¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate;^(A) for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.^{(B) 15} For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.^(C) On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off^(D) from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work^(E) at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

¹⁷ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^(F) because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.^(G) Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.^{(H) 18} In the first month^(I) you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner^(J) or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off^(K) from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live,^(L) you must eat unleavened bread.”^(M)

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover^(N) lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop,^(O) dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood^(P) on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³ When the Lord goes through the land to strike^(Q) down the Egyptians, he will see the blood^(R) on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over^(S) that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer^(T) to enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁴ “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance^(U) for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land^(V) that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶ And when your children^(W) ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover^(X) sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’”^(Y) Then the people bowed down and worshiped.^(Z)

A Prophet Without Honor^(A)

6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown,^(B) accompanied by his disciples. ² When the Sabbath came,^(C) he began to teach in the synagogue,^(D) and many who heard him were amazed.^(E)

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? ³ Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph,^[a] Judas and Simon?^(F) Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.^(G)

⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.”^{(H) 5} He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on^(I) a few sick people and heal them. ⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve^(J)

Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.^(K)

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God^(A) is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.^{(B) 20} For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,^(C) so that people are without excuse.^(D)

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.^{(E) 22} Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools^{(F) 23} and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images^(G) made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over^(H) in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.^{(I) 25} They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,^(J) and worshiped and served created things^(K) rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.^(L) Amen.^(M)

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over^(N) to shameful lusts.^(O) Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.^{(P) 27} In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.^(Q)

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over^(R) to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,^{(S) 30} slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;^{(T) 31} they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love,^(U) no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death,^(V) they not only continue to do these very things but also approve^(W) of those who practice them.