"We are losing our chance to win over the high priests in Jerusalem!" burst out Judas. "Before tomorrow night word will reach them that the people are trying to make Jesus king! They will all be against us!"
"Well, there is nothing to do about it now," said the Zealot. The man in front of Judas stopped in his tracks and Judas ran into him. "What is the matter now?" he demanded impatiently.
The Zealot pointed to a tree over their heads. "Look!" A man was standing on a heavy lower limb of one of the sycamore trees that grew at the side of the street. The whole crowd gaped. Jesus spoke with someone in the crowd for a moment and then called to the man in the tree: "Zacchaeus, come down here! I want to visit your home."
Judas turned to a man beside him. "Who is that fellow?"
"He is the chief tax collector in Jericho. He is very rich."
"A tax collector!" exploded Judas. He turned to the Zealot. "Did you hear that? He wants to stay with a tax collector! Why does he insist on mixing with such people? Everyone will say he is a lover of traitors and sinners!" If Judas had not known it was useless, he would have protested to Jesus then and there.
Zacchaeus climbed out of the tree and stood in front of Jesus. "May I come to your home?" asked Jesus again.
"Oh, yes, Master!" exclaimed Zacchaeus, and he turned to lead the way.
The rumor spread fast. The Galilean Prophet was staying with Zacchaeus! The deliverer of Israel—staying with a tax collector? Impossible! Perhaps he was not Messiah at all!
The publican knew that people considered him a traitor. He knew how much it meant that Jesus had chosen him for a friend. The next morning, just before Jesus left his home, Zacchaeus declared in the presence of all the disciples: "I am not the man I was yesterday. I intend to be a different person. If I have cheated anyone in collecting taxes, I will give half of all that I possess to the poor; and I will give every man whom I cheated four times what I took from him."