Bible in 90 Days

Jesus sends out 72 disciples

10 After this, Jesus chose another 72 disciples. He sent them out two by two, to every town and village that he would visit soon. ² Before they went, he said to them, ‘Many people are ready to believe God's message. They are like crops in a field at harvest time. But there are very few workers to bring in the crops. So pray to God to send out workers. The field and the plants belong to him.’^[a]

³ Jesus then said, ‘I am sending you out, so go! But listen! You will be like young sheep among wild animals. ⁴ Do not carry a purse or a bag. Do not take extra shoes. When you meet other people on the road, do not stop to say “hello”.^[b]

⁵ In each town, when you go into a house, first say to the people who live there, “We pray that all will be well with you!” ⁶ Someone in the house may accept what you say. If they do, God will bless them. But if nobody accepts your kind words, God will bless you instead of them. ⁷ Stay in the same house there until you leave that town. Accept the food and drink that the people in the house give to you. You are working to help them. So they should give you what you need to live. Do not visit different houses to get food. ⁸ The people may accept you well when you go into a town. Then eat the food that those people give to you. ⁹ Make the sick people well who are there. Give this message to all the people there: “The kingdom of God has now come near to you.” ¹⁰ Sometimes when you go into a town, the people will not accept you. You should then go into the streets of that town and you should say to the people, ¹¹ “There is dirt from your town on our feet. We will clean it off to show that you have not accepted us. God is not happy with you. But listen! You should know that the kingdom of God has come very near.” ¹² One day God will punish the people from that town. Yes, he will punish them more than the people who lived in Sodom long ago.’^[c]

Some towns where people did not believe

¹³ Jesus then said, ‘You people in Chorazin, things will be bad for you! And things will be bad for you, people in Bethsaida. I have done great and powerful things in your cities. If I had done such great things in Tyre and in Sidon, the people there would have changed how they lived. They would have shown that they were sorry for their sins. They would have put on rough clothes. They would also have put ashes on their heads. ¹⁴ Yes, when God judges everyone, he will punish the people of Tyre and Sidon. But he will punish even more you people from Chorazin and Bethsaida. ¹⁵ And what will happen to you people in Capernaum? You think that God will lift you up to heaven, do you? No! He will throw you down to Hades, the place for dead people!’^[d]

¹⁶ Jesus then said to his disciples, ‘Whoever listens to you is also listening to me. Whoever does not accept you does not accept me. And whoever does not accept me does not accept my Father God, who sent me.’

The 72 disciples return

¹⁷ Later, the 72 disciples that Jesus had sent out returned to him. They were very happy. ‘Master,’ they said, ‘even bad spirits obey us. When we use your name, they do what we say.’

¹⁸ Jesus replied, ‘I saw the Devil himself fall from heaven like lightning. ¹⁹ Listen! I have given power to you. You will even stand on dangerous snakes and insects and you will have authority over all the power of the Devil. Nothing will hurt you. ²⁰ But do not be happy because you have authority over bad spirits. God has written your names in his book in heaven. That is why you should be happy.’

Jesus is very happy

²¹ At this moment, the Holy Spirit made Jesus very happy. He said, ‘Father, you rule over everything in heaven and on the earth! People that do not know many things now can understand your message. I thank you for this. But you have hidden these things from other people. Those people think that they understand everything. They think that they are wise. Yes, Father, this is how you wanted it to happen.’

²² Jesus then said, ‘My Father has given me authority over all things. Only the Father knows who I am, his Son. Only I know who the Father is, because I am his Son. I also choose to tell some people about him. Then they also know him.’

²³ Then Jesus turned and he spoke only to his disciples. He said to them, ‘Be happy because of the things that you are now able to see and understand. ²⁴ I tell you this: Many prophets and kings from a long time ago wanted to see these things. But they did not see the things that you are seeing. They wanted to hear the message that you are hearing. But they did not hear it.’

A story about a good man from Samaria

²⁵ A teacher of God's Law stood up. He wanted to see how Jesus would answer his question. So he asked Jesus, ‘Teacher, what must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’

²⁶ ‘What does God's Law say?’ Jesus asked. ‘What do you understand when you read it?’

²⁷ The man replied, ‘It says that we must love the Lord our God with all our mind and with all our strength. We must love him with all that we are and in all that we think. It also says that we must love other people as much as we love ourselves.’^[e]

²⁸ ‘You have told me the right answer,’ Jesus said. ‘If you do this, you will have true life with God.’

²⁹ But the man wanted to show that he had been right to ask a question. So he asked, ‘Who are the people near to me that I must love?’

³⁰ Jesus answered him with a story: ‘A man was going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho town. On the way, some men attacked him. They took away all his clothes and they hit him with sticks. He was almost dead when they left him. ³¹ But it happened that a priest from the temple was going down that road. He saw the man, who was lying there. But he walked past him on the other side of the road. ³² A Levite was also going down the road. He came to the place where the man was lying. He saw him. But he also walked past on the other side of the road.^[f]

³³ But then a man from Samaria was also travelling along the road. And he came to the place where the man was lying. When he saw him, he felt very sorry for him. ³⁴ He went across to him. He poured oil and wine on the places where he was bleeding.^[g] Then he tied those places with clean cloths. After that, he put the man on his own donkey to carry him. They arrived at a small hotel. He took the man in there and he was kind to him.^[h]

³⁵ The next day, the man from Samaria took out two silver coins from his purse.^[i] He gave the money to the man that was taking care of the hotel. “Be kind to this man for me,” he said. “This money may not be enough. When I return, I will pay you for any more that you have spent on him.” ’

³⁶ Then Jesus asked the teacher of God's Law a question. He said, ‘Three men saw the man that was lying on the road. Which of them showed love to him, like a real friend?’

