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Luke 19

Luke places Jesus’ mission to save the lost alongside his royal authority and Jerusalem’s failure to recognize his coming.

Jesus passes through Jericho and calls Zacchaeus, a rich chief tax collector, down from a tree to receive him at home. As they approach Jerusalem, Jesus tells his hearers a parable about a king’s departure and return because they expect God’s Kingdom to appear at once. His disciples then acclaim him as King while he rides toward the city. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, foretells its destruction, and drives traders from the temple, where leaders seek to destroy him.

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1He entered and was passing through Jericho.
2There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
3He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn’t because of the crowd, because he was short.
4He ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way.
5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
6He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.
7When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.”
8Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”
9Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.
10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
11As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that God’s Kingdom would be revealed immediately.
12He said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
13He called ten servants of his and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, ‘Conduct business until I come.’
14But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’
15“When he had come back again, having received the kingdom, he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by conducting business.
16The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten more minas.’
17“He said to him, ‘Well done, you good servant! Because you were found faithful with very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
18“The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, Lord, has made five minas.’
19“So he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’
20Another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief,
21for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which you didn’t lay down, and reap that which you didn’t sow.’
22“He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn’t lay down and reaping that which I didn’t sow.
23Then why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank, and at my coming, I might have earned interest on it?’
24He said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to him who has the ten minas.’
25“They said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’
26‘For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.
27But bring those enemies of mine who didn’t want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.’”
28Having said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29When he came near to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples,
30saying, “Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, which no man has ever sat upon. Untie it and bring it.
31If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say to him: ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32Those who were sent went away and found things just as he had told them.
34They said, “The Lord needs it.”
35Then they brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the colt and sat Jesus on them.
37As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen,
38saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”
39Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40He answered them, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”
41When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it,
42saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.
43For the days will come on you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
44and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
45He entered into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,
46saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”
47He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him.
48They couldn’t find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Luke 19:10Jesus explains his welcome of Zacchaeus through the Son of Man’s mission to seek and save the lost.
Luke 19:38The disciples acclaim Jesus as King, bringing the question of his kingship from the parable onto Jerusalem’s road.
Luke 19:41Jesus’ tears reveal his grief over the city whose failure to recognize God’s visitation will bring devastating judgment.
Where this chapter reaches

Matthew, Mark, and John also recount Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, sharing the public welcome and the language of blessing as he comes in the Lord’s name. Psalm supplies the blessing echoed by the disciples, while Matthew also tells a parable about servants accounting for entrusted money.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out in Zacchaeus’s response to Jesus, especially his promises about money and restitution?

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How do Jesus’ tears over Jerusalem shape your reading of the praise that comes before them?

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Questions people ask about Luke 19

Who was Zacchaeus in Luke 19?

Zacchaeus was a rich chief tax collector in Jericho who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Jesus chose to stay at his house despite the crowd’s objections. Zacchaeus pledged half his goods to the poor and fourfold restitution for wrongful collections; Jesus declared that salvation had come to his house.

What does the parable of the minas mean?

Jesus tells the parable because his hearers expect God’s Kingdom to appear at once. A nobleman leaves to receive a kingdom, then returns to assess his servants’ use of entrusted money. The story stresses accountable service during his absence and judgment at his return. Its violent ending warns of the gravity of rejecting his rule.

Why did Jesus weep over Jerusalem?

Jesus weeps because Jerusalem has failed to recognize what belongs to its peace and the time of God’s visitation. He describes an approaching siege and destruction, including the death of its children. His tears come amid the disciples’ praise, placing grief over the city beside the welcome given to its King.

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Luke · 24 chapters

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).