²² Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, ²³ and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade. ²⁴ So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!” ²⁵ Yeshua answered them, “I have already told you, and you don’t trust me. The works I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf, ²⁶ but the reason you don’t trust is that you are not included among my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, ²⁸ and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands. ²⁹ My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father’s hands. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

³¹ Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him. ³² Yeshua answered them, “You have seen me do many good deeds that reflect the Father’s power; for which one of these deeds are you stoning me?” ³³ The Judeans replied, “We are not stoning you for any good deed, but for blasphemy — because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God ^[a].” ³⁴ Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Torah, ‘I have said, “You people are Elohim’ ”?^{[b] 35} If he called ‘elohim’ the people to whom the word of Elohim was addressed (and the Tanakh cannot be broken), ³⁶ then are you telling the one whom the Father set apart as holy and sent into the world, ‘You are committing blasphemy,’ just because I said, ‘I am a son of Elohim’?

³⁷ “If I am not doing deeds that reflect my Father’s power, don’t trust me. ³⁸ But if I am, then, even if you don’t trust me, trust the deeds; so that you may understand once and for all that the Father is united with me, and I am united with the Father.” ³⁹ One more time they tried to arrest him, but he slipped out of their hands.

⁴⁰ He went off again beyond the Yarden, where Yochanan had been immersing at first, and stayed there. ⁴¹ Many people came to him and said, “Yochanan performed no miracles, but everything Yochanan said about this man was true.” ⁴² And many people there put their trust in him.

13 Just then, some people came to tell Yeshua about the men from the Galil whom Pilate had slaughtered even while they were slaughtering animals for sacrifice. ² His answer to them was, “Do you think that just because they died so horribly, these folks from the Galil were worse sinners than all the others from the Galil? ³ No, I tell you. Rather, unless you turn to God from your sins, you will all die as they did!

⁴ “Or what about those eighteen people who died when the tower at Shiloach fell on them? Do you think they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Yerushalayim? ⁵ No, I tell you. Rather, unless you turn from your sins, you will all die similarly.”

⁶ Then Yeshua gave this illustration: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit but didn’t find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘Here, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for three years now without finding any. Cut it down — why let it go on using up the soil?’ ⁸ But he answered, ‘Sir, leave it alone one more year. I’ll dig around it and put manure on it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, well and good; if not, you will have it cut down then.’”

¹⁰ Yeshua was teaching in one of the synagogues on Shabbat. ¹¹ A woman came up who had a spirit which had crippled her for eighteen years; she was bent double and unable to stand erect at all. ¹² On seeing her, Yeshua called her and said to her, “Lady, you have been set free from your weakness!” ¹³ He put his hands on her, and at once she stood upright and began to glorify God.

¹⁴ But the president of the synagogue, indignant that Yeshua had healed on Shabbat, spoke up and said to the congregation, “There are six days in the week for working; so come during those days to be healed, not on Shabbat!” ¹⁵ However, the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Each one of you on Shabbat — don’t you unloose your ox or your donkey from the stall and lead him off to drink? ¹⁶ This woman is a daughter of Avraham, and the Adversary kept her tied up for eighteen years! Shouldn’t she be freed from this bondage on Shabbat?” ¹⁷ By these words, Yeshua put to shame the people who opposed him; but the rest of the crowd were happy about all the wonderful things that were taking place through him.

¹⁸ So he went on to say, “What is the Kingdom of God like? With what will we compare it? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds flying about nested in its branches.”

²⁰ Again he said, “With what will I compare the Kingdom of God? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”

²² Yeshua continued traveling through town after town and village after village, teaching and making his way toward Yerushalayim. ²³ Someone asked him, “Are only a few people being saved?” ²⁴ He answered, “Struggle to get in through the narrow door, because — I’m telling you! — many will be demanding to get in and won’t be able to, ²⁵ once the owner of the house has gotten up and shut the door. You will stand outside, knocking at the door and saying, ‘Lord! Open up for us!’ But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from!’ ²⁶ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you! you taught in our streets!’ ²⁷ and he will tell you, ‘I don’t know where you’re from. Get away from me, all you workers of wickedness!’ ²⁸ You will cry and grind your teeth when you see Avraham, Yitz’chak, Ya‘akov and all the prophets inside the Kingdom of God, but yourselves thrown outside. ²⁹ Moreover, people will come from the east, the west, the north and the south to sit at table in the Kingdom of God. ³⁰ And notice that some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”

³¹ Just at that moment, some P’rushim came up and said to Yeshua, “Get out and go away from here, because Herod wants to kill you!” ³² He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Pay attention: today and tomorrow I am driving out demons and healing people, and on the third day I reach my goal.’ ³³ Nevertheless, I must keep travelling today, tomorrow and the next day; because it is unthinkable that a prophet should die anywhere but in Yerushalayim.

