Luke 17:11-21:38

Good News Translation

Jesus Heals Ten Men

¹¹ As Jesus made his way to Jerusalem, he went along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² He was going into a village when he was met by ten men suffering from a dreaded skin disease. They stood at a distance ¹³ and shouted, “Jesus! Master! Have pity on us!”

^14 (A)Jesus saw them and said to them, “Go and let the priests examine you.”

On the way they were made clean.^{[a] 15} When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He threw himself to the ground at Jesus' feet and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Jesus spoke up, “There were ten who were healed; where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Why is this foreigner the only one who came back to give thanks to God?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Get up and go; your faith has made you well.”

The Coming of the Kingdom^(B)

²⁰ Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, “The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. ²¹ No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’; because the Kingdom of God is within you.”^[b]

²² Then he said to the disciples, “The time will come when you will wish you could see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. ²³ There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, over there!’ or, ‘Look, over here!’ But don't go out looking for it. ²⁴ As the lightning flashes across the sky and lights it up from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. ²⁵ But first he must suffer much and be rejected by the people of this day. ^26 (C)As it was in the time of Noah so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. ^27 (D)Everybody kept on eating and drinking, and men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat and the flood came and killed them all. ^28 (E)It will be as it was in the time of Lot. Everybody kept on eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ On the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and killed them all. ³⁰ That is how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

^31 (F)“On that day someone who is on the roof of a house must not go down into the house to get any belongings; in the same way anyone who is out in the field must not go back to the house. ^32 (G)Remember Lot's wife! ^33 (H)Those who try to save their own life will lose it; those who lose their life will save it. ³⁴ On that night, I tell you, there will be two people sleeping in the same bed: one will be taken away, the other will be left behind. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding meal together: one will be taken away, the other will be left behind.” ^36 [c]

³⁷ The disciples asked him, “Where, Lord?”

Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a dead body, the vultures will gather.”

The Parable of the Widow and the Judge

18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to teach them that they should always pray and never become discouraged. ² “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. ³ And there was a widow in that same town who kept coming to him and pleading for her rights, saying, ‘Help me against my opponent!’ ⁴ For a long time the judge refused to act, but at last he said to himself, ‘Even though I don't fear God or respect people, ⁵ yet because of all the trouble this widow is giving me, I will see to it that she gets her rights. If I don't, she will keep on coming and finally wear me out!’”

⁶ And the Lord continued, “Listen to what that corrupt judge said. ^7 (I)Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help? Will he be slow to help them? ⁸ I tell you, he will judge in their favor and do it quickly. But will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes?”

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. ¹⁰ “Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed,^[d] ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there. ¹² I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income.’ ^13 (J)But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’ ^14 (K)I tell you,” said Jesus, “the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.”

Jesus Blesses Little Children^(L)

¹⁵ Some people brought their babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. The disciples saw them and scolded them for doing so, ¹⁶ but Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷ Remember this! Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

The Rich Man^(M)

¹⁸ A Jewish leader asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?”

¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. ^20 (N)You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; respect your father and your mother.’”

²¹ The man replied, “Ever since I was young, I have obeyed all these commandments.”

²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.” ²³ But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich.

²⁴ Jesus saw that he was sad and said, “How hard it is for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

²⁶ The people who heard him asked, “Who, then, can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus answered, “What is humanly impossible is possible for God.”

²⁸ Then Peter said, “Look! We have left our homes to follow you.”

²⁹ “Yes,” Jesus said to them, “and I assure you that anyone who leaves home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God ³⁰ will receive much more in this present age and eternal life in the age to come.”

Jesus Speaks a Third Time about His Death^(O)

³¹ Jesus took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “Listen! We are going to Jerusalem where everything the prophets wrote about the Son of Man will come true. ³² He will be handed over to the Gentiles, who will make fun of him, insult him, and spit on him. ³³ They will whip him and kill him, but three days later he will rise to life.”

³⁴ But the disciples did not understand any of these things; the meaning of the words was hidden from them, and they did not know what Jesus was talking about.

Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar^(P)

³⁵ As Jesus was coming near Jericho, there was a blind man sitting by the road, begging. ³⁶ When he heard the crowd passing by, he asked, “What is this?”

³⁷ “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” they told him.

³⁸ He cried out, “Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!”

³⁹ The people in front scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, “Son of David! Have mercy on me!”

⁴⁰ So Jesus stopped and ordered the blind man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Sir,” he answered, “I want to see again.”

⁴² Jesus said to him, “Then see! Your faith has made you well.”

⁴³ At once he was able to see, and he followed Jesus, giving thanks to God. When the crowd saw it, they all praised God.

Jesus and Zacchaeus

19 Jesus went on into Jericho and was passing through. ² There was a chief tax collector there named Zacchaeus, who was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was a little man and could not see Jesus because of the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to Zacchaeus, “Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay in your house today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed him with great joy. ⁷ All the people who saw it started grumbling, “This man has gone as a guest to the home of a sinner!”

