July 26, 2025 • 15 mins
The King Nobody Wanted narrates the intriguing tale of Jesus in a relatable, everyday language. Drawing from the timeless King James Version of the Bible, this podcast weaves a captivating narrative thats both genuine and compelling.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of The King Nobody Wanted by Norman F. Langford.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter ten,
The Way to Jerusalem. Jesus had made up his mind
that he would go to Jerusalem for the Passover next year.
He knew that if he did, he would get into trouble.
(00:20):
The disciples knew it too, for he had told them so.
There was a hard time ahead for them all. There
was hardly any one whom Jesus could count on any more.
Often even the disciples did not understand him. Once in
a while other people would offer to come along and
be disciples too, but few actually came. After Jesus explained
(00:43):
how much he expected his disciples to give up for
his sake. There was one man who came to Jesus
and said, bravely, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.
Jesus replied, even the foxes have holes in the ground
to sleep in at night. The birds of the air
have their nests. But I travel across country without home
(01:07):
that I can call my own. The man thought of
his own comfortable house and decided he did not want
to follow Jesus after all. Another time Jesus invited a
man to join him. This man said he would be
glad to come, but that his father had just died
and he must look after the funeral. That would take
(01:28):
a long time, for the Jews loved their customs, and
when anybody died, they held ceremonies which lasted for many days.
Jesus could not wait for this man, so he answered,
let people who don't believe in me look after things
like that. You have something more important to do. Your
job is to go out and preach right away. That
(01:50):
is what you would do if you really believed in me. Still,
another man was willing to come, if only he could
first go home and say good bye to his family.
Jesus saw that this man, too, had not really decided
to give up everything for God. He told him, you
are like a farmer who starts to plow a field
and then turns around and wonders if he shouldn't be
(02:11):
doing something back at the house. Unless you put your
whole heart into following me, I'm afraid you will never
be of much use. Even some of those who used
to call themselves followers of Jesus were going away, he
said to the twelve who had been with him from
the beginning, Are you going to leave me too? Peter answered, Lord,
(02:34):
where would we go? We should die if we did
not hear your words. We believe that you are the Christ.
Jesus said, yes, you are the men I have chosen
to be with me, though there is one of you
who will come to a bad end. Jesus was speaking
of a disciple named Judas Iscariot. Though the others did
(02:55):
not know it, Jesus knew that Judas was not to
be trusted. In those difficult days, Jesus spent much of
his time in prayer. The disciples felt that they also
needed strength and help from God. Once, when Jesus had
finished praying, they said to him, Lord, teach us to pray,
just as John the Baptist used to teach his disciples.
(03:19):
So Jesus taught them a prayer. And this is how
it went. Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be
thy name, Thy Kingdom. Come, Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but
(03:43):
deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and
the Power and the glory forever Amen. Then Jesus looked
at his disciples and told them that they ought to
pray more than they did. Suppose he said, one of
you went to a friend's house at midnight and crawled
through the window, lend me some bread for company has
(04:06):
come unexpectedly, and I haven't anything in my house. Your
friend might not want to get up out of bed,
but if you kept on pleading with him, he would
give you what you asked for. In the same way,
keep on praying to God. Prayer is like knocking on
the door. Knock and the door will be opened. Jesus
(04:28):
knew better than the disciples did themselves how much they
were going to need God's help. Jesus ran into a
great many trying people in the next few months. One
day there was a lawyer who thought that he knew
more than Jesus did. He wanted an argument which would
give him a chance to show how much he knew.
(04:49):
So he came and asked Jesus, what should I do
to have eternal life? Jesus answered, what does it say
in the law. The lawyer replied, it says thou shalt
love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said,
(05:11):
that is right, those are the things you ought to do.
It sounded to the lawyer as though Jesus were saying,
if you knew all along, why did you need to
ask me in the first place. The lawyer thought that
he would get the better of Jesus, so he replied, well,
just who is the neighbor that I am supposed to love?
(05:32):
Jesus answered with a story. A man was traveling on
the lonely road between Jerusalem and Jericho, as it so
often happens, there, some thieves jumped out of a hiding
place and robbed him and beat him. He was lying
there half dead when a priest from the temple in
Jerusalem came along. He took one look at the wounded
(05:53):
man and kept on going along the other side of
the road. Then somebody else from the temple, who was
supposed to be a very religious sort of person, passed by,
and the same thing happened. Finally, a Samaritan came along.
