19
“Zacchaeus, Hurry and Come Down!”
1 Jesus went on into Jericho and was passing through the town
2 when something very surprising happened, having to do with a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a head tax collector, and a rich one at that.
3 He kept trying to get a glimpse of Jesus, but he was just too short to see above the crowd.
4 So running on ahead, he climbed up a sycamore-fig tree to see him, because Jesus was by there just about to pass.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to Zacchaeus, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! For today ˢyour house is where I must stay.”
6 So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Jesus into his home with great joy.
7 When everyone saw this, they began to complain, “How could he accept the hospitality of such a notorious sinner?”
8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “See, half of my possessions, Lord, I am going to give to the poor, and if I’ve obtained anything from anyone through lies and extortion, I’m going to pay him back four times as much.”
9 “Today salvation has come to this home,” Jesus said to him. “For this man, too, is a very descendant of Abraham.
10 The Son of Man is here to find and save the lost, you see.”
“A Certain Man of Noble Rank Traveled to a Distant Country to Be Appointed King”
11 Now as the people were listening to these things, Jesus went on tell them a parable, because he was very near to Jerusalem, and they thought that the Kingdom of God was going to appear right away.
12 Therefore he said, “A certain man of noble rank traveled to a distant country to be appointed king and then return.
13 Before leaving, he summoned ten of his own slaves and entrusted each of them with a silver coin worth a hundred days’ wages. ‘Put these to work and make a profit while I’m gone,’ he told them.
14 The citizens of the country over which the nobleman was to be appointed king, however, hated him and sent a group of representatives after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be king over us.’
15 “When the nobleman returned after being appointed king, he summoned the slaves to whom he had entrusted the silver coins in order to find out how much profit they had made.
16 The first one came and said, ‘Master, your coin has generated a profit ten times what you gave me.’
17 “ ‘Well done, good slave!’ the king said to him. ‘Because you have shown yourself to be so trustworthy in a small matter, I am giving you authority over ten towns.’
18 “Then the second slave came and said, ‘Your coin, master, has made five times more than what you originally gave me.’
19 “The king said to this slave, ‘As for you, five towns are what you are to have charge over.’
20 “Then another slave came and said, ‘Master, here is your coin, which I kept safely tucked away in a piece of cloth.
21 I did this because I was afraid of you, for you are a very harsh and strict man. You are always reaping profits from the hard work of others.’
22 “ ‘It is with your own words that I will condemn you, you wicked slave!’ the king replied. ‘So you knew, did you, that I am “a very harsh and strict man,” “reaping profits from the hard work of others”?
23 Well then, why didn’t you at least put my money in the bank, so that I, upon my return, would have collected it with interest?’
24 The king said, then, to those who were standing nearby, ‘Take the coin from him and give it to the one who made ten times as much.’
25 “ ‘But Lord,’ they replied, ‘he already has ten coins!’
26 “The king said, ‘I tell ᵖyou this: If someone is attentive and trustworthy with little, to him more will be entrusted. If someone is not trustworthy, however, then even the little he does have will be taken away.
27 But as for these enemies of mine who didn’t want me to be king over them—bring them here and strike them down in my presence!’ ”
“ ‘Blessed Is the King Who Comes in the Name of the LORD!’ ”
28 After he had said these things, Jesus traveled on, going up to Jerusalem.
29 As he approached the villages of Bethphage and Bethany near the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples on ahead.
30 “Go into the village ahead of you,” he told them. “As ᵖyou are entering it, you will come upon a tethered donkey colt, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and lead it back here.
31 And if anyone, to ᵖyou, says, ‘Why are ᵖyou untying that colt?’, here is what you are to say: ‘It is the Lord who needs it.’
32 The men who were sent ahead went and found things just as Jesus had told them.
33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are ᵖyou untying our colt?”
34 “It is the Lord who needs it,” the men replied.
35 They led the colt back to Jesus, and after placing their cloaks on it, they helped Jesus get on.
36 As Jesus was riding along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
37 And as he approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the entire throng of his disciples began to praise God joyfully with loud voices because of all the powerful miracles they had seen,
38 shouting, “ ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the LORD!’+ In heaven peace, and glory in the heights!+”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, reprimand your disciples!”
40 Jesus replied, “I tell ᵖyou this: If they keep silent, then the stones themselves will start shouting!”
41 As Jesus approached Jerusalem and laid eyes on the city, he began to weep over it,
42 saying, “If only ˢyou, too, had recognized on this day the things that would bring you peace! Now, however, they will surely be hidden from ˢyour eyes.
43 For the time will come upon ˢyou when your enemies will set up siege works against you and surround you and hem you in on every side
44 and dash you to the ground, you and the people within your walls. Yes, they will leave no two stones standing together, because you didn’t recognize the time of favor when God came to your aid.”
“And My House Will Be a House of Prayer”
45 After entering the temple courts, Jesus began to drive out those who were selling things there,
46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘And my house will be a house of prayer.’+ ᵖYou, however, have turned it into ‘a hideout for thieves’+!”
47 Jesus taught daily in the temple courts. The chief priests and the Torah-experts, meanwhile, were looking for a way to have him put to death—as were the prominent leaders over the people.
48 Yet they couldn’t find a way to do it, because the people, all of them, were hanging onto Jesus’ every word.