³⁷ The teacher answered, ‘It was the man who was kind to him.’

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Yes. So you should go and do the same for other people.’

Jesus visits the home of Martha and Mary

³⁸ Jesus and his disciples continued their journey. They arrived at a certain village. There, a woman called Martha asked Jesus to come into her home.^{[j] 39} Martha had a sister called Mary. Mary sat down near Jesus. She was listening to the things that he was teaching. ⁴⁰ But Martha was thinking to herself, ‘I cannot do all this work alone.’ So she went to Jesus. She said, ‘Master, my sister is not helping me with the work. She has left me to do it alone. You surely do not think that this is right! Tell her that she should help me!’

⁴¹ The Lord Jesus replied, ‘Martha, Martha, you have troubles in your mind about many things. ⁴² But only one thing is really important. That is what Mary has chosen to do. Nobody will take it away from her.’^[k]

Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray

11 One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place. He finished praying. Then, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Master, John taught his disciples how to pray. Please teach us as he did.’

² Jesus replied, ‘When you pray, you should say this:

⁵ Jesus then told a story to teach them how to pray. He said, ‘Let me tell you about someone who goes to a friend's home at midnight. “My friend,” he says, “please give me three loaves of bread. ⁶ A friend of mine is on a journey and he has arrived at my house. But I have no food to give him.” ⁷ But his friend answers from inside his house. He says, “Do not cause problems for me! I have locked my door. My children and I have gone to bed. So I cannot get up and give you any bread.” ’

⁸ Then Jesus said, ‘I will tell you what will happen. Perhaps your friend will not give you anything just because you are good friends. But if you continue to knock and ask for bread, your friend will get up. He will give you bread, as much as you need.

⁹ So I tell you this. Continue to ask God for what you need. Then God will give it to you. Continue to look for what you need. Then you will find it. Continue to knock at the door and God will open it for you. ¹⁰ Everyone that asks for something will receive it. Everyone that looks for something will find it. God will open the door for everyone that knocks on it. ¹¹ Some of you are fathers. If your son asks you for a fish, you would not give him a snake instead. ¹² If he asks you for an egg, you would not give him something dangerous. ¹³ You are bad. But even you know how to give good things to your children. Your Father in heaven knows much better than you do how to give good things to his children. So he will give the Holy Spirit to everyone who asks him.’^[l]

Jesus teaches about the Devil

¹⁴ One day, Jesus was telling a bad spirit to go out of a man. Because of the bad spirit, the man could not speak. But after it had gone out of him, the man could speak again. All the people that were watching were surprised at this. ¹⁵ But some people in the crowd were not happy with Jesus and they said, ‘This man can send bad spirits out of people because Beelzebul gives him authority.^[m] That is Satan, the one who rules all the bad spirits.’

¹⁶ Some other people wanted to test Jesus to see what he would do. So they asked him, ‘Do something powerful for us to see. Then we will know that God has really sent you.’^[n]

¹⁷ But Jesus knew what those people were thinking. He said to them, ‘If armies in a country start to fight each other, they will destroy their own country. If people in one family fight against each other, they will destroy their own family. ¹⁸ So Satan would not fight against himself. If he did that, it would be the end of his kingdom. But you say that Beelzebul helps me to destroy bad spirits. ¹⁹ If that is true, what do you say about your own disciples? They also send bad spirits out of people. You would not say that it is Satan's power that helps them. So your own people show that you are wrong about this. ²⁰ When I send bad spirits out of people, I use the power of God. This shows that God has come to rule among you.

²¹ When a strong man has all the weapons he needs to fight with, he can take care of his own house. Nobody will be able to rob him of the things inside his house. ²² But someone may come who is stronger than he is. That man will attack him and beat him. The strong man believed his weapons would keep him safe. But the stronger man will take his weapons away. He will take the strong man's things and give them to other people.^[o]

²³ If someone does not agree to help me, he is working against me. You should work with me to bring people to me for help. If you do not do that, you are making people run away from me.’^[p]

²⁴ Jesus then said, ‘When a bad spirit goes out of a person, it travels through dry places. It looks for a new place to live. But maybe it does not find anywhere. So it says to itself, “I will return to the place where I lived before.” ²⁵ Then it goes back to that person. It finds that the place is empty. Everything there is now good and clean. ²⁶ So the bad spirit goes out and it brings back seven other spirits. They are even worse than itself. They all go into the person and they live there. Now the person's life is even worse than it was before.’^[q]

²⁷ While Jesus was saying this, a woman in the crowd shouted out. ‘How happy is the woman that gave birth to you! How happy is the woman that fed you from her breasts!’

²⁸ Jesus replied, ‘It is the people who hear God's message who are happy. They are happy if they obey it.’

Jesus talks about Jonah

²⁹ The crowd around Jesus was growing very large, so he began to speak to them. ‘The people that are alive today are very bad,’ he said. ‘They want God to show them something powerful. But God will not do this for them. They will only see the same powerful thing that God did for Jonah.^{[r] 30} Jonah showed God's power to the people who lived in Nineveh. They knew that God had sent him. In the same way the Son of Man will show God's power to the people that are living today. Then they will know that God has sent me.

³¹ Also, the queen of Sheba travelled a long way to see King Solomon. She wanted to hear his wise words. When God judges everyone, she will stand up. She will speak against you who are alive today. She will show that you are bad people. She listened to King Solomon. But look! There is someone here now who is greater than Solomon was.^[s]

³² When God judges everyone, the people who lived in Nineveh will be there. They will stand up and they will speak against you. They will show that the people who are alive today are bad. When Jonah spoke to the people in Nineveh long ago, they stopped doing bad things. But look! There is someone here now who is greater than Jonah was.’

