Third passover until Jesus' arrival at Bethany
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Zacchaeus
Jesus entered into Jericho and began to pass through the city. There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was very rich.
He wanted to see Jesus, but he could not because of the crowds and because he was a very short man.
So Zacchaeus ran and climbed a sycamore tree in order to get a glimpse of Jesus.
Jesus passed right under the tree that Zacchaeus was in and looked up. Then Jesus said:
Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down here, for today I am going to stay in your home.
Zacchaeus quickly slid down the tree and made preparations to receive Jesus into his home. And he did it with joy in his heart.
When the crowds heard and saw what Jesus was doing, they murmured, saying:
He is going to stay with a man who is a sinner.
And Zacchaeus stood and said to Jesus:
Behold, Lord, half my goods I am going to give to the poor, and if I have cheated any man, I will restore fourfold.
Jesus said to him:
Today salvation has come to your house. For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
There was a great expectancy among the crowds that the kingdom of God was about to immediately appear.
As Jesus came close to entering Jerusalem he told them this parable:
A nobleman went to a far country to take over a kingdom, and then to return. He called ten of his servants and gave them one hundred dollars each and told them to do business with the money until he returned.
The citizens of the town he was going to rule sent an ambassador to him saying:
We do not want you to rule over us.
And after he ruled the kingdom, he came back and commanded that the ten servants he had given the on hundred dollars to should give an account for the money they had been entrusted with.
The first came and said:
I turned your one hundred into one thousand dollars.
And the nobleman said:
Well done, you are a good servant, because you were found faithful with very little, you will now have authority over ten cities.
The second came and said:
I turned your one hundred dollars into five hundred dollars.
And the nobleman said:
Well done well, you will rule over five cities.
Another servant came and said Lord:
Here is your one hundred dollars. I kept it safely in a napkin. For I feared you because you are a very austere man.
You take up what you have not laid down, and you reap where you have not sown.
The nobleman said to him:
Out of your own mouth you judge yourself. You knew that I was an austere man, taking up things that I had not laid down and reaping where I did not sow.
Why didn’t you put the one hundred dollars in the bank where it would at least draw some interest?
And he told his guards to take away the one hundred dollars from the wicked servant and give it to the good servant who had earned one thousand dollars.
And then he said to them:
Everyone who makes use of what has been given to them, they will increase.
But those who do nothing with what they have been given, even the little they have been given will be taken away.
Then he called for the enemies who sent an ambassador, to say that they did not want him to rule over them, to be brought forward and killed in front of him.
And after Jesus had told this parable he began leading the crowd up to Jerusalem.