ⁴¹Jesus came near Jerusalem. When he saw the city, he cried over it. ⁴²He said, "If only you had known today what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³The days are coming when your enemies will build walls against you. They will surround you and close you in on every side. ⁴⁴They will knock you flat to the ground, you and the children inside your walls. They won't leave one stone on top of another. This will happen because you didn't see that God had come to visit you." ⁴⁵Then Jesus went into the temple courts. He began to drive out the people who were selling things there. ⁴⁶He said to them, "It is written, 'My house will be a house of prayer.' But you have made it 'a hideout for robbers.'" ⁴⁷Every day Jesus was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people were trying to kill him. ⁴⁸Still, they couldn't find a way to do it, because all the people were listening closely to every word he said.