Book of Common Prayer

²³ The Lord gave me what I taught you. This is what it was. On the night when the Lord Jesus was sold to his enemies, he took bread.

²⁴ He thanked God for it. Then he broke it and said, `Take this bread and eat it. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this so that you will remember me.'

²⁵ In the same way, after they had eaten, he took the cup. He said, `This cup is the new agreement made by my blood. Every time you drink from this cup, do it to remember me.'

²⁶ Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you tell about the Lord's death, until he comes again.

²⁷ So then, when anyone eats the bread and drinks from the cup in a way that is not right, he has done wrong to the body and blood of the Lord.

²⁸ Each one must look into his own heart carefully. When he has done that, he may eat the bread and drink from the cup.

²⁹ The person who eats and drinks in a wrong way will be punished. He does not take it as the Lord's body.

³⁰ That is why many of you are weak and sick. Many have died.

³¹ But if we took time to look into our hearts first, then we would not be punished.

³² When we are punished, the Lord is teaching us to do right, so that we will not be punished with the rest of the people of the world.

³³ So, my Christian brothers, when you come together to eat the Lord's supper, wait on your turn.

³⁴ If a man is hungry, he should eat at home. Then when you meet, you will not be found in the wrong. There are other matters. I will talk about them when I come to see you.

⁹ Jesus went on from there. He saw a man named Matthew. He was sitting at the place where people came to pay taxes. Jesus said to him, `Come with me.' Matthew stood up and went with him.

¹⁰ Jesus was eating in a house. Many tax collectors and bad people came in. They sat down to eat with Jesus and his disciples.

¹¹ The Pharisees saw this. They said to his disciples, `Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and bad people?'

¹² Jesus heard it. He said to them, `People who are well do not need a doctor. But sick people need him.

¹³ Go and learn what this means: "I want you to be kind. I do not want a sacrifice." I did not come to call good people. I came to call bad people to stop doing wrong things.'

¹⁴ Then John's disciples came to Jesus. They said, `We and the Pharisees fast. Why do your disciples not do the same?'

¹⁵ Jesus answered, `The people at a wedding cannot be sad while the man who is married is with them. But the time will come when he will be taken away from them. Then they will not eat.

¹⁶ No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat. If he does, the new cloth will tear the old coat. Then the hole is bigger than it was before.

¹⁷ `People do not put new wine into old wine skins. If they do, the old skins break. The wine is lost and the skins are spoiled. New wine is put into new skins. And so they are both saved.'