Love Your Enemies^(A)

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you not to oppose an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn your other cheek to him as well. ⁴⁰ If someone wants to sue you in order to take your shirt, let him have your coat too. ⁴¹ If someone forces you to go one mile, go two miles with him. ⁴² Give to everyone who asks you for something. Don’t turn anyone away who wants to borrow something from you.

Jesus Has Authority over the Day of Worship^(A)

12 Then on a day of worship Yeshua walked through the grainfields. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain to eat.

² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing something that is not right to do on the day of worship.”

³ Yeshua asked them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his men were hungry? ⁴ Haven’t you read how he went into the house of God and ate^[a] the bread of the presence? He and his men had no right to eat those loaves. Only the priests have that right. ⁵ Or haven’t you read in Moses’ Teachings that on the day of worship the priests in the temple do things they shouldn’t on the day of worship yet remain innocent? ⁶ I can guarantee that something^[b] greater than the temple is here. ⁷ If you had known what ‘I want mercy, not sacrifices’ means, you would not have condemned innocent people.

⁸ “The Son of Man has authority over the day of worship.”

Jesus Heals on the Day of Worship^(B)

⁹ Yeshua moved on from there and went into a synagogue. ¹⁰ A man with a paralyzed hand was there. The people asked Yeshua whether it was right to heal on a day of worship so that they could accuse him of doing something wrong.

¹¹ Yeshua said to them, “Suppose one of you has a sheep. If it falls into a pit on a day of worship, wouldn’t you take hold of it and lift it out? ¹² Certainly, a human is more valuable than a sheep! So it is right to do good on the day of worship.”

¹³ Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man held it out, and it became normal again, as healthy as the other.

¹⁴ The Pharisees left and plotted to kill Yeshua. ¹⁵ He knew about this, so he left that place.

Jesus Is God’s Servant

Many people followed him, and he cured all of them. ¹⁶ He also ordered them not to tell people who he was. ¹⁷ So what the prophet Isaiah had said came true:

Moses and Elijah Appear with Jesus^(A)

17 After six days Yeshua took Peter, James, and John (the brother of James) and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone.

² Yeshua’s appearance changed in front of them. His face became as bright as the sun and his clothes as white as light. ³ Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them and were talking with Yeshua.

⁴ Peter said to Yeshua, “Lord, it’s good that we’re here. If you want, I’ll put up three tents here—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵ He was still speaking when a bright cloud overshadowed them. Then a voice came out of the cloud and said, “This is my Son, whom I love and with whom I am pleased. Listen to him!”

⁶ The disciples were terrified when they heard this and fell facedown on the ground. ⁷ But Yeshua touched them and said, “Get up, and don’t be afraid!” ⁸ As they raised their heads, they saw no one but Yeshua.

⁹ On their way down the mountain, Yeshua ordered them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen. Wait until the Son of Man has been brought back to life.”

¹⁰ So the disciples asked him, “Why do the experts in Moses’ Teachings say that Elijah must come first?”

¹¹ Yeshua answered, “Elijah is coming and will put everything in order again.

Judas Plans to Betray Jesus^(A)

¹⁴ Then one of the twelve apostles, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests. ¹⁵ He asked, “What will you pay me if I hand him over to you?”

They offered him 30 silver coins. ¹⁶ From then on, he looked for a chance to betray Yeshua.

⁶ Yeshua told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in Scripture:

⁸ “You abandon the commandments of God to follow human traditions.” ⁹ He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions!

People from a Samaritan Village Reject Jesus

⁵¹ The time was coming closer for Yeshua to be taken to heaven. So he was determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² He sent messengers ahead of him. They went into a Samaritan village to arrange a place for him to stay. ⁵³ But the people didn’t welcome him, because he was on his way to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ James and John, his disciples, saw this. They asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?”

⁵⁵ But he turned and corrected them.^{[a] 56} So they went to another village.

³⁰ Yeshua replied, “A man went from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way robbers stripped him, beat him, and left him for dead.

³¹ “By chance, a priest was traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he went around him and continued on his way. ³² Then a Levite came to that place. When he saw the man, he, too, went around him and continued on his way.

³³ “But a Samaritan, as he was traveling along, came across the man. When the Samaritan saw him, he felt sorry for the man, ³⁴ went to him, and cleaned and bandaged his wounds. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day the Samaritan took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. He told the innkeeper, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than that, I’ll pay you on my return trip.’

³⁶ “Of these three men, who do you think was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by robbers?”

³⁷ The expert said, “The one who was kind enough to help him.”

Yeshua told him, “Go and imitate his example!”

23 Paul stared at the Jewish council and said, “Brothers, my relationship with God has always given me a perfectly clear conscience.”

² The chief priest Ananias ordered the men standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³ Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you hypocrite! You sit there and judge me by Moses’ Teachings and yet you break those teachings by ordering these men to strike me!”

⁴ The men standing near Paul said to him, “You’re insulting God’s chief priest!”

⁵ Paul answered, “Brothers, I didn’t know that he is the chief priest. After all, Scripture says, ‘Don’t speak evil about a ruler of your people.’”

⁶ When Paul saw that some of them were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he shouted in the council, “Brothers, I’m a Pharisee and a descendant of Pharisees. I’m on trial because I expect that the dead will come back to life.”

⁷ After Paul said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees began to quarrel, and the men in the meeting were divided. ⁸ (The Sadducees say that the dead won’t come back to life and that angels and spirits don’t exist. The Pharisees believe in all these things.) ⁹ The shouting became very loud. Some of the experts in Moses’ Teachings were Pharisees who argued their position forcefully. They said, “We don’t find anything wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel actually spoke to him!”

¹⁰ The quarrel was becoming violent, and the officer was afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces. So the officer ordered his soldiers to drag Paul back to the barracks.

¹¹ The Lord stood near Paul the next night and said to him, “Don’t lose your courage! You’ve told the truth about me in Jerusalem. Now you must tell the truth about me in Rome.”

¹⁵ Because Christ offered himself to God, he is able to bring a new promise from God. Through his death he paid the price to set people free from the sins they committed under the first promise. He did this so that those who are called can be guaranteed an inheritance that will last forever.

¹⁶ In order for a will to take effect, it must be shown that the one who made it has died. ¹⁷ A will is used only after a person is dead because it goes into effect only when a person dies.

¹⁸ That is why even the first promise was made with blood. ¹⁹ As Scripture tells us, Moses told all the people every commandment. Then he took the blood of calves and goats together with some water, red yarn, and hyssop and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰ He said, “Here is the blood that seals the promise God has made to you.” ²¹ In the same way, Moses sprinkled blood on the tent and on everything used in worship. ²² As Moses’ Teachings tell us, blood was used to cleanse almost everything, because if no blood is shed, no sins can be forgiven.