I don't need to tell you how Samaritans and Jews
hate each other. But this samaritan was sorry for the
(06:16):
wounded man. He put bandages on his wounds and took
him to an inn before he left. Next morning, the
samaritan went to the innkeeper. He paid the bill for
the man who had been robbed. Then he told the
innkeeper to take care of the man, and the samaritan
said he would pay for anything more that was needed
(06:36):
the next time he came. Now, think of those three
men who passed along the road, which of them was
really a neighbor to the man who was robbed? The
lawyer said, why the one who helped him? Of course,
then said Jesus, go and do the same. What Jesus
wanted the lawyer to understand was you really know, oh,
(07:00):
what a good neighbor should be, because God has been
good to you. But you are not much interested in
being a neighbor to people who need your help. But
if the lawyer did not see that for himself, there
was no use telling him. He would be too proud
to understand. Another day there was a man who came
to Jesus and said, Master, I wish you to speak
(07:23):
to my brother. Our father died a little while ago,
and my brother is keeping all the property for himself.
Make him give me my share of it. Jesus would
have nothing to do with the quarrel. He told this man,
you ought to think of something besides money and property.
There is more to life than owning things. Let me
(07:43):
tell you a story. There was a farmer whose crops
were so good that he had no place to put
all his harvest. He said to himself, I will pull
down my old barns and build bigger ones and put
my crops in them. Then I will take life easy,
for I have enough money to last me for many years.
(08:05):
But do you know what happened that very night? God
said to him, you fool, you are going to die tonight,
and what good are your crops and your money going
to be to you. Then that's what becomes of people
who keep all their money for their own selfish use
and never think about God. There was another man who
(08:26):
was a great disappointment to Jesus. He was a young man,
rich and a leader in his community. He came and
kneeled before Jesus and said, good Master, what should I
do in order to have eternal life? This was like
the lawyer's question, but this man asked it in a
different spirit he really wanted to know. Jesus answered, do
(08:50):
you know what you are saying when you call me
good Master? No one is good except God. Jesus was
wondering if the rich young man knew that he was
talking to the Messiah, or if he thought that Jesus
was just another man who was a little better than others. However,
he went on, if you want to have eternal life,
(09:12):
keep God's commandments. You know what they are. Do not kill,
do not steal, live a pure life, do not tell lies.
Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.
The young man exclaimed, But I have kept all those
commandments ever since I was a boy. What is it
(09:35):
that is wrong with me? When Jesus saw that the
young man was in earnest, he loved him, he replied,
there is indeed something wrong with you. It is the
way you love your money. Give it away to the
poor and you will be rewarded in heaven. Give up
everything you have and come and follow me. The young
(09:58):
man got slowly to his feet. No, that was asking
too much. How could he live without his money? He
needed his money. How did he know that God would
look after him if he did not take care of himself.
Without another word, he went away. How hard is it,
(10:18):
Jesus said, for rich people to obey God. The disciples
were amazed. They had always thought that the reason why
some people were rich was that God was pleased with
the good lives they had been living. They said, if
there isn't any hope even for rich people, is there
any hope for anybody? No, replied Jesus, there isn't any
(10:41):
hope for anybody. No one is good enough. But God
can help and save sinners, whether they are rich or poor.
God is everybody's hope. Peter spoke for the rest of
the disciples. He said, well, we have given up everything
to follow you. Jesus answered, if you have given up
(11:04):
anything for my sake, you will never have reason to
be sorry for it, either in this life or after
you die. The months were going by, and it was
time to be getting on toward Jerusalem. Jesus took his
disciples and crossed to the east side of the river Jordan.
They traveled south and then crossed the Jordan once again
(11:27):
and came to the city of Jericho. In the rich
earth around Jericho, beautiful gardens grew and the palm trees
stood tall. Travelers who came from the swamps of the
Jordan loved to stop at Jericho before they took the
hard and lonely road that led to Jerusalem. There were
desert lands and hills ahead, but at Jericho there was
(11:50):
water to drink and good food to eat, and a
place to stay in comfort. But Jesus could not stay
long in Jericho. It was to Jerusalem that he was going,
and nothing could hold him back. The people at Jericho
heard that Jesus was passing through their city, and a
crowd gathered in the streets to catch a glimpse of
(12:11):
him as he went by. There was a man named
Zachaeus there. He was shorter than most other men, and
he could not see Jesus because of the crowd around him.
