diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index aa50f8f8..d66a877f 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
       <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
-      <version>2.15.4</version>
+      <version>2.20.1</version>
       <type>jar</type>
       <scope>compile</scope>
       <optional>false</optional>
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
       <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
-      <version>2.15.4</version>
+      <version>2.20.1</version>
       <type>jar</type>
       <scope>compile</scope>
       <optional>false</optional>
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
       <artifactId>jackson-annotations</artifactId>
-      <version>2.15.4</version>
+      <version>2.20</version>
       <type>jar</type>
       <scope>compile</scope>
       <optional>false</optional>
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/Mapper.java b/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/Mapper.java
index 483966f1..1b4ac6fc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/Mapper.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/Mapper.java
@@ -67,8 +67,7 @@ public static byte[] serialize(Object object) throws InvalidJWTException {
   }
 
   static {
-    OBJECT_MAPPER.setSerializationInclusion(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL)
-        .configure(SerializationFeature.WRITE_NULL_MAP_VALUES, false)
+    OBJECT_MAPPER.setDefaultPropertyInclusion(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL)
         .configure(DeserializationFeature.USE_BIG_DECIMAL_FOR_FLOATS, true)
         .configure(DeserializationFeature.USE_BIG_INTEGER_FOR_INTS, true)
         .registerModule(new JacksonModule());
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/ZonedDateTimeDeserializer.java b/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/ZonedDateTimeDeserializer.java
index cc253b5c..eff89db0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/ZonedDateTimeDeserializer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/fusionauth/jwt/json/ZonedDateTimeDeserializer.java
@@ -51,10 +51,12 @@ public ZonedDateTime deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) thr
       try {
         value = Long.parseLong(str);
       } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
-        throw ctxt.mappingException(handledType());
+        ctxt.reportInputMismatch(handledType(), "Cannot parse string '%s' as a valid epoch timestamp", str);
+        return null; // This line should never be reached if reportInputMismatch throws internally
       }
     } else {
-      throw ctxt.mappingException(handledType());
+      ctxt.handleUnexpectedToken(handledType(), jp);
+      return null; // This line should never be reached if handleUnexpectedToken throws internally
     }
 
     return Instant.ofEpochSecond(value).atZone(ZoneOffset.UTC);