Jesus talks about light

³³ Then Jesus said, ‘When someone lights a lamp, he does not hide it. Nor does he put it under a pot. Instead, he puts it in a high place. Then other people who come into the room can see the light from the lamp. ³⁴ Your eyes are like lamps and your body is like a room. Be careful that your eyes are like a clean lamp, then your whole body will have light. But if your eyes are dirty, your whole body will be completely in the dark. ³⁵ So you must be careful. Be sure that you really have light in you. Be sure that you are not still in the dark. ³⁶ Your whole body needs to have lots of light. Nothing dark should be there. It will be as if a lamp is shining its bright light on you.’^[t]

Jesus warns some Pharisees

³⁷ While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to eat a meal with him. So Jesus went to the Pharisee's house and he sat down at the table. ³⁸ Jesus did not wash his hands before he ate the meal. This surprised the Pharisee. ³⁹ So the Lord Jesus said to him, ‘You Pharisees are like someone who only cleans the outside of his cup and his plate. You only clean the part that people can see. But inside, your mind is full of bad thoughts.^[u] You like to take things from other people. ⁴⁰ What fools you are! God made the inside of you as well as the outside. He knows all about you. ⁴¹ So be ready to give things to poor people. Then you will be really clean, on the inside as well as the outside.

⁴² It will be very bad for you Pharisees! When you grow spices to cook with food, you give a tenth part of these small things to God. You are right to obey this rule. But you do not do the most important things. You do not help people in a good way. You do not really love God. You should have done the important things as well as the other little things.

⁴³ Yes, it will be very bad for you Pharisees! You like to sit in the best seats in the meeting place. And you like people to praise you in the market place.

⁴⁴ It will be very bad for you. You want to seem good to other people, but you are bad on the inside. You are like a grave that has nothing to show that it is there. People walk on that place because they do not know that there is a dead person there.’^[v]

⁴⁵ Then a teacher of God's Law spoke out. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘when you say these things, you are also saying bad things about us.’

⁴⁶ Jesus replied, ‘It will be very bad for you as well, teachers of God's Law. You give rules to people to obey. Those rules are like things that are too heavy for people to carry.^[w] You do not even help people to carry them. Not even with one finger do you help them!

⁴⁷ Yes, it will be very bad for you! A long time ago, your ancestors killed God's prophets. Now, you build up beautiful stones to show the place where they buried them. ⁴⁸ You know that your ancestors killed the prophets. Now you build up the places where they buried them. So you show that you agree with your ancestors. You agree with what they did. ⁴⁹ God is wise. Because you do not obey what is true, he said, “I will send my prophets and apostles to go to them. But they will kill some of my servants. They will hurt others of them.” ⁵⁰ Since the beginning of the world, people have killed God's prophets. But God will punish the people who are alive today for all those murders. ⁵¹ Abel was the first to die like this and Zechariah was the last. They even killed Zechariah in the yard of the temple, near the altar.^[x] Yes, God will punish the people who are alive today for all those murders.

⁵² It will be very bad for you teachers of God's Law! You have studied God's message. But you do not then accept it. You have also stopped people who really wanted to know God's message. Then they could not go on to accept it and go into God's kingdom.’

⁵³ Then Jesus left that place. The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law were angry against Jesus. They were asking him many difficult questions. ⁵⁴ They wanted to make him say something wrong. Then they could take hold of him.

Jesus tells the people to be careful how they live

12 While all this was happening, many thousands of people had come together near that place. The crowd was so big that people were almost walking over each other. Jesus began to talk first to his disciples. He said, ‘Be careful! Do not accept the yeast of the Pharisees.^[y] Do not be hypocrites like they are.

² Some people hide the things that they do. But there will be a time when other people will see those things clearly. Everyone will know all their secrets. ³ You may have said things secretly, in the dark of the night. But one day, people will hear those things in the light of day. You may have said things quietly into someone's ear, behind a door that you have shut. But one day, people will shout out those secrets loudly from the tops of the houses.

⁴ You are my friends, so I tell you this: do not be afraid of those people who can kill only your body. After that, they can do nothing worse to you. ⁵ But I tell you, it is God that you should be afraid of. He has the power to kill people and then to throw them into hell. Yes, I am telling you, be very afraid of him.

⁶ Think about this. People sell five birds for two small coins. But each little bird is valuable to God. He knows about them all and takes care of them. ⁷ God even knows how many hairs there are on your head. So do not be afraid of those people who are against you. You are more valuable to God than many little birds.

⁸ I tell you this. You should say clearly to other people, “I believe in Jesus.” If you do this, I, the Son of Man, will say to the angels of God, “This is someone who is my disciple.” ⁹ But if you say to other people, “I do not believe in Jesus,” I will say to the angels of God, “I do not know this person. He is not one of my disciples.”

¹⁰ Somebody may speak against me, the Son of Man, and God will forgive him. But if somebody says bad things against the Holy Spirit, God will not forgive that person.^[z]

¹¹ People will take you into their meeting places. They will make you stand in front of rulers and other people that have authority. They will want to show that you have done bad things. But do not be afraid of them. Do not worry about what you should say. ¹² At that time, the Holy Spirit will teach you. He will tell you what words you should say.’

A story about a rich fool

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, I have a problem with my brother. Our father has died. Tell my brother to give me my part of the things that our father left us.’^[aa]

¹⁴ Jesus replied, ‘It is not my job to say which of you is right or wrong. And it is not my job to say how much each of you should have.’ ¹⁵ Then he said to all the people, ‘Be very careful! Do not want more things than you really need. A person's life is worth more than the things that he has, even if he is very rich.’

