Luke 19:1-13 ▼

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

2 And there was a man called Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector [a superintendent to whom others reported], and he was rich.

3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, but he could not see because of the crowd, for he was short in stature.

4 So he ran on ahead [of the crowd] and climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.

5 When Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”

6 So Zaccheus hurried and came down, and welcomed Jesus with joy.

7 When the people saw it, they all began muttering [in discontent], “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a [notorious] sinner.”

8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “See, Lord, I am [now] giving half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will give back four times as much.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this household, because he, too, is a [spiritual] son of Abraham;

10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

11 While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they assumed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately [as soon as He reached the city].

12 So He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to obtain for himself a kingdom, and [then] to return.

13 So he called ten of his servants, and gave them ten minas [one apiece, each equal to about a hundred days’ wages] and said to them, ‘Do business [with this] until I return.’