SLIDE 1
In the gospel of Luke, we read an account of how a guy called Zacchaeus met Jesus and was never the same again. This is what happened.

Zacchaeus worked as a tax collector for the Roman government and sadly he wasn’t an honest person. He would cheat the people out of their money by charging them too much tax for things. He kept the extra he charged them for himself.

Slide 2
People had their suspicions about Zacchaeus and really didn’t like him at all. But Zacchaeus grew rich and owned a big luxurious house in the town. Deep down though he wasn’t happy, he had no real friends except other tax collectors.

Slide 3
Zaachaeus was actually a top man in the tax collecting business - he was what was called a chief tax collector.

Slide 4
One day Jesus turned up in Jericho. All the town were talking about Him. They were really excited to see this man who was healing the blind and even raising the dead to life!

Slide 5
Jesus, as always, drew a huge crowd who wanted to listen to what he had to say. He told the people about God’s love and forgiveness.

Slide 6
Zacchaeus heard the commotion and left his tax office to go and have a look. The problem was, he was a small man and couldn’t see over the heads of the crowd. No doubt he had heard amazing things about Jesus and hoped he might see a miracle before his very eyes.

Slide 7
But there was a problem, no matter how he stretched and stood on his toes he just couldn’t see Jesus. He really wanted to see Jesus, so he had an idea.

Slide 8
Zacchaeus decided to climb a big sycamore tree and see Jesus as he passed by.

Slide 9
The crowd and Jesus were starting to move down the road and Zacchaeus had a bird’s eye view of everyone. He hid in the branches thinking no one would spot him. How wrong he was.

Slide 10

Now Zacchaeus had the best view of the whole crowd. He must have been so pleased with himself for getting a bird’s eye view of everything that was happening.

Slide 11
Then something unexpected happened. Jesus seemed to be slowing down as he neared the tree where Zacchaues was perched.

Slide 12
And then - Wow! Jesus looked right up into the tree, directly at Zacchaeus and He spoke to him! Zacchaeus nearly fell out the tree in surprise! How does Jesus know my name he thought.

Slide 13
“Zacchaeus’’, he said. “Come down at once, I must come to your house today.”

Slide 14
Zacchaeus quickly climbed down from the tree and Jesus told him that he needed to spend some time with him. All the people in the crowd murmured about this, saying “does Jesus know what sort of a person Zacchaeus is, he’s a cheat and only thinks about himself.”

Slide 15
So off they went to Zacchaeus’ home. He had his servants prepare a meal for them and Jesus talked to Zac about God His father and how much He loved him.

Slide 16
Zacchaeus realised the mistakes he had made in his life and he wanted to put things right. He told Jesus that he would give half of his money to the poor and anyone he had cheated he would give them back four times as much.

Jesus was so pleased with what Zacchaeus said, He knew that he had now found God and His forgiveness. His past of greed, lying and cheating was behind him and instead a whole new life was ahead of him.