Kids Magazine

Zacchaeus lived in the land where Jesus was preaching. One day Jesus came to Jericho, the town where Zacchaeus lived. As Jesus walked through the town, many people followed him. "I want to see Jesus too," thought Zacchaeus. But there was such a large crowd of people around Jesus that Zacchaeus could not get near him. And Zacchaeus was too little to see over all the big people in the crowd. "I cannot see Jesus at all," said Zacchaeus. "What shall I do?"

Then Zacchaeus thought of a plan. "There is a big tree ahead," he said. "Jesus will go past that tree as he walks along the road. I will climb the tree. Then I will be able to see Jesus when he walks by."

Quickly Zacchaeus ran ahead of the crowd. He climbed up into the tree. "Now I am up higher than all the people around Jesus. It will be easy to see him from here," thought Zacchaeus.

Soon the crowd of people came to the place along the road where Zacchaeus was. Jesus stopped right under the tree in which Zacchaeus was sitting. Then Jesus looked up. He saw Zacchaeus sitting there. Jesus said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly! I must stay with you at your house today."

How surprised Zacchaeus was! He came down from the tree at once. Zacchaeus was glad that Jesus wanted to visit him. "Please come," he said to Jesus. "I will be very happy to have you come to my house." Then Zacchaeus took Jesus along to his home.

The people who had been following Jesus saw him go into the house of Zacchaeus. How unhappy they were! "Jesus has gone into the house of a sinner," they said. These people did not like Zacchaeus. He was a rich man who collected taxes from all of the people. He often took more money than he had a right to take. This made the people very angry. "Zacchaeus does bad things!" they complained. "He is a sinner."

Zacchaeus knew that he had sinned. He was sorry for what he had done. He wanted to show Jesus that he was sorry and that he believed Jesus was his Savior. "Look, Jesus," Zacchaeus said as he stood up. "I will give half of everything that I have to people who are poor. And if I have taken too much money from the people, I will give back much more than I took."

Jesus knew that Zacchaeus was sorry for his sins. Zacchaeus believed that Jesus was his Savior. "Now you have been saved," Jesus said to Zacchaeus. "For I have come to find sinners and to take their sins away."

Words to Learn"Jesus came into the world to save sinners."1 Timothy 1:15

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