¹⁶ Jesus then told them a story: ‘A man had some very good ground, where he planted seeds. The plants grew very well. When they became ripe, he had much more than he planted. ¹⁷ He thought about how much he would soon have. “I have nowhere to store all the food from my plants,” he said to himself. ¹⁸ But then he decided what to do. He thought, “I will pull down the building where I now store my food. Then I will build a bigger place to store it all, as well as everything else that is mine. ¹⁹ Then I will say to myself, ‘You have plenty of things stored safely. These will be enough for you for many years. Now you can live an easy life. Eat and drink as much as you want. Enjoy yourself.’ ”

²⁰ But then God said to the man, “You are a fool! Tonight you will die. You will have to leave everything behind that you have stored. Somebody else will have them, but you will not!” ’

²¹ Then Jesus said, ‘Some people think only about having many things for themselves. This story shows how those people live. But God says about them, “They have nothing of value at all.” ’

Do not have troubles in your mind

²² Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you this: You should not worry about how to stay alive. Do not worry about the food that you need to stay alive. Do not worry about the clothes that you need to wear. ²³ Your life is more important than the food that you eat. Your body is more important than your clothes.

²⁴ Think about the birds. They do not plant seeds in the ground. They do not cut down plants to eat. They have no buildings to store food. But God gives them food to eat. You are much more valuable than the birds. ²⁵ Even if you always worry about your life, you cannot make it as much as one hour longer! ²⁶ No, you cannot even do a small thing like that. So, if you are always worrying about the things that you need, will that really help you?

²⁷ Think about how the wild flowers grow. They do not do work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you this about them: Even one wild flower is more beautiful than King Solomon was. And King Solomon wore the most beautiful clothes. ²⁸ It is God that gives beautiful clothes even to the grass. One day the grass is growing in the field, but the next day people will cut it and burn it.^[ab] God will certainly take care of you, much more than he takes care of the grass. You should trust him more than you do!

²⁹ Do not always be thinking about the food and drink that you need. Do not worry about things like that. ³⁰ People who do not know God are always trying to get these things. But as for you, your Father God knows that you need them. ³¹ Instead, always think about the things that are important in the kingdom of God. Then God will also give you the things that you need each day.

³² You are only a small group of people, but do not be afraid. Your Father God has given his kingdom to you. He is happy to do that. ³³ So sell what you have and give the money to poor people. Then you will have valuable things in heaven. That is like keeping your money in a bag that will never have any holes in it. There, the value of your things will never become less. There, nobody can take them from you. Insects cannot destroy them. ³⁴ If you do that, you will be thinking a lot about heaven. That is where you will have stored your valuable things.’

Be ready for Jesus to return

³⁵ Jesus said, ‘Always be ready for my return. Be like people that are ready to start work at any time. They have put on their clothes so that they are ready for work.^[ac] And they have lit their lamps. ³⁶ You must be like servants that are waiting for their master to arrive. When he returns home from the marriage party, he will knock on the door. His servants should be ready to open it for him immediately. ³⁷ Those servants will be very happy if their master finds them awake. I tell you this: The master will dress himself to give them food. He will say to them, “Sit at the table. I will come to serve you.”

³⁸ The master may arrive in the middle of the night. He may even arrive just before the sun rises. But, if the master finds them awake and ready, the servants will be happy.

³⁹ You can be sure about this. The master of a house does not know when a man might come to rob him. If he knew the time, he would keep awake. He would not let the robber come into his house and take away his things.

⁴⁰ You also must be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time when you are not thinking about it.’^[ad]

Be a good servant

⁴¹ Peter asked Jesus, ‘Master, are you only telling this story to us, your disciples? Or is this story for everyone to hear?’

⁴² Jesus replied, ‘Be a wise servant. Be someone that the master can trust. The master will choose a man like that. He will say to him, “I want you to rule my house and the other servants. Give them the food that they need at the right time.” ⁴³ That servant will be very happy when his master comes home. His master will see that he has done everything well. ⁴⁴ Let me tell you what will happen. The master will give that servant authority to rule over everything in his house. ⁴⁵ But another servant might say to himself, “My master is very late. He will not come yet.” Then he begins to hit the other servants, both the men and the women. He eats too much, and he drinks too much. He even becomes drunk. ⁴⁶ Then the master of that servant will come home and he will surprise the servant. He did not think that his master would come home on that day or at that time. Then the master will punish that servant a lot. He will put the servant with those people that do not obey him.

⁴⁷ A servant may know what his master wants him to do. Then he should prepare himself and do that. If he does not, his master will punish him very much. He will hit him a lot. ⁴⁸ But another servant perhaps does not know what his master wants him to do. So he does wrong things. The master will punish him because he did those wrong things. But he will not hit him as much. If God gives a lot to somebody, he will want a lot back in return. And God will want much more from the person to whom he has given authority over much more.

