Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man named Zacchaeus lived there. He was wealthy and held responsibility among those who collected taxes.
Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was, but he could not see over the crowd because he was short. He ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree beside the route Jesus was taking.
When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and called Zacchaeus by name. He told him to come down quickly, because he had to stay at Zacchaeus’s house that day. Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
People saw this and complained that Jesus had gone in to stay with a sinner. Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said that he would give half of his possessions to the poor. If he had taken anything from anyone unjustly, he said, he would repay it four times over.
Jesus said that salvation had come to that house that day, because Zacchaeus too was a son of Abraham. He said that the Son of Man had come to seek and to save the lost.