Zacchaeus Meets Jesus

Jesus was passing through the town of Jericho. A grown man named Zacchaeus lived there. He was a chief tax collector and very rich, and people disliked him because he had taken more money than was fair. Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but he was short and the crowd was in the way. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly. I must stay at your house today." Zacchaeus hurried down, delighted. People grumbled, but Zacchaeus' heart changed. He said, "I will give half of what I own to the poor, and pay back four times anyone I have cheated." Jesus said he had come to seek and save the lost.