16 Jesus now told this story to his disciples: “A rich man hired an accountant to handle his affairs, but soon a rumor went around that the accountant was thoroughly dishonest.

² “So his employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about your stealing from me? Get your report in order, for you are to be dismissed.’

³ “The accountant thought to himself, ‘Now what? I’m through here, and I haven’t the strength to go out and dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. ⁴ I know just the thing! And then I’ll have plenty of friends to take care of me when I leave!’

^5-6 “So he invited each one who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ ‘My debt is 850 gallons of olive oil,’ the man replied. ‘Yes, here is the contract you signed,’ the accountant told him. ‘Tear it up and write another one for half that much!’

⁷ “‘And how much do you owe him?’ he asked the next man. ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the accountant said, ‘take your note and replace it with one for only 800 bushels!’

⁸ “The rich man had to admire the rascal for being so shrewd.^[a] And it is true that the citizens of this world are more clever in dishonesty than the godly are. ⁹ But shall I tell you to act that way, to buy friendship through cheating? Will this ensure your entry into an everlasting home in heaven?^{[b] 10} No! For unless you are honest in small matters, you won’t be in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. ¹¹ And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? ¹² And if you are not faithful with other people’s money, why should you be entrusted with money of your own?

¹³ “For neither you nor anyone else can serve two masters. You will hate one and show loyalty to the other, or else the other way around—you will be enthusiastic about one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, naturally scoffed at all this.

¹⁵ Then he said to them, “You wear a noble, pious expression in public, but God knows your evil hearts. Your pretense brings you honor from the people, but it is an abomination in the sight of God. ¹⁶ Until John the Baptist began to preach, the laws of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But John introduced the Good News that the Kingdom of God would come soon. And now eager multitudes are pressing in. ¹⁷ But that doesn’t mean that the Law has lost its force in even the smallest point. It is as strong and unshakable as heaven and earth.

¹⁸ “So anyone who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

¹⁹ “There was a certain rich man,” Jesus said, “who was splendidly clothed and lived each day in mirth and luxury. ²⁰ One day Lazarus, a diseased beggar, was laid at his door. ²¹ As he lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores. ²² Finally the beggar died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham in the place of the righteous dead.^[c] The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and his soul went into hell.^[d] There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham.

²⁴ “‘Father Abraham,’ he shouted, ‘have some pity! Send Lazarus over here if only to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in these flames.’

²⁵ “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted and you are in anguish. ²⁶ And besides, there is a great chasm separating us, and anyone wanting to come to you from here is stopped at its edge; and no one over there can cross to us.’

²⁷ “Then the rich man said, ‘O Father Abraham, then please send him to my father’s home— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—to warn them about this place of torment lest they come here when they die.’

²⁹ “But Abraham said, ‘The Scriptures have warned them again and again. Your brothers can read them any time they want to.’

³⁰ “The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham, they won’t bother to read them. But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will turn from their sins.’

³¹ “But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even though someone rises from the dead.’”^[e]

17 “There will always be temptations to sin,” Jesus said one day to his disciples, “but woe to the man who does the tempting. ^2-3 If he were thrown into the sea with a huge rock tied to his neck, he would be far better off than facing the punishment in store for those who harm these little children’s souls. I am warning you!

“Rebuke your brother if he sins, and forgive him if he is sorry. ⁴ Even if he wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, forgive him.”

⁵ One day the apostles said to the Lord, “We need more faith; tell us how to get it.”

⁶ “If your faith were only the size of a mustard seed,” Jesus answered, “it would be large enough to uproot that mulberry tree over there and send it hurtling into the sea! Your command would bring immediate results! ^7-9 When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, he doesn’t just sit down and eat, but first prepares his master’s meal and serves him his supper before he eats his own. And he is not even thanked, for he is merely doing what he is supposed to do. ¹⁰ Just so, if you merely obey me, you should not consider yourselves worthy of praise. For you have simply done your duty!”

¹¹ As they continued onward toward Jerusalem, they reached the border between Galilee and Samaria, ¹² and as they entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, ¹³ crying out, “Jesus, sir, have mercy on us!”

¹⁴ He looked at them and said, “Go to the Jewish priest and show him that you are healed!” And as they were going, their leprosy disappeared.

¹⁵ One of them came back to Jesus, shouting, “Glory to God, I’m healed!” ¹⁶ He fell flat on the ground in front of Jesus, face downward in the dust, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a despised^[f] Samaritan.

¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?”

¹⁹ And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

²⁰ One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God begin?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God isn’t ushered in with visible signs. ²¹ You won’t be able to say, ‘It has begun here in this place or there in that part of the country.’ For the Kingdom of God is within you.”^[g]

²² Later he talked again about this with his disciples. “The time is coming when you will long for me^[h] to be with you even for a single day, but I won’t be here,” he said. ²³ “Reports will reach you that I have returned and that I am in this place or that; don’t believe it or go out to look for me. ²⁴ For when I return, you will know it beyond all doubt. It will be as evident as the lightning that flashes across the skies. ²⁵ But first I must suffer terribly and be rejected by this whole nation.

²⁶ “When I return^[i] the world will be as indifferent to the things of God as the people were in Noah’s day. ²⁷ They ate and drank and married—everything just as usual right up to the day when Noah went into the ark and the Flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot: people went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— ²⁹ until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and brimstone rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the hour of my return.^[j]

³¹ “Those away from home that day must not return to pack; those in the fields must not return to town— ³² remember what happened to Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever clings to his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall save it. ³⁴ That night two men will be asleep in the same room, and one will be taken away, the other left. ^35-36 Two women will be working together at household tasks; one will be taken, the other left; and so it will be with men working side by side in the fields.”

³⁷ “Lord, where will they be taken?” the disciples asked.

Jesus replied, “Where the body is, the vultures gather!”^[k]

18 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must keep praying until the answer comes.

² “There was a city judge,” he said, “a very godless man who had great contempt for everyone. ³ A widow of that city came to him frequently to appeal for justice against a man who had harmed her. ^4-5 The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually she got on his nerves.

“‘I fear neither God nor man,’ he said to himself, ‘but this woman bothers me. I’m going to see that she gets justice, for she is wearing me out with her constant coming!’”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “If even an evil judge can be worn down like that, ⁷ don’t you think that God will surely give justice to his people who plead with him day and night? ⁸ Yes! He will answer them quickly! But the question is: When I, the Messiah,^[l] return, how many will I find who have faith and are praying?”

⁹ Then he told this story to some who boasted of their virtue and scorned everyone else:

¹⁰ “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, and the other a cheating tax collector. ¹¹ The proud Pharisee ‘prayed’ this prayer: ‘Thank God, I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t commit adultery, ¹² I go without food twice a week, and I give to God a tenth of everything I earn.’

¹³ “But the corrupt tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed, but beat upon his chest in sorrow, exclaiming, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home forgiven! For the proud shall be humbled, but the humble shall be honored.”

¹⁵ One day some mothers brought their babies to him to touch and bless. But the disciples told them to go away.

^16-17 Then Jesus called the children over to him and said to the disciples, “Let the little children come to me! Never send them away! For the Kingdom of God belongs to men who have hearts as trusting as these little children’s. And anyone who doesn’t have their kind of faith will never get within the Kingdom’s gates.”

¹⁸ Once a Jewish religious leader asked him this question: “Good sir, what shall I do to get to heaven?”

¹⁹ “Do you realize what you are saying when you call me ‘good’?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good, and no one else.

²⁰ “But as to your question, you know what the Ten Commandments say—don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your parents, and so on.” ²¹ The man replied, “I’ve obeyed every one of these laws since I was a small child.”

²² “There is still one thing you lack,” Jesus said. “Sell all you have and give the money to the poor—it will become treasure for you in heaven—and come, follow me.”

²³ But when the man heard this he went sadly away, for he was very rich.

²⁴ Jesus watched him go and then said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”

²⁶ Those who heard him say this exclaimed, “If it is that hard, how can anyone be saved?”

²⁷ He replied, “God can do what men can’t!”

²⁸ And Peter said, “We have left our homes and followed you.”

²⁹ “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and everyone who has done as you have, leaving home, wife, brothers, parents, or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God, ³⁰ will be repaid many times over now, as well as receiving eternal life in the world to come.”

³¹ Gathering the Twelve around him he told them, “As you know, we are going to Jerusalem. And when we get there, all the predictions of the ancient prophets concerning me will come true. ³² I will be handed over to the Gentiles to be mocked and treated shamefully and spat upon, ³³ and lashed and killed. And the third day I will rise again.”

³⁴ But they didn’t understand a thing he said. He seemed to be talking in riddles.