⁸ Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Listen, sir! I will give half my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times as much.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, for this man, also, is a descendant of Abraham. ^10 (Q)The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The Parable of the Gold Coins^(R)

¹¹ While the people were listening to this, Jesus continued and told them a parable. He was now almost at Jerusalem, and they supposed that the Kingdom of God was just about to appear. ¹² So he said, “There was once a man of high rank who was going to a country far away to be made king, after which he planned to come back home. ¹³ Before he left, he called his ten servants and gave them each a gold coin and told them, ‘See what you can earn with this while I am gone.’ ¹⁴ Now, his own people hated him, and so they sent messengers after him to say, ‘We don't want this man to be our king.’

¹⁵ “The man was made king and came back. At once he ordered his servants to appear before him, in order to find out how much they had earned. ¹⁶ The first one came and said, ‘Sir, I have earned ten gold coins with the one you gave me.’ ¹⁷ ‘Well done,’ he said; ‘you are a good servant! Since you were faithful in small matters, I will put you in charge of ten cities.’ ¹⁸ The second servant came and said, ‘Sir, I have earned five gold coins with the one you gave me.’ ¹⁹ To this one he said, ‘You will be in charge of five cities.’ ²⁰ Another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it hidden in a handkerchief. ²¹ I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take what is not yours and reap what you did not plant.’ ²² He said to him, ‘You bad servant! I will use your own words to condemn you! You know that I am a hard man, taking what is not mine and reaping what I have not planted. ²³ Well, then, why didn't you put my money in the bank? Then I would have received it back with interest when I returned.’ ²⁴ Then he said to those who were standing there, ‘Take the gold coin away from him and give it to the servant who has ten coins.’ ²⁵ But they said to him, ‘Sir, he already has ten coins!’ ^26 (S)‘I tell you,’ he replied, ‘that to those who have something, even more will be given; but those who have nothing, even the little that they have will be taken away from them. ^27 (T)Now, as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence!’”

The Triumphant Approach to Jerusalem^(U)

²⁸ After Jesus said this, he went on in front of them toward Jerusalem. ²⁹ As he came near Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead ³⁰ with these instructions: “Go to the village there ahead of you; as you go in, you will find a colt tied up that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If someone asks you why you are untying it, tell him that the Master^[e] needs it.”

³² They went on their way and found everything just as Jesus had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying it?”

³⁴ “The Master needs it,” they answered, ³⁵ and they took the colt to Jesus. Then they threw their cloaks over the animal and helped Jesus get on. ³⁶ As he rode on, people spread their cloaks on the road.

³⁷ When he came near Jerusalem, at the place where the road went down the Mount of Olives, the large crowd of his disciples began to thank God and praise him in loud voices for all the great things that they had seen: ^38 (V)“God bless the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory to God!”

³⁹ Then some of the Pharisees in the crowd spoke to Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “command your disciples to be quiet!”

⁴⁰ Jesus answered, “I tell you that if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will start shouting.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

⁴¹ He came closer to the city, and when he saw it, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you only knew today what is needed for peace! But now you cannot see it! ⁴³ The time will come when your enemies will surround you with barricades, blockade you, and close in on you from every side. ⁴⁴ They will completely destroy you and the people within your walls; not a single stone will they leave in its place, because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you!”

Jesus Goes to the Temple^(W)

⁴⁵ Then Jesus went into the Temple and began to drive out the merchants, ^46 (X)saying to them, “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer.’ But you have turned it into a hideout for thieves!”

^47 (Y)Every day Jesus taught in the Temple. The chief priests, the teachers of the Law, and the leaders of the people wanted to kill him, ⁴⁸ but they could not find a way to do it, because all the people kept listening to him, not wanting to miss a single word.

The Question about Jesus' Authority^(Z)

20 One day when Jesus was in the Temple teaching the people and preaching the Good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, together with the elders, came ² and said to him, “Tell us, what right do you have to do these things? Who gave you such right?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Now let me ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴ did John's right to baptize come from God or from human beings?”

⁵ They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we say, ‘From God,’ he will say, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ this whole crowd here will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered, “We don't know where it came from.”

⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.”

The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard^(AA)

^9 (AB)Then Jesus told the people this parable: “There was once a man who planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time. ¹⁰ When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing. ¹¹ So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing. ¹² Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out. ¹³ Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my own dear son; surely they will respect him!’ ¹⁴ But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the owner's son. Let's kill him, and his property will be ours!’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?” Jesus asked. ¹⁶ “He will come and kill those men, and turn the vineyard over to other tenants.”

When the people heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

^17 (AC)Jesus looked at them and asked, “What, then, does this scripture mean?

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be cut to pieces; and if that stone falls on someone, that person will be crushed to dust.”

The Question about Paying Taxes^(AD)

¹⁹ The teachers of the Law and the chief priests tried to arrest Jesus on the spot, because they knew that he had told this parable against them; but they were afraid of the people. ²⁰ So they looked for an opportunity. They bribed some men to pretend they were sincere, and they sent them to trap Jesus with questions, so that they could hand him over to the authority and power of the Roman Governor. ²¹ These spies said to Jesus, “Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is right. We know that you pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people. ²² Tell us, is it against our Law for us to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, or not?”

