1. He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
2. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
3. was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature.
4. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.
5. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
6. And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
7. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
8. But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.”
9. And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.
10. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
11. While they were listening to him speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God would appear there immediately.
12. So he said, “A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
13. He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’
14. His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’
15. But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading.
16. The first came forward and said, ‘Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.’
17. He replied, ‘Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.’
18. Then the second came and reported, ‘Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.’
19. And to this servant too he said, ‘You, take charge of five cities.’