⁴⁹ I came to start a fire on earth. I would be happy if that fire were already burning. ⁵⁰ I have a baptism of pain to receive. I cannot rest until this has happened.^[ae]

⁵¹ I did not come into the world so that everyone will agree with each other. No, I tell you. I came to put people against one another. ⁵² From now on, because of me, five people in a family will be against each other. Two people will be against the other three. Three of them will be against the other two. ⁵³ They will not agree together. The father will be against his son and the son will be against his father. The mother will be against her daughter and the daughter will be against her mother. The mother will be against her son's wife. And the son's wife will be against her husband's mother.’^[af]

⁵⁴ Then Jesus said to the crowd, ‘If you see a cloud that is rising in the west, immediately you say, “It will rain.” And the rain does come. ⁵⁵ Sometimes you see that the south wind is blowing. So you say, “It will be very hot weather.” And the hot weather does come. ⁵⁶ You are hypocrites! You look at the earth and the sky, and you know what weather will come. So look at the special things that are happening near you now. They show you what will soon happen. But you do not understand what they are showing you. Why not?^[ag]

⁵⁷ You should know what is right. And you should do it. ⁵⁸ This may happen to you: Someone says, “You have done something wrong against me.” So he takes hold of you to go to the judge.^[ah] Before you arrive at the office of the judge, try to agree with this man how to make things right again. If you do not agree together about the problem, it may be bad for you. The judge will give you to his officer. The officer will put you in prison. ⁵⁹ I tell you. You will remain in prison until you have paid all the money, even the last small coin.’^[ai]

Stop doing wrong things or die

13 At that time, some people were with Jesus. They told him what happened to some people from Galilee. They had been burning animals as a gift for God. Pilate sent some soldiers to kill them.^[aj]

² Jesus replied, ‘Think about those people from Galilee. Perhaps you think that they had done more bad things than other people from Galilee. Do you think that is why they had to die? ³ No! But I tell you this. All of you have done many bad things. So you must change how you live and you must turn to God. If you do not, you will also die as they did.

⁴ And you remember what happened to those 18 people in Siloam. A high building fell down and it killed them. Perhaps you think that they had done more bad things than the other people in Jerusalem. ⁵ But I tell you, no, they had not. All of you have also done many bad things. So you must change how you live and you must turn to God. If you do not, you will also die as they did.’

A story about a fig tree

⁶ Then Jesus told this story. ‘A man had a garden where he grew fruit. He had planted a fig tree there. But when he came to look for fruit on it, he could not find any. ⁷ So he said to his gardener, “Look, for three years, I have come to look for fruit on this tree. But I have never found any. So cut the tree down! I do not think that it should be here. It is wasting the ground.”

⁸ “Master,” the gardener replied, “please leave the tree in the ground for one more year. Let me dig round it and let me put some good soil there.^{[ak] 9} If I do that, next year, the fig tree may have some fruit on it. If it does not, I will cut it down for you.” ’^[al]

Jesus makes a sick woman well again

¹⁰ One day, Jesus was teaching in a Jewish meeting place. It was the Jewish day of rest.

¹¹ There was a woman there that had a bad spirit inside her. It had lived in her for 18 years and it had made her ill. Her back was bent. She could not stand up straight. ¹² Jesus saw her and he called her to come to him. He said, ‘Woman, you are now better from your illness.’ ¹³ He put his hands on her and immediately she could stand up straight. She praised God.

¹⁴ But the leader of the meeting place was angry because Jesus had made a sick person well on their day of rest. He said to the people there, ‘There are six days each week when we should work. Come on any of those days and get well. But you should not come on our day of rest to get well.’

¹⁵ ‘You are wrong,’ the Lord Jesus said to him. ‘You teach one thing but you do something different yourselves. On the day of rest you will undo the rope on your ox or your donkey and take it outside. You then give it water to drink. Is that not true?^{[am] 16} Now look at this woman. She belongs to the family of Abraham. But a bad spirit from the Devil has made her ill for 18 years. It is like he has tied her up. So it must be right to make her free on our day of rest.’

¹⁷ These words made the leaders of the meeting place feel ashamed. But the other people there were very happy. They were happy because they had seen Jesus do many good and powerful things.

Jesus tells stories about seeds and yeast

¹⁸ Then Jesus said to them, ‘I will tell you a story about the kingdom of God and what it is like. ¹⁹ It is like a very small seed of the plant called mustard. A man took this seed and he planted it in his garden. The seed grew and it became a tree. It was so big that birds came and made their nests among its branches.’

²⁰ Jesus then said, ‘Here is another example of what the kingdom of God is like. ²¹ It is like how yeast works. A woman took some of it and she mixed it into three large bowls of flour. Then the yeast went through all the flour so that it grew big.’

A story about a narrow door

²² Jesus was continuing his journey towards Jerusalem. On the way, he went through towns and villages. In each one, he taught the people. ²³ One day, somebody asked him, ‘Sir, will God only save a small number of people?’

²⁴ Jesus said to the people there, ‘Do your best to go in through the narrow door. I tell you that many people will want to get in there. But they will not be able to go through it. ²⁵ Soon the master of the house will get up and he will shut the door. And then you may still be standing outside the door. You will knock and you will say, “Master, please open the door for us to come in.”

But the master will reply, “I do not know you. I do not know where you come from.” ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, “But Master, we had meals with you. You taught us in the streets of our villages.”

²⁷ But he will tell you, “No! I really do not know you. I do not know where you come from. You have done very bad things, so go away from me, all of you!”

²⁸ Then you will weep very much because you are standing outside. You will bite your teeth together.^[an] You will see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the place where God rules. You will also see all God's prophets there. But God will shut you outside. ²⁹ At that time, people will come from everywhere in the world, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They will all come to take their place in the kingdom of God. There they will sit down together to eat a great meal. ³⁰ Listen! At that time, some people that are not important now will become the most important. And some people that are now the most important will not be important then.’

³¹ At that moment, some Pharisees came to Jesus. ‘Go away from here,’ they said to him. ‘Go somewhere else, because Herod wants to kill you.’