³⁴ “Yerushalayim! Yerushalayim! You kill the prophets! You stone those who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children, just as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you refused! ³⁵ Look! God is abandoning your house to you! I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai!’”^[a]

14 One Shabbat Yeshua went to eat in the home of one of the leading P’rushim, and they were watching him closely. ² In front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid. ³ Yeshua spoke up and asked the Torah experts and P’rushim, “Does the Torah allow healing on Shabbat or not?” ⁴ But they said nothing. So, taking hold of him, he healed him and sent him away. ⁵ To them he said, “Which of you, if a son or an ox falls into a well, will hesitate to haul him out on Shabbat?” ⁶ And to these things they could give no answer.

⁷ When Yeshua noticed how the guests were choosing for themselves the best seats at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, don’t sit down in the best seat; because if there is someone more important than you who has been invited, ⁹ the person who invited both of you might come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then you will be humiliated as you go to take the least important place. ¹⁰ Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the least important place; so that when the one who invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Go on up to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in front of everyone sitting with you. ¹¹ Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² Yeshua also said to the one who had invited him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives or rich neighbors; for they may well invite you in return, and that will be your repayment. ¹³ Instead, when you have a party, invite poor people, disfigured people, the crippled, the blind! ¹⁴ How blessed you will be that they have nothing with which to repay you! For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ On hearing this, one of the people at the table with Yeshua said to him, “How blessed are those who eat bread in the Kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ But he replied, “Once a man gave a banquet and invited many people. ¹⁷ When the time came for the banquet, he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come! Everything is ready!’ ¹⁸ But they responded with a chorus of excuses. The first said to him, ‘I’ve just bought a field, and I have to go out and see it. Please accept my apologies.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I’ve just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to test them out. Please accept my apologies.’ ²⁰ Still another said, ‘I have just gotten married, so I can’t come.’ ²¹ The slave came and reported these things to his master.

“Then the owner of the house, in a rage, told his slave, ‘Quick, go out into the streets and alleys of the city; and bring in the poor, the disfigured, the blind and the crippled!’ ²² The slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ ²³ The master said to the slave, ‘Go out to the country roads and boundary walls, and insistently persuade people to come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet!’”

²⁵ Large crowds were traveling along with Yeshua. Turning, he said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid. ²⁷ Whoever does not carry his own execution-stake and come after me cannot be my talmid.

²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don’t you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it? ²⁹ If you don’t, then when you have laid the foundation but can’t finish, all the onlookers start making fun of you ³⁰ and say, ‘This is the man who began to build, but couldn’t finish!’

³¹ “Or again, suppose one king is going out to wage war with another king. Doesn’t he first sit down and consider whether he, with his ten thousand troops, has enough strength to meet the other one, who is coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he hasn’t, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to inquire about terms for peace.

³³ “So every one of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has cannot be my talmid. ³⁴ Salt is excellent. But if even the salt becomes tasteless, what can be used to season it? ³⁵ It is fit for neither soil nor manure — people throw it out. Those who have ears that can hear, let them hear!”

15 The tax-collectors and sinners kept gathering around to hear Yeshua, ² and the P’rushim and Torah-teachers kept grumbling. “This fellow,” they said, “welcomes sinners — he even eats with them!” ³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “If one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, doesn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? ⁵ When he does find it, he joyfully hoists it onto his shoulders; ⁶ and when he gets home, he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Come, celebrate with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to God from his sins than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.

⁸ “Another example: what woman, if she has ten drachmas and loses one of these valuable coins, won’t light a lamp, sweep the house and search all over until she finds it? ⁹ And when she does find it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Come, celebrate with me, because I have found the drachma I lost.’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy among God’s angels when one sinner repents.”

¹¹ Again Yeshua said, “A man had two sons. ¹² The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that will be mine.’ So the father divided the property between them. ¹³ As soon as he could convert his share into cash, the younger son left home and went off to a distant country, where he squandered his money in reckless living. ¹⁴ But after he had spent it all, a severe famine arose throughout that country, and he began to feel the pinch.

¹⁵ “So he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him any.

¹⁷ “At last he came to his senses and said, ‘Any number of my father’s hired workers have food to spare; and here I am, starving to death! ¹⁸ I’m going to get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers.” ’ ²⁰ So he got up and started back to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran and threw his arms around him and kissed him warmly. ²¹ His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son — ’ ²² but his father said to his slaves, ‘Quick, bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him; and put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet; ²³ and bring the calf that has been fattened up, and kill it. Let’s eat and have a celebration! ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead, but now he’s alive again! He was lost, but now he has been found!’ And they began celebrating.

²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field. As he came close to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked, ‘What’s going on?’ ²⁷ The servant told him, ‘Your brother has come back, and your father has slaughtered the calf that was fattened up, because he has gotten him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ But the older son became angry and refused to go inside.

“So his father came out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ ‘Look,’ the son answered, ‘I have worked for you all these years, and I have never disobeyed your orders. But you have never even given me a young goat, so that I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ Yet this son of yours comes, who squandered your property with prostitutes, and for him you slaughter the fattened calf!’ ³¹ ‘Son, you are always with me,’ said the father, ‘and everything I have is yours. ³² We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead but has come back to life — he was lost but has been found.’”