Luke 19:1-28

1Jesus went into Jericho and he was walking through the city.

2There was a man there called Zacchaeus. He was a leader of the men who took taxes from people. He had become very rich.

3He was trying to see who Jesus was. There was a big crowd there and he was a small man. So he could not see Jesus.

4He ran on in front of the crowd and he climbed up a tree. He could see Jesus more easily from the tree, because Jesus would walk along that way.

5When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up at Zacchaeus. He said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly. Today I must stay in your home.’

6So Zacchaeus came down immediately and took Jesus into his home. He was very happy about this.

7The people saw what had happened. They were not happy, and they were saying, ‘Jesus has gone to stay in the home of a man that does bad things.’

8Later, Zacchaeus stood up in front of everyone. He said to the Lord Jesus, ‘Listen, Master! I will give half of all the things that I have to poor people. I may have taken too much money from some people. I will give back to them four times as much as I took from them wrongly.’

9Jesus said to him, ‘Today God has saved people in this home. Now Zacchaeus also belongs to the family of Abraham.

10I, the Son of Man, came to look for people who are far away from God. They are in danger and I have come to save them.’

11While the people were still listening, Jesus told them a story. He did this because the people had wrong thoughts. He was now getting near to Jerusalem. So the people with him were thinking that God would begin to rule his people immediately.

12Jesus said to them, ‘An important man left his home and he travelled a long way to another country. There he would receive authority to rule his own country. After that, he would return home and he would be king.

13Before he left, he asked ten of his servants to come to him. He gave each of them ten pounds of silver. “Use this money to get more money for me while I am away,” he said.

14But the people who were living in his country did not like the man. So they sent some of their people to the foreign country with a message. They said, “We do not want this man to rule over us.”

15Then the man returned home and he was now their king. He asked those ten servants to come to him. He had given them each some money. Now he wanted to know how much more money they had now. They should have bought things with it and then they should have sold those things again for more money.

16The first servant came to him and said, “Master, your money has made ten more pounds for you.”

17The king was happy and said to his servant, “You have done well. You are a good servant that I can trust. You have used a small amount of money well. So now you will rule over ten cities.”

18The second servant came and said, “Master, your money has made five more pounds.”

19The king replied, “You will rule over five cities.”

20Then another servant came. He said, “Master, here is your money. I put it away in a piece of cloth to keep it safe.

21I did this because I was afraid of you. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take things that you did not work for. You take food from fields where you did not plant any seed.”

22The king replied, “You are a very bad servant! I will use your own words to show you that you have done the wrong thing. You say that I tell people what they should do all the time. That I take things that I did not work for. That I take food from fields where I did not plant any seed. Did you know all that about me?

23Then you should have put my money into the bank. When I came home, I would have received my money back, with extra money.”

24Some other servants were standing near to their master. He said to them, “Take the money from this bad servant. Give it to the servant that has ten pounds.”

25“But, master,” they replied, “that servant has ten pounds already.”

26“Let me tell you this,” the king said. “Some people have received good things. They will all receive more. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have.

27Now I must punish these other people that did not want me to rule over them. Bring them here and kill them in front of me.” ’

28When Jesus had said all this, he went on in front of them. He was going towards Jerusalem.