There was no use asking any one to help him,
for no one liked Zychaus. He was a tax gatherer,
as Matthew once had been, and had grown rich collecting taxes.
(12:35):
But he had grown unpopular too. The Jews thought him
as a trader, for although he was a Jew, he
worked for the Romans and made his fortune out of
cheating his fellow Jews. But Zychaus was determined not to
miss seeing Jesus running on ahead of the crowd, he
climbed a sycamore tree high above the street. He could
(12:56):
look down at Jesus, but there was no reason to
think that Jesus would look up at him. However, when
Jesus reached the place where Zachaeus was hiding in the branches,
he stopped, looked up and saw him. He knew who
this man was. Jesus called out, hurry and come down
(13:17):
out of that tree, Zychaeus, I am coming to stay
at your house to day. Surprised but happy, Zachaus scrambled
down the tree and led Jesus to his house. The
other people also were surprised, but not so happy. They
muttered to themselves, as many people had done before. They said,
(13:38):
he's gone to be the guest of that miserable, cheating
traitor of a tax gatherer. But Zeychaus became a changed
man that day. He said to Jesus, I am going
to give half my money to the poor, and if
I have cheated anybody, I shall give back four times
as much as I took. Then Jesus was glad that
(14:00):
he had called Zachaus down from the tree, you have
been saved from your sins to day, Zychaus, he said.
Jesus was glad that he had found at least one
rich man who did not love his money more than
he loved God. Zychaus had not been a good man.
He was not like the rich young man who had
(14:20):
kept all of God's commandments since he was a boy.
But when he heard Jesus speak to him, he knew
that he had been in the wrong. He was ready
to do what he could to show that he knew
how he had sinned. This is what I came for,
Jesus said, to look for sinners like this man and
to save them. When Jesus got to Jerusalem, it was
(14:45):
going to cost him a great deal to help men
find a new life. But whatever it might cost him,
it would be worth the price. End of Chapter ten.
Chapter ten of The King Nobody Wanted by Norman F. Langford.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter ten,
The Way to Jerusalem. Jesus had made up his mind
that he would go to Jerusalem for the Passover next year.
He knew that if he did, he would get into trouble.
(00:20):
The disciples knew it too, for he had told them so.
There was a hard time ahead for them all. There
was hardly any one whom Jesus could count on any more.
Often even the disciples did not understand him. Once in
a while other people would offer to come along and
be disciples too, but few actually came. After Jesus explained
(00:43):
how much he expected his disciples to give up for
his sake. There was one man who came to Jesus
and said, bravely, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.
Jesus replied, even the foxes have holes in the ground
to sleep in at night. The birds of the air
have their nests. But I travel across country without home
(01:07):
that I can call my own. The man thought of
his own comfortable house and decided he did not want
to follow Jesus after all. Another time Jesus invited a
man to join him. This man said he would be
glad to come, but that his father had just died
and he must look after the funeral. That would take
(01:28):
a long time, for the Jews loved their customs, and
when anybody died, they held ceremonies which lasted for many days.
Jesus could not wait for this man, so he answered,
let people who don't believe in me look after things
like that. You have something more important to do. Your
job is to go out and preach right away. That
(01:50):
is what you would do if you really believed in me. Still,
another man was willing to come, if only he could
first go home and say good bye to his family.
Jesus saw that this man, too, had not really decided
to give up everything for God. He told him, you
are like a farmer who starts to plow a field
and then turns around and wonders if he shouldn't be
(02:11):
doing something back at the house. Unless you put your
whole heart into following me, I'm afraid you will never
be of much use. Even some of those who used
to call themselves followers of Jesus were going away, he
said to the twelve who had been with him from
the beginning, Are you going to leave me too? Peter answered, Lord,
(02:34):
where would we go? We should die if we did
not hear your words. We believe that you are the Christ.
