Jesus and Zacchaeus
1Jesus went to the city of Jericho and He walked through the city. 2There was a man living there. His name was Zacchaeus. He was the leader of the tax-collectors and he was a rich man. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was. But there were too many people and Zacchaeus could not see Jesus, because Zacchaeus was a short man. 4Then Zacchaeus went further down the road and he climbed into a wildfig tree so that he could see Jesus when He walked past the tree. 5When Jesus came to the tree, He looked up and He said to Zacchaeus: ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly. I must stay at your house today.’
6Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and he welcomed Jesus into his house. Zacchaeus was happy that Jesus wanted to stay in his house. 7But all the people who saw this were unhappy. They said: ‘Jesus is going to the house of a man who is full of sin and He is going to stay there. That is not good.’
8Zacchaeus got up and he said to Jesus: ‘Lord, I promise I will give half of everything that I have to the poor people. And if I have taken too much money from a person, I will give him back 4 times more.’
9Jesus said to Zacchaeus: ‘Today God has saved you and your family. You are a true son of Abraham. 10I, the Son of man, have come to look for people who are lost and to save them.’
The parable of the 10 servants and the money
11Jesus also told a parable to the people who listened to Him. He told them this parable because He was near Jerusalem and some people thought that when Jesus came into Jerusalem, everyone would immediately know and accept that God is King. But Jesus wanted to show them that they were wrong. 12He said:
‘An important man went to a far land where the people would make him king. 13Before he went he called 10 of his servants and he gave them each one mina and said: “You must buy and sell and make more money until I come back.”
14But a lot of the people did not like the man and they sent messengers to him and told him: “We don't want you to be our king and rule over us.”
15But he went and became king and then he came back. He called the 10 servants who got the money and he asked them what they had done with the money. He wanted to know what they had bought and what they had sold.
16The first servant came and said: “Sir, you gave me one mina. Here are 10 more minas that I have worked for.” 17The king said to him: “That is good. You are a good servant. I will now give you 10 towns so that you can rule over them because you have worked well with the little money that I gave you.”
18The 2nd servant came and he said: “Sir, you gave me one mina. Here are 5 more minas that I have worked for.” 19The king also said to this servant: “I will give you 5 towns so that you can rule over them.”
20One servant came and said to the king: “Sir, here is the one mina that you gave me. I put it away in a cloth and I kept it. 21I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take things that you did not work for and you harvest wheat where you did not sow any seeds.” 22The king said to him: “You are a bad servant. You said yourself that you are guilty and that I must punish you. You knew I was a hard man and I harvested where I did not sow. 23Why didn't you put my money in the bank? Then when I came home, the bank would have given me more money.”
24Then the king said to his officials: “Take the mina from him and give it to the servant who has 10 minas.” 25The officials said to him: “Sir, he already has 10 minas.”
26But the king said: “I tell you: I will give more to everyone who has something, but if a person has nothing, I will take away the little that he has. 27And bring those enemies who did not want me to be their king. You must kill them here in front of me.” ’
Jesus rides on a donkey into Jerusalem
28After Jesus had said this, He continued on his way to Jerusalem. 29When they came near the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount_of_Olives, Jesus sent 2 of his disciples 30and He told them: ‘Go into this town and when you go, you will see a donkey that is tied. No one has ever taken that donkey to ride on before. Untie the donkey and bring it here. 31When someone asks you why you have taken the donkey, you must say: “The Lord wants to use it.” ’
32The 2 disciples went and everything happened as Jesus had told them. 33When they untied the donkey, its owners asked the disciples: ‘Why do you untie the donkey?’ 34The disciples said: ‘The Lord wants to use it.’
35The disciples took the donkey to Jesus and they took off their clothes and put them on the donkey. Jesus sat on the donkey 36and He rode on the donkey and the people took off their clothes and put them on the road for Jesus to ride on. 37When Jesus came near Jerusalem on the road that goes down from the Mount_of_Olives, all the people who walked with Him were very happy. They started to shout_loudly and they praised God because of all the miracles that they had seen. 38They shouted:
‘Praise the Man that has come. He is the King.
There is peace in heaven.
God in the highest heaven is King.’
39Some of the Pharisees who were there said to Jesus: ‘Teacher, you must tell your disciples to stop saying this. It is wrong to say these things.’ 40But Jesus said to them: ‘I tell you: If they do not say it, then the stones will shout_out_loudly and they will say it.’
41When Jesus came near Jerusalem, He looked at the city and He started to cry. 42He said: ‘People of Jerusalem, why don't you understand what it is that will bring peace to you? You do not want to open your eyes and see it. 43I cry for you, because there will come a time when your enemies will build ramps around your walls and they will attack you. Their soldiers will surround you and you will not be able to go out of the city. 44Your enemies will destroy the city and they will kill all of you. They will destroy everything. Not one stone will stay in its place. Because the time has come when God wanted to save you, but you did not understand it.’
Jesus chases away people from the temple-ground
45Jesus went to the temple-ground and He chased out all the people who were selling or buying things there. 46Jesus said: ‘In the Old_Testament God said:
“My house must be a place where people pray.”
But you have changed it. It is now a place where thieves come together.’
47Jesus taught the people in the temple every day. The chief_priests, the teachers_of_the_Laws and the leaders_of_the_Jews made plans to kill Jesus 48but they did not know how they could do it because all the people wanted to listen to Jesus.