²³ But Jesus saw through their trick and said to them, ²⁴ “Show me a silver coin. Whose face and name are these on it?”

“The Emperor's,” they answered.

²⁵ So Jesus said, “Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God.”

²⁶ There before the people they could not catch him in a thing, so they kept quiet, amazed at his answer.

The Question about Rising from Death^(AE)

^27 (AF)Then some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said, ^28 (AG)“Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: ‘If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so that they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.’ ²⁹ Once there were seven brothers; the oldest got married and died without having children. ³⁰ Then the second one married the woman, ³¹ and then the third. The same thing happened to all seven—they died without having children. ³² Last of all, the woman died. ³³ Now, on the day when the dead rise to life, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her.”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “The men and women of this age marry, ³⁵ but the men and women who are worthy to rise from death and live in the age to come will not then marry. ³⁶ They will be like angels and cannot die. They are the children of God, because they have risen from death. ^37 (AH)And Moses clearly proves that the dead are raised to life. In the passage about the burning bush he speaks of the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ He is the God of the living, not of the dead, for to him all are alive.”

³⁹ Some of the teachers of the Law spoke up, “A good answer, Teacher!” ⁴⁰ For they did not dare ask him any more questions.

The Question about the Messiah^(AI)

⁴¹ Jesus asked them, “How can it be said that the Messiah will be the descendant of David? ^42 (AJ)For David himself says in the book of Psalms,

⁴⁴ David called him ‘Lord’; how, then, can the Messiah be David's descendant?”

Jesus Warns against the Teachers of the Law^(AK)

⁴⁵ As all the people listened to him, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ “Be on your guard against the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace; who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts; ⁴⁷ who take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers! Their punishment will be all the worse!”

The Widow's Offering^(AL)

21 Jesus looked around and saw rich people dropping their gifts in the Temple treasury, ² and he also saw a very poor widow dropping in two little copper coins. ³ He said, “I tell you that this poor widow put in more than all the others. ⁴ For the others offered their gifts from what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, gave all she had to live on.”

Jesus Speaks of the Destruction of the Temple^(AM)

⁵ Some of the disciples were talking about the Temple, how beautiful it looked with its fine stones and the gifts offered to God. Jesus said, ⁶ “All this you see—the time will come when not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one will be thrown down.”

Troubles and Persecutions^(AN)

^7 (AO)“Teacher,” they asked, “when will this be? And what will happen in order to show that the time has come for it to take place?”

⁸ Jesus said, “Watch out; don't be fooled. Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time has come!’ But don't follow them. ⁹ Don't be afraid when you hear of wars and revolutions; such things must happen first, but they do not mean that the end is near.”

¹⁰ He went on to say, “Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. ¹¹ There will be terrible earthquakes, famines, and plagues everywhere; there will be strange and terrifying things coming from the sky. ¹² Before all these things take place, however, you will be arrested and persecuted; you will be handed over to be tried in synagogues and be put in prison; you will be brought before kings and rulers for my sake. ¹³ This will be your chance to tell the Good News. ^14 (AP)Make up your minds ahead of time not to worry about how you will defend yourselves, ¹⁵ because I will give you such words and wisdom that none of your enemies will be able to refute or contradict what you say. ¹⁶ You will be handed over by your parents, your brothers, your relatives, and your friends; and some of you will be put to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a single hair from your heads will be lost. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will save yourselves.

Jesus Speaks of the Destruction of Jerusalem^(AQ)

²⁰ “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that it will soon be destroyed. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills; those who are in the city must leave, and those who are out in the country must not go into the city. ^22 (AR)For those will be ‘The Days of Punishment,’ to make come true all that the Scriptures say. ²³ How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies! Terrible distress will come upon this land, and God's punishment will fall on this people. ²⁴ Some will be killed by the sword, and others will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up.

The Coming of the Son of Man^(AS)

^25 (AT)“There will be strange things happening to the sun, the moon, and the stars. On earth whole countries will be in despair, afraid of the roar of the sea and the raging tides. ²⁶ People will faint from fear as they wait for what is coming over the whole earth, for the powers in space will be driven from their courses. ^27 (AU)Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in a cloud with great power and glory. ²⁸ When these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your salvation is near.”

The Lesson of the Fig Tree^(AV)

²⁹ Then Jesus told them this parable: “Think of the fig tree and all the other trees. ³⁰ When you see their leaves beginning to appear, you know that summer is near. ³¹ In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the Kingdom of God is about to come.

³² “Remember that all these things will take place before the people now living have all died. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Need to Watch

³⁴ “Be careful not to let yourselves become occupied with too much feasting and drinking and with the worries of this life, or that Day may suddenly catch you ³⁵ like a trap. For it will come upon all people everywhere on earth. ³⁶ Be on watch and pray always that you will have the strength to go safely through all those things that will happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”

^37 (AW)Jesus spent those days teaching in the Temple, and when evening came, he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives. ³⁸ Early each morning all the people went to the Temple to listen to him.