³⁵ As they approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting beside the road, begging from travelers. ³⁶ When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. ³⁷ He was told that Jesus from Nazareth was going by, ³⁸ so he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

³⁹ The crowds ahead of Jesus tried to hush the man, but he only yelled the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁰ When Jesus arrived at the spot, he stopped. “Bring the blind man over here,” he said. ⁴¹ Then Jesus asked the man, “What do you want?”

“Lord,” he pleaded, “I want to see!”

⁴² And Jesus said, “All right, begin seeing! Your faith has healed you.”

⁴³ And instantly the man could see and followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it happen praised God too.

19 ^1-2 As Jesus was passing through Jericho, a man named Zacchaeus, one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax-collecting business (and, of course, a very rich man), ³ tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowds. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed into a sycamore tree beside the road, to watch from there.

⁵ When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name! “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick! Come down! For I am going to be a guest in your home today!”

⁶ Zacchaeus hurriedly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy.

⁷ But the crowds were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

⁸ Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “Sir, from now on I will give half my wealth to the poor, and if I find I have overcharged anyone on his taxes, I will penalize myself by giving him back four times as much!”

^9-10 Jesus told him, “This shows^[m] that salvation has come to this home today. This man was one of the lost sons of Abraham, and I, the Messiah, have come to search for and to save such souls as his.”

¹¹ And because Jesus was nearing Jerusalem, he told a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away.

¹² “A nobleman living in a certain province was called away to the distant capital of the empire to be crowned king of his province. ¹³ Before he left he called together ten assistants and gave them each $2,000 to invest while he was gone. ¹⁴ But some of his people hated him and sent him their declaration of independence, stating that they had rebelled and would not acknowledge him as their king.

¹⁵ “Upon his return he called in the men to whom he had given the money, to find out what they had done with it, and what their profits were.

¹⁶ “The first man reported a tremendous gain—ten times as much as the original amount!

¹⁷ “‘Fine!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good man. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, and as your reward, you shall be governor of ten cities.’

¹⁸ “The next man also reported a splendid gain—five times the original amount.

¹⁹ “‘All right!’ his master said. ‘You can be governor over five cities.’

²⁰ “But the third man brought back only the money he had started with. ‘I’ve kept it safe,’ he said, ²¹ ‘because I was afraid you would demand my profits, for you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and even confiscating the crops that others plant.’ ²² ‘You vile and wicked slave,’ the king roared. ‘Hard, am I? That’s exactly how I’ll be toward you! If you knew so much about me and how tough I am, ²³ then why didn’t you deposit the money in the bank so that I could at least get some interest on it?’

²⁴ “Then turning to the others standing by he ordered, ‘Take the money away from him and give it to the man who earned the most.’

²⁵ “‘But, sir,’ they said, ‘he has enough already!’

²⁶ “‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘but it is always true that those who have, get more, and those who have little, soon lose even that. ²⁷ And now about these enemies of mine who revolted—bring them in and execute them before me.’”

²⁸ After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking along ahead of his disciples. ²⁹ As they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead, ³⁰ with instructions to go to the next village, and as they entered they were to look for a donkey tied beside the road. It would be a colt, not yet broken for riding.

“Untie him,” Jesus said, “and bring him here. ³¹ And if anyone asks you what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs him.’”

³² They found the colt as Jesus said, ³³ and sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners demanded an explanation.

“What are you doing?” they asked. “Why are you untying our colt?”

³⁴ And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs him!” ³⁵ So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw some of their clothing across its back for Jesus to sit on.

^36-37 Then the crowds spread out their robes along the road ahead of him, and as they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, the whole procession began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles Jesus had done.

³⁸ “God has given us a King!” they exulted. “Long live the King! Let all heaven rejoice! Glory to God in the highest heavens!”

³⁹ But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Sir, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

⁴⁰ He replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones along the road will burst into cheers!”

⁴¹ But as they came closer to Jerusalem and he saw the city ahead, he began to cry. ⁴² “Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down,” he wept, “and now it is too late. ⁴³ Your enemies will pile up earth against your walls and encircle you and close in on you, ⁴⁴ and crush you to the ground, and your children within you; your enemies will not leave one stone upon another—for you have rejected the opportunity God offered you.”

⁴⁵ Then he entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple is a place of prayer; but you have turned it into a den of thieves.’”

⁴⁷ After that he taught daily in the Temple, but the chief priests and other religious leaders and the business community^[n] were trying to find some way to get rid of him. ⁴⁸ But they could think of nothing, for he was a hero to the people—they hung on every word he said.

