The Gospel of St. Luke – the story of Zacchaeus

Jesus went on into Jericho and was passing through. There was a chief tax collector there named Zacchaeus, who was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was a little man and could not see Jesus because of the crowd. So he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to Zacchaeus, “Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay in your house today.”

Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed him with great joy. All the people saw it and started grumbling, “this man has gone as a guest to the house of a sinner!”

At dinner, Zacchaeus stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Listen, sir! I will give half my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back for times as much.’