Part 15 (2/2)

But Zacchaeus was determined not to miss seeing Jesus. Running on ahead of the crowd, he climbed a sycamore tree. High above the street, he could look down at Jesus, but there was no reason to think that Jesus would look up at him.

However, when Jesus reached the place where Zacchaeus was hiding in the branches, he stopped, looked up, and saw him. He knew who this man was. Jesus called out:

”Hurry and come down out of that tree, Zacchaeus. I am coming to stay at your house today!”

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Surprised but happy, Zacchaeus scrambled down the tree and led Jesus to his house. The other people also were surprised, but not so happy.

They muttered to themselves, as many people had done before. They said,

”He's gone to be the guest of that miserable, cheating traitor of a taxgatherer!”

But Zacchaeus became a changed man that day. He said to Jesus:

”I am going to give half my money to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody I shall give back four times as much as I took.”

Then Jesus was glad that he had called Zacchaeus down from the tree.

”You have been saved from your sins today, Zacchaeus,” he said.

Jesus was glad that he had found at least one rich man who did not love his money more than he loved G.o.d. Zacchaeus had not been a good man. He was not like the rich young man who had kept all G.o.d's commandments since he was a boy. But when he heard Jesus speak to him, he knew that he had been in the wrong. He was ready to do what he could to show that he knew how he had sinned.

”This is what I came for,” Jesus said, ”to look for sinners like this man and to save them.”

When Jesus got to Jerusalem, it was going to cost him a great deal to help men find a new life. But whatever it might cost him, it would be worth the price.

11. Nearing the City

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Pa.s.sover time had almost come, so Jesus had to be on his way. Jericho was left behind, and Jesus and the disciples pushed across the hills and desert land that lay east of Jerusalem.

This was the country Jesus had crossed the first time he went to the Pa.s.sover feast. That was twenty years ago, when he was a boy of twelve, and Joseph and Mary had taken him to the feast in the great city. The stones were just as hard now as they had been then. The land was as dreary to see as it had ever been, and the desert as dry. And yet there were just as many pilgrims from all parts of Palestine traveling up to Jerusalem, going, as their fathers did before them, to keep the Pa.s.sover in the holy city of the Jews. In a little while a shout would go up, and many a party would burst into song. They would sing:

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”'I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord....

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: They shall prosper that love thee.'”

A few days more, and they would sacrifice their lambs in the Temple.

They would pray G.o.d to be good to the Jews, and to save them from their enemies. A few nights more, and they would sit down to eat the roasted flesh of the lambs at the Pa.s.sover feast; and when they had eaten they would sing:

”'O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever.'”

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