Jesus said, yes, you are the men I have chosen
to be with me, though there is one of you
who will come to a bad end. Jesus was speaking
of a disciple named Judas Iscariot. Though the others did
(02:55):
not know it, Jesus knew that Judas was not to
be trusted. In those difficult days, Jesus spent much of
his time in prayer. The disciples felt that they also
needed strength and help from God. Once, when Jesus had
finished praying, they said to him, Lord, teach us to pray,
just as John the Baptist used to teach his disciples.
(03:19):
So Jesus taught them a prayer. And this is how
it went. Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be
thy name, Thy Kingdom. Come, Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but
(03:43):
deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and
the Power and the glory forever Amen. Then Jesus looked
at his disciples and told them that they ought to
pray more than they did. Suppose he said, one of
you went to a friend's house at midnight and crawled
through the window, lend me some bread for company has
(04:06):
come unexpectedly, and I haven't anything in my house. Your
friend might not want to get up out of bed,
but if you kept on pleading with him, he would
give you what you asked for. In the same way,
keep on praying to God. Prayer is like knocking on
the door. Knock and the door will be opened. Jesus
(04:28):
knew better than the disciples did themselves how much they
were going to need God's help. Jesus ran into a
great many trying people in the next few months. One
day there was a lawyer who thought that he knew
more than Jesus did. He wanted an argument which would
give him a chance to show how much he knew.
(04:49):
So he came and asked Jesus, what should I do
to have eternal life? Jesus answered, what does it say
in the law. The lawyer replied, it says thou shalt
love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said,
(05:11):
that is right, those are the things you ought to do.
It sounded to the lawyer as though Jesus were saying,
if you knew all along, why did you need to
ask me in the first place. The lawyer thought that
he would get the better of Jesus, so he replied, well,
just who is the neighbor that I am supposed to love?
(05:32):
Jesus answered with a story. A man was traveling on
the lonely road between Jerusalem and Jericho, as it so
often happens, there, some thieves jumped out of a hiding
place and robbed him and beat him. He was lying
there half dead when a priest from the temple in
Jerusalem came along. He took one look at the wounded
(05:53):
man and kept on going along the other side of
the road. Then somebody else from the temple, who was
supposed to be a very religious sort of person, passed by,
and the same thing happened. Finally, a Samaritan came along.
I don't need to tell you how Samaritans and Jews
hate each other. But this samaritan was sorry for the
(06:16):
wounded man. He put bandages on his wounds and took
him to an inn before he left. Next morning, the
samaritan went to the innkeeper. He paid the bill for
the man who had been robbed. Then he told the
innkeeper to take care of the man, and the samaritan
said he would pay for anything more that was needed
(06:36):
the next time he came. Now, think of those three
men who passed along the road, which of them was
really a neighbor to the man who was robbed? The
lawyer said, why the one who helped him? Of course,
then said Jesus, go and do the same. What Jesus
wanted the lawyer to understand was you really know, oh,
(07:00):
what a good neighbor should be, because God has been
good to you. But you are not much interested in
being a neighbor to people who need your help. But
if the lawyer did not see that for himself, there
was no use telling him. He would be too proud
to understand. Another day there was a man who came
to Jesus and said, Master, I wish you to speak
(07:23):
to my brother. Our father died a little while ago,
and my brother is keeping all the property for himself.
Make him give me my share of it. Jesus would
have nothing to do with the quarrel. He told this man,
you ought to think of something besides money and property.
There is more to life than owning things. Let me
(07:43):
tell you a story. There was a farmer whose crops
were so good that he had no place to put
all his harvest. He said to himself, I will pull
down my old barns and build bigger ones and put
my crops in them. Then I will take life easy,
for I have enough money to last me for many years.
(08:05):
But do you know what happened that very night? God
said to him, you fool, you are going to die tonight,
and what good are your crops and your money going
to be to you. Then that's what becomes of people
who keep all their money for their own selfish use
and never think about God. There was another man who
(08:26):
was a great disappointment to Jesus. He was a young man,
rich and a leader in his community. He came and
kneeled before Jesus and said, good Master, what should I
do in order to have eternal life? This was like
the lawyer's question, but this man asked it in a
different spirit he really wanted to know. Jesus answered, do
(08:50):
you know what you are saying when you call me
good Master? No one is good except God. Jesus was
wondering if the rich young man knew that he was
talking to the Messiah, or if he thought that Jesus
was just another man who was a little better than others. However,
he went on, if you want to have eternal life,
(09:12):
keep God's commandments. You know what they are. Do not kill,
do not steal, live a pure life, do not tell lies.
Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.
The young man exclaimed, But I have kept all those
commandments ever since I was a boy. What is it
(09:35):
that is wrong with me? When Jesus saw that the
young man was in earnest, he loved him, he replied,
there is indeed something wrong with you. It is the
way you love your money. Give it away to the
poor and you will be rewarded in heaven. Give up
everything you have and come and follow me. The young
(09:58):
man got slowly to his feet. No, that was asking
too much. How could he live without his money? He
needed his money. How did he know that God would
look after him if he did not take care of himself.
Without another word, he went away. How hard is it,
(10:18):
Jesus said, for rich people to obey God. The disciples
were amazed. They had always thought that the reason why
some people were rich was that God was pleased with
the good lives they had been living. They said, if
there isn't any hope even for rich people, is there
any hope for anybody? No, replied Jesus, there isn't any
(10:41):
hope for anybody. No one is good enough. But God
can help and save sinners, whether they are rich or poor.
God is everybody's hope. Peter spoke for the rest of
the disciples. He said, well, we have given up everything
to follow you. Jesus answered, if you have given up
(11:04):
anything for my sake, you will never have reason to
be sorry for it, either in this life or after
you die. The months were going by, and it was
time to be getting on toward Jerusalem. Jesus took his
disciples and crossed to the east side of the river Jordan.
They traveled south and then crossed the Jordan once again
(11:27):
and came to the city of Jericho. In the rich
earth around Jericho, beautiful gardens grew and the palm trees
stood tall. Travelers who came from the swamps of the
Jordan loved to stop at Jericho before they took the
hard and lonely road that led to Jerusalem. There were
desert lands and hills ahead, but at Jericho there was
(11:50):
water to drink and good food to eat, and a
place to stay in comfort. But Jesus could not stay
long in Jericho. It was to Jerusalem that he was going,
and nothing could hold him back. The people at Jericho
heard that Jesus was passing through their city, and a
crowd gathered in the streets to catch a glimpse of
(12:11):
him as he went by. There was a man named
Zachaeus there. He was shorter than most other men, and
he could not see Jesus because of the crowd around him.
There was no use asking any one to help him,
for no one liked Zychaus. He was a tax gatherer,
as Matthew once had been, and had grown rich collecting taxes.
(12:35):
But he had grown unpopular too. The Jews thought him
as a trader, for although he was a Jew, he
worked for the Romans and made his fortune out of
cheating his fellow Jews. But Zychaus was determined not to
miss seeing Jesus running on ahead of the crowd, he
climbed a sycamore tree high above the street. He could
(12:56):
look down at Jesus, but there was no reason to
think that Jesus would look up at him. However, when
Jesus reached the place where Zachaeus was hiding in the branches,
he stopped, looked up and saw him. He knew who
this man was. Jesus called out, hurry and come down
(13:17):
out of that tree, Zychaeus, I am coming to stay
at your house to day. Surprised but happy, Zachaus scrambled
down the tree and led Jesus to his house. The
other people also were surprised, but not so happy. They
muttered to themselves, as many people had done before. They said,
(13:38):
he's gone to be the guest of that miserable, cheating
traitor of a tax gatherer. But Zeychaus became a changed
man that day. He said to Jesus, I am going
to give half my money to the poor, and if
I have cheated anybody, I shall give back four times
as much as I took. Then Jesus was glad that
(14:00):
he had called Zachaus down from the tree, you have
been saved from your sins to day, Zychaus, he said.
Jesus was glad that he had found at least one
rich man who did not love his money more than
he loved God. Zychaus had not been a good man.
He was not like the rich young man who had
(14:20):
kept all of God's commandments since he was a boy.
But when he heard Jesus speak to him, he knew
that he had been in the wrong. He was ready
to do what he could to show that he knew
how he had sinned. This is what I came for,
Jesus said, to look for sinners like this man and
to save them. When Jesus got to Jerusalem, it was
(14:45):
going to cost him a great deal to help men
find a new life. But whatever it might cost him,
it would be worth the price. End of Chapter ten.
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