Luke 19 - Easy To Read Version

¹ Jesus was going through the city of Jericho.

² In Jericho there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a wealthy, very important tax collector. {\cf2\super [297]}

³ He wanted to see who Jesus was. There were many other people that wanted to see Jesus too. Zacchaeus was too short to see above the people.

⁴ So he ran to a place where he knew Jesus would come. Then Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus.

⁵ When Jesus came to that place, Jesus looked up and saw Zacchaeus in the tree. Jesus said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry! Come down! I must stay at your house today.”

⁶ Then Zacchaeus came down quickly. He was happy to have Jesus in his house.

⁷ All the people saw this. They began to complain, “Look at the kind of man Jesus stays with. Zacchaeus is a sinner!”

⁸ Zacchaeus said to the Lord (Jesus), “I want to do good. I will give half of my money to the poor. If I have cheated any person, I will pay that person back four times more!”

⁹ Jesus said, “Today is the day for this family to be saved from sin. Yes, even this tax collector is one of God’s chosen people {\cf2\super [298]} !

¹⁰ The Son of Man {\cf2\super [299]} came to find lost people and save them.”

¹¹ Jesus traveled closer to Jerusalem. Some of the people thought that God’s kingdom would come soon.

¹² Jesus knew the people thought this, so he told them this story: “A very important man was preparing to go to a country far away to be made a king. Then the man planned to return home and rule his people.

¹³ So he called ten of his servants together. He gave a bag of money {\cf2\super [300]} to each servant. The man said, ‘Do business with this money until I come back.’

¹⁴ But the people in the kingdom hated the man. So the people sent a group to follow the man to the other country. In the other country, this group said, ‘We don’t want that man to be our king!’

¹⁵ “But the man became king. When he came home, he said, ‘Call those servants that have my money. I want to know how much more money they earned with it.’

¹⁶ The first servant came and said, ‘Sir, I earned ten bags of money {\cf2\super [301]} with the one bag you gave me!’

¹⁷ The king said to the servant, ‘Fine! You are a good servant. I see that I can trust you with small things. So now I will let you rule over ten of my cities!’

¹⁸ The second servant said, ‘Sir, with your one bag of money I earned five bags!’

¹⁹ The king said to this servant, ‘You can rule over five cities!’

²⁰ Then another servant came in. The servant said to the king, ‘Sir, here is your bag of money. I wrapped it in a piece of cloth and hid it.

²¹ I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You even take money that you didn’t earn and gather food that you didn’t grow!’

²² Then the king said to the servant, ‘You bad servant! I will use your own words to condemn you. You said that I am a hard man. You said that I even take money that I didn’t earn and gather food that I didn’t grow.

²³ If that is true, you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came back, my money would have earned some interest.’

²⁴ Then the king said to the men that were watching, ‘Take the bag of money away from this servant and give it to the servant that earned ten bags of money.’

²⁵ The men said to the king, ‘But sir, that servant already has ten bags of money!’

²⁶ The king said, ‘The person that uses what he has will get more. But the person that does not use what he has will have everything taken away from him.

²⁷ Now where are my enemies? Where are the people that did not want me to be king? Bring my enemies here and kill them. I will watch them die!’”

²⁸ After Jesus said these things, he continued traveling toward Jerusalem.

²⁹ Jesus came near Bethphage and Bethany, towns near the hill called the Mount of Olives. {\cf2\super [302]} Jesus sent out two of his followers.

³⁰ He said, “Go into the town you can see there. When you enter the town, you will find a young donkey tied there. No person has ever ridden this donkey. Untie the donkey, and bring it here to me.

³¹ If any person asks you why you are taking the donkey, you should say, ‘The Master needs this donkey.’”

³² The two followers went into town. They found the donkey exactly like Jesus told them.

³³ The followers untied the donkey. But the owners of the donkey came out. They said to the followers, “Why are you untying our donkey?”

³⁴ The followers answered, “The Master needs it.”

³⁵ So the followers brought the donkey to Jesus. The followers put their coats on the donkey’s back. Then they put Jesus on the donkey.

³⁶ Jesus rode along the road toward Jerusalem. The followers spread their coats on the road before Jesus.

³⁷ Jesus was coming close to Jerusalem. He was already near the bottom of the Mount of Olives. {\cf2\super [303]} The whole group of followers were happy. They were very excited and praised God. They thanked God for all the powerful things they had seen.

³⁸ They said,

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees {\cf2\super [304]} said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your followers not to say these things!”

⁴⁰ But Jesus answered, “I tell you, these things must be said. If my followers don’t say these things, then these rocks will say them.”

⁴¹ Jesus came near Jerusalem. He saw the city and began to cry for it.

⁴² Jesus spoke to Jerusalem. He said, “I wish you knew today what would bring you peace! But you can’t know it, because it is hidden from you.

⁴³ A time is coming when your enemies will build a wall around you. Your enemies will hold you on all sides.

⁴⁴ They will destroy you and all your people. Not one stone of your buildings will stay on top of another. All this will happen because you did not know the time when God came to save you.”

⁴⁵ Jesus went into the temple {\cf2\super [305]} area. He began to throw out the people that were selling things there.

⁴⁶ Jesus said, “It is written \{in the Scriptures {\cf2\super [306]} \}, ‘My house will be a house of prayer.’ {\cf2\super [307]} But you have changed it into a ‘hiding place for thieves.’ {\cf2\super [308]} ”

⁴⁷ Jesus taught the people in the temple {\cf2\super [309]} area every day. The leading priests, the teachers of the law, and some of the leaders of the people wanted to kill Jesus.

⁴⁸ But all the people were listening closely to Jesus. They were very interested in the things Jesus said. So the leading priests, the teachers of the law, and the leaders did not know how they could kill Jesus.