Book of Common Prayer

²⁴ After some days, Felix came with Drusilla his wife, who was Jewish. They sent for Paul and listened to him speaking about faith in the Messiah Jesus. ²⁵ As he talked about justice, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became afraid.

“That’s quite enough for now,” he said. “You can go. When I get a good opportunity I’ll call for you again another time.”

²⁶ At the same time he was hoping that Paul would give him money, and so he sent for him frequently and talked with him. ²⁷ After two years Felix handed over the reins of office to Porcius Festus. He wanted to do the Jews a favor, and so he left Paul in prison.

To Caesar you shall go

25 So Festus arrived in the province, and after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. ² The high priests and the leading men of the Jews appeared before him, laying charges against Paul, and putting a request to him. ³ They wanted him to do a special favor for them and against Paul, by sending for him to be brought up to Jerusalem. They were making a plan to kill him on the way. ⁴ But Festus answered that he was keeping Paul at Caesarea, and that he himself would shortly be going back there.

⁵ “So,” he said, “your officials should come down with me. They can put any accusations of wrongdoing they may have against the man.”

⁶ He stayed with them for a few days (about eight or ten) and then went down to Caesarea. On the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought to him. ⁷ When he appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him and hurled many serious accusations at him, which they were not able to substantiate. ⁸ Paul made his response: “I have offended neither against the Jews’ law, nor against the Temple, nor against Caesar.”

⁹ Festus, however, wanted to do a favor to the Jews. “Tell me,” he said to Paul in reply, “how would you like to go up to Jerusalem and be tried by me there about these things?”

¹⁰ “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal,” said Paul, “which is where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you well know. ¹¹ If I have committed any wrong, or if I have done something which means I deserve to die, I’m not trying to escape death. But if I haven’t done any of the things they are accusing me of, nobody can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

¹² Festus consulted with his advisers.

“You have appealed to Caesar,” he said, “and to Caesar you shall go.”

The parable of the sower

8 Soon afterwards, Jesus went about in person, with the Twelve, through the towns and villages, announcing and proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom. ² They were accompanied by various women who had been healed from evil spirits and diseases: Mary who was called “Magdalene,” from whom seven demons had gone out, ³ Joanna the wife of Chouza (Herod’s steward), and Susanna, and many others. They looked after the needs of Jesus and his companions out of their own pockets.

⁴ A large crowd came together, and people came to him from town after town. He spoke to them in parables: ⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some fell by the road, and was trodden on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶ Other seed fell on stony ground, and when it came up it withered, because it didn’t have any moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell in among thorns, and when the thorns grew up they choked it. ⁸ Other seed again fell into good soil, and came up, and gave a yield of a hundredfold.”

As he said this, he called out: “If you’ve got ears to hear, then hear!”

⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable was about.

¹⁰ “You are being let in on the secrets of God’s kingdom,” he said, “but to the rest it happens in parables, so that ‘they may see but not perceive, and hear but not understand.’

¹¹ “This is the parable: the seed is the word of God. ¹² Those by the roadside are people who hear, but then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they won’t believe it and be saved. ¹³ Those on the stony ground are those who hear the word and receive it with delight—but they don’t have any root, and so they believe only for a time, and then, when a time of testing comes, they draw back. ¹⁴ The seed that falls in among thorns represents people who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and they don’t bear proper, ripening fruit. ¹⁵ But those in the good soil are the ones who hear the word and hold on to it with an upright and good heart, and who patiently produce fruit.”