20 On one of those days when he was teaching and preaching the Good News in the Temple, he was confronted by the chief priests and other religious leaders and councilmen. ² They demanded to know by what authority he had driven out the merchants from the Temple.

³ “I’ll ask you a question before I answer,” he replied. ⁴ “Was John sent by God, or was he merely acting under his own authority?”

⁵ They talked it over among themselves. “If we say his message was from heaven, then we are trapped because he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say John was not sent from God, the people will mob us, for they are convinced that he was a prophet.” ⁷ Finally they replied, “We don’t know!”

⁸ And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t answer your question either.”

⁹ Now he turned to the people again and told them this story: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers, and went away to a distant land to live for several years. ¹⁰ When harvest time came, he sent one of his men to the farm to collect his share of the crops. But the tenants beat him up and sent him back empty-handed. ¹¹ Then he sent another, but the same thing happened; he was beaten up and insulted and sent away without collecting. ¹² A third man was sent and the same thing happened. He, too, was wounded and chased away.

¹³ “‘What shall I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will show respect for him.’

¹⁴ “But when the tenants saw his son, they said, ‘This is our chance! This fellow will inherit all the land when his father dies. Come on. Let’s kill him, and then it will be ours.’ ¹⁵ So they dragged him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What do you think the owner will do? ¹⁶ I’ll tell you—he will come and kill them and rent the vineyard to others.”

“But they would never do a thing like that,” his listeners protested.

¹⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what does the Scripture mean where it says, ‘The Stone rejected by the builders was made the cornerstone’?” ¹⁸ And he added, “Whoever stumbles over that Stone shall be broken; and those on whom it falls will be crushed to dust.”

¹⁹ When the chief priests and religious leaders heard about this story he had told, they wanted him arrested immediately, for they realized that he was talking about them. They were the wicked tenants in his illustration. But they were afraid that if they themselves arrested him, there would be a riot. So they tried to get him to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor as reason to arrest him.

²⁰ Watching their opportunity, they sent secret agents pretending to be honest men. ²¹ They said to Jesus, “Sir, we know what an honest teacher you are. You always tell the truth and don’t budge an inch in the face of what others think, but teach the ways of God. ²² Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?”

²³ He saw through their trickery and said, ²⁴ “Show me a coin. Whose portrait is this on it? And whose name?”

They replied, “Caesar’s—the Roman emperor’s.”

²⁵ He said, “Then give the emperor all that is his—and give to God all that is his!”

²⁶ Thus their attempt to outwit him before the people failed; and marveling at his answer, they were silent.

²⁷ Then some Sadducees—men who believed that death is the end of existence, that there is no resurrection— ²⁸ came to Jesus with this:

“The laws of Moses state that if a man dies without children, the man’s brother shall marry the widow, and their children will legally belong to the dead man, to carry on his name. ²⁹ We know of a family of seven brothers. The oldest married and then died without any children. ³⁰ His brother married the widow and he, too, died. Still no children. ³¹ And so it went, one after the other, until each of the seven had married her and died, leaving no children. ³² Finally the woman died also. ³³ Now here is our question: Whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all of them were married to her!”

^34-35 Jesus replied, “Marriage is for people here on earth, but when those who are counted worthy of being raised from the dead get to heaven, they do not marry. ³⁶ And they never die again; in these respects they are like angels, and are sons of God, for they are raised up in new life from the dead.

^37-38 “But as to your real question—whether or not there is a resurrection—why, even the writings of Moses himself prove this. For when he describes how God appeared to him in the burning bush, he speaks of God as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ To say that the Lord is some person’s God^[o] means that person is alive, not dead! So from God’s point of view, all men are living.”

³⁹ “Well said, sir!” remarked some of the experts in the Jewish law who were standing there. ⁴⁰ And that ended their questions, for they dared ask no more!

⁴¹ Then he presented them with a question. “Why is it,” he asked, “that Christ, the Messiah, is said to be a descendant of King David? ^42-43 For David himself wrote in the book of Psalms: ‘God said to my Lord, the Messiah, “Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies beneath your feet.”’ ⁴⁴ How can the Messiah be both David’s son and David’s God at the same time?”

⁴⁵ Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, ⁴⁶ “Beware of these experts in religion, for they love to parade in dignified robes and to be bowed to by the people as they walk along the street. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and at religious festivals! ⁴⁷ But even while they are praying long prayers with great outward piety, they are planning schemes to cheat widows out of their property. Therefore God’s heaviest sentence awaits these men.”