³² ‘Herod is a bad man,’ Jesus replied. ‘Tell him this: “I am still causing bad spirits to come out of people. I am still making sick people well again. I will continue to do all these things for some more days. On the third day I will have finished my work.” ³³ Anyway, I need to continue my journey for some more days. If they want to kill a prophet from God, it has to happen in Jerusalem.

³⁴ Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Your people have killed God's prophets. And they have thrown stones to kill other people that God has sent to you. Many times, I have wanted to bring all of your people near to me. A female bird covers her babies with her body to make them safe. But you would not let me keep you from danger like that. ³⁵ So listen! Your place will now become like a wilderness where nobody lives.^[ao] I tell you this. You will not see me again until the day when you say, “May the Lord God bless the man who comes with his authority!” ’

Jesus goes to the house of a Pharisee

14 One Jewish day of rest, Jesus went into the house of a leader of the Pharisees. This man had asked him to come and to eat a meal with him. The people there were all watching him carefully. ² A sick man came up to Jesus. His arms and legs had grown fat, because they were full of water. ³ So Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and to the teachers of God's Law. He asked them, ‘Is it right for us to make someone well on our day of rest, or not?’ ⁴ But they would not say anything. So Jesus took the sick man and he made him well again. Then he let him go away.

⁵ Then Jesus asked the people, ‘Maybe one of you has a son or an animal that falls into a well on our day of rest. What will you do? You will pull the child or the animal out of the well immediately.’ ⁶ When Jesus said this, they could not say anything else.

⁷ Jesus watched how people chose the best places to sit at the meal.^[ap] So he told this story to those who were sitting there:

⁸ ‘When someone asks you to come to a special meal, do not sit in the best place. A man that is more important than you may come later. ⁹ Then the man that asked you to the meal might say to you, “Give the best place to this man.” Then you will feel ashamed that you sat there. You will have to move to the lowest place and sit there. ¹⁰ Instead, when someone asks you to a meal, you should do this. Go and sit in the least important place. Then the man that asked you to the meal will see you there. And he may say to you, “My friend, move up here to a better place.” Everyone who is there at the meal will see this. So they will know that you are an important person. ¹¹ It will be the same in the kingdom of God. Some people lift themselves up to be important. God will bring all of them down low. Other people are humble. God will lift up those people to a good place.’

¹² Then Jesus said to the man who had asked him to the meal, ‘When you give a meal at midday or in the evening, do not ask your friends to come. Do not ask your brothers or your family. And do not ask the rich people that live near you to come. If you do, they will later ask you to eat at their house. This will pay you for the meal that you gave to them. ¹³ Instead, when you prepare a big meal, you should ask the poor people to come. Ask people that have lost an arm or a leg. Ask people that cannot walk very well, and people that cannot see. ¹⁴ Then God will make you happy. Those people cannot pay you for the meal you have given to them. Instead, God will pay you, on the day when he makes good people become alive again.’

A story about a big meal

¹⁵ The people who were sitting at the meal heard what Jesus said. One of them said to Jesus, ‘One day, there will be a big meal in the kingdom of God. How happy are those people who will eat together at that big meal.’

¹⁶ Jesus told this story to him: ‘One day an important man prepared a big meal.^[aq] He asked many people to come to eat in his house. ¹⁷ When the meal was ready, he sent his servant out to tell those people, “Come now, the meal is ready for you.” ¹⁸ But then each person gave a reason why he could not come to the meal. The first man said, “I have bought a field, so I must go out and see it. Please say that I am sorry. Tell your master that I cannot come to his meal.” ¹⁹ The next man said, “I have bought five pairs of oxen. So I am just going out to see if they work well together. Please say that I am sorry. Tell your master that I cannot come to his meal.” ²⁰ The third man said, “I have just married a wife. That is why I cannot come to the meal.” 

²¹ The servant went back to his master. He told him what everyone had said. Then the master of the house was very angry. “Go out quickly to every street in the town,” he said to his servant. “Bring the poor people here. Bring those that have lost an arm or a leg. And bring those that cannot walk well, and those that cannot see.” ²² The servant did that. Then he came back to his master. “Sir,” he said, “I have asked all those people to come to your meal. But there are still some places at the table.” ²³ The master spoke to his servant again. “Go to the roads and fields outside the town, and look for people there. Command them all to come here, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ But I tell you this. None of the people that I asked at the beginning will eat any of my food.” ’

What it will be like to obey Jesus

²⁵ Crowds of many people were travelling with Jesus on his journey. So he turned and said to them, ²⁶ ‘If someone wants to obey me, he must live like this: He must love me more than he loves his own father and mother. He must love me more than he loves his wife and his children. He must love me more than he loves his brothers and his sisters. He must even love me more than he loves himself. If he does not do that, he cannot be one of my disciples. ²⁷ He must live like a person that carries his own cross to go and die. If he is not ready to die for me, he cannot be one of my disciples.^[ar]

²⁸ Here is an example. Perhaps one of you wants to build a tall building. Before you start to build, you will sit down. You will decide how much it will cost. Then you need to know if you have enough money to finish the work. ²⁹ If you do not do this, you may not have enough money. You may put the first stones in the ground, but then you cannot finish the building. If you have to stop, other people will laugh at you. They will say to each other, ³⁰ “That man is a fool. He started to build, but he could not finish the work.” ’

³¹ Then Jesus gave them another example. ‘Perhaps a king wants to fight a war against another king. But before he goes to fight, he sits down. He thinks to himself. “Can I win this war? My army is large, with 10,000 men. But the other king has twice as many soldiers in his army. ³² No, I cannot do it. I know I cannot beat the other king.” So, while the stronger king is far away, he will send a man to him with a message. He will tell the other king that he does not want to fight. He will ask him what he can do so that they become friends together.’

³³ Jesus then said, ‘It is like that for all of you, if you want to be my disciples. You must leave everything that you have behind you.

³⁴ Remember this. Salt is good. But if it is not salty any more, it is no longer any good. You cannot make it salty again. ³⁵ You would not even put it on your field. It cannot make the soil good. You would just throw it away.^[as]

You have ears. So listen well to what I say.’

15 One day, many bad people and men who took taxes from people were coming round Jesus. They all wanted to hear what Jesus was saying. ² The Pharisees and teachers of God's Law did not like this. ‘This man is friendly with people that do not obey God,’ they said. ‘He even eats with them in their homes.’

A story about a sheep that a man has lost^[at]

³ So Jesus told them this story: ⁴ ‘Think about a man who has 100 sheep.^[au] He may lose one of them. What does he do then? He leaves all his other sheep in the fields. Then he goes. He looks for the sheep that he has lost. He looks until he finds it. ⁵ When he finds the sheep, he is very happy. He lifts it up and he puts it across his shoulders. ⁶ Then he carries it back home. He speaks to all his friends and to the people that live near him. He says, “I have found the sheep that I lost. So come to my house and we can all be happy together.” ⁷ When one person stops doing wrong things, it is like that. It makes those that live with God in heaven very happy. They will be happier about that one person, than about 99 people who already obey God.’

A story about a coin that a woman has lost

⁸ Jesus told them another story: ‘Now think about a woman who has ten valuable coins.^[av] She may lose one of them. What does she do then? She lights a lamp and she sweeps inside her house. She looks carefully until she finds the coin. ⁹ Then she speaks to all her friends and to those that live near to her. She says to them, “I have found the coin that I lost. So come to my house and we can all be happy together.”

¹⁰ When one person stops doing wrong things, it is like that. It makes God's angels and everyone in heaven very happy.’

A story about two sons

¹¹ Jesus then told another story: ‘There was a man that had two sons.^{[aw] 12} The younger son went to his father and said to him, “Father, please give me now my part of your things.” So the father gave both sons the part of his things that each of them should have. ¹³ After a few days, the younger son sold what his father had given to him. Then he took all the money and left home. He went on a long journey to a country far away. There, he did whatever he wanted to do and wasted all his money. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was no rain in that country. There was almost no food anywhere. So the young man had nothing to eat. ¹⁵ He went to a man who lived in that country. He asked to work for him. So the man sent him into his fields to give food to his pigs. ¹⁶ Nobody gave him anything to eat. He even wanted to eat the food that the pigs were eating. But he had nothing.

¹⁷ Then the son began to think about what he had done. He said to himself, “My father has many servants, and they have plenty of food to eat. They even have more food than they need. But I will die here because I do not have any food. ¹⁸ So I will go to my father and tell him, ‘I have done bad things against God, and I have done bad things against you. ¹⁹ So I am not good enough for you to call me your son any longer. Instead, please accept me as one of your servants.’ ”

²⁰ So he went off to return to his father. But he was still a long way from the house when his father saw him. He felt very sorry for his son and he ran towards him. Then he put his arms round his son and he kissed him. ²¹ “Father,” the son said, “I have done bad things against God and against you. So I am not good enough for you to call me your son.” ²² But the father shouted to his servants. “Hurry!” he said. “Fetch the most beautiful coat that we have. Put it on him and also put a ring on his finger. Put shoes on his feet. ²³ Fetch the young cow that we keep ready to eat on a special day. It is already fat. Kill it and prepare it. We will eat a big meal and we will be happy together. ²⁴ I thought that my son here was dead. But now he has returned to me and he is alive! I thought that he had left me for all time. But now he has come home.” Then they all began to be happy together.

²⁵ While these things were happening, the older son was working in the field.^[ax] On his way back to the house, he heard music. People were dancing. ²⁶ So he asked one of the servants, “What is happening?” ²⁷ The servant replied, “Your brother has returned home. Your father has killed the fat young cow for him. He did this because your brother is alive and he is well.” ²⁸ When the older brother heard this, he was very angry. He would not go into the house. So his father came out. “Please come in to be happy with us,” he said. ²⁹ “Listen,” the older son replied, “I have worked a lot for you for many years. I have always obeyed you. But you never even killed a young goat for me so that I could be happy with my friends. We could have had a meal together. ³⁰ But now this other son of yours has returned. He has wasted all the money that you gave to him. He has spent it on prostitutes. But you have even killed the fat young cow for him.” ³¹ “My son,” his father said, “you are always with me. All the things that I have are yours. ³² We thought that your brother was dead. But now he has returned to us alive. We thought that he had left us for all time. But now he has come home. So we must all be happy together.” ’

A story about a man who thought carefully

16 Jesus told another story to his disciples: ‘A rich man had a servant who worked for him. The servant took care of the money and things that belonged to the man. Then some people told the rich man that his servant was wasting his master's things. ² So the master sent someone to bring his servant to him. He said to his servant, “I am hearing bad stories about you. So write down everything that you have done with my money and my things. Then you must stop working for me.”

³ “I must think about what I can do,” the servant said to himself. “My master will not let me work for him any longer. I am not strong enough to dig in the ground. I would be ashamed to ask other people for money. ⁴ I must stop working for my master. But I know what I can do so that people will then accept me into their homes.”

⁵ Many people had a debt that they had not paid back to the master. So the servant told those people to come to him. He asked the first man, “How big is your debt to my master?” ⁶ The man replied, “I have to give him 100 barrels of oil.”^[ay] The servant said to him, “Here is the paper with your debt written down on it. Take the paper. Sit down now and write 50 barrels there.”^[az]

⁷ He asked the next man, “How big is your debt to my master?” The man replied, “I have to give him 100 baskets of wheat.” The servant replied, “Here is the paper with your debt written down on it. Take the paper and write 80 baskets.” ’^[ba]

⁸ Jesus then said, ‘The servant in the story was not honest. But his master spoke well about what he had done. It would help the servant later in his life. People that do not obey God think carefully. They know how to do well with people who are like themselves. But people who live in God's light often think less carefully. ⁹ So I tell you this. People may get money in wrong ways. But you should use it to do good to those who need help. Then they will be your friends. You will die, one day. Then those people will be happy to see you in that place where people live for all time.

¹⁰ If you can trust a person with a very small thing, you can also trust him with bigger things. And if you cannot trust a person with a very small thing, you cannot trust him with big things. ¹¹ So if people cannot trust you with money in this world, nobody will trust you with really valuable things. ¹² And if people cannot trust you with other people's things, nobody will give you things for yourself.

¹³ A slave cannot work for two masters at the same time. Maybe he will hate one of the masters, but he will love the other one. Or he will work well for one master, but he will think bad things about the other one. God and money are like different masters. You cannot work for both of them.’

¹⁴ The Pharisees heard all this. They loved money very much, so they laughed at Jesus. They said to him, ‘You are wrong.’ ¹⁵ Jesus replied, ‘You are happy when people like you. You want them to think that you are good people. But God sees inside you. He knows what you are thinking. The things that many people think are valuable are not valuable to God. He hates those things.’^[bb]

¹⁶ Jesus then said, ‘The books of God's Law and God's prophets spoke God's message until John the Baptist came. Since then, God's servants tell people the good news about the kingdom of God. Everyone is now trying very much to get into that kingdom. ¹⁷ But this does not mean that anyone can destroy God's Law. One day, the earth and the sky will finish. But until that time, nobody can remove even a small thing from God's Law.

¹⁸ A man must not send his wife away and then marry another woman. If he does that, it is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. Also, if a woman has left her husband, another man must not marry her. That is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife.’

Jesus tells a story about a rich man and a poor man

¹⁹ Jesus then said, ‘At one time, there was a rich man who wore very expensive clothes. This rich man ate big meals every day. ²⁰ There was also a poor man called Lazarus. He had sores all over his body. He lay outside the gate of the rich man. ²¹ He was very hungry. He wanted to eat the bits of food that the rich man threw away. Even the dogs came and they tasted the sores on his body. ²² Then Lazarus died and God's angels carried him away. They put him at the side of Abraham in heaven. The rich man then also died and his family buried him in the ground. ²³ He went to Hades, the place for dead people. He was in a lot of pain there. He saw Abraham far away in heaven. He also saw Lazarus at Abraham's side. ²⁴ So he shouted out, “Father Abraham, please be kind to me. Please send Lazarus here to help me. I am in great pain because I am in a fire that burns me. Let him put his finger into some water. Then he can use the water to make my mouth cool.”

²⁵ Abraham replied, “My child, remember the time when you were alive on earth. Remember what happened then. You had many good things, and Lazarus had many bad things. Now I am taking care of Lazarus, and you are in pain. ²⁶ But that is not everything. Between you and us, there is a big hole. It is wide and long and deep. There is a reason why that hole is there. Nobody can cross from here to where you are. And nobody can cross from where you are to come here.”

²⁷ The rich man said, “If that is true, father Abraham, please send Lazarus to my family. ²⁸ I have five brothers that are still alive. He can tell them not to do the same things as I did. Then they will not also come here when they die. They will not be in great pain, as I am.”

²⁹ Abraham replied, “They have the books that Moses and God's prophets wrote. Your family should read them and do what they say.”^[bc]

³⁰ The rich man said, “That is not enough, father Abraham. But if someone goes to them from among the dead people, they will listen. Then they will turn away from the wrong things that they do.”

³¹ But Abraham said to him, “They do not listen to what Moses and God's prophets have said. So they will not believe God's message even if someone comes back from among the dead people.” ’^[bd]

17 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Some bad things in this world will make other people do wrong things. You can be sure about that. But God will punish anyone who makes these bad things happen. ² These other people may not seem to be important.^[be] But you must not make them do wrong things. Do not do that! It would be better if someone tied a big stone round your neck, and then he threw you into the sea.^[bf]

³ Be careful how you live. If your Christian brother does something wrong, speak to him. Tell him that he has done a bad thing. He may say, “I am sorry for what I did. I will not do it again.” If he says that, you must forgive him. ⁴ Your brother may do a bad thing to you seven times in one day. He may turn to you each time and say, “I am sorry for what I did. I will not do it again.” If he does that, you must forgive him every time.’

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord Jesus, ‘Help us to believe more and more in God.’

⁶ The Lord replied, ‘You may believe in God only a very little bit, like a very small seed. Even if you only believe that little bit, you could say to this tree, “Pull yourself out of the ground and plant yourself in the sea.” Then the tree would obey you.

⁷ Think about this. You may have a servant that is ploughing your land. Or you may have a servant that is taking care of your sheep. When he comes in from his work in the evening, you would not say to him, “Sit down and eat.” ⁸ No, you would not say that. You would say to your servant, “Prepare my meal for me. Dress yourself properly and bring the food to me. I will eat and drink first. You can eat when I have finished.” ⁹ Servants should do what their masters tell them to do. When they do that, their masters do not need to thank them. ¹⁰ It is the same with you. The Master tells you what you should do. So when you have done all of it, you should say, “We are not special servants. We have only done what we should do.” ’

Ten men that had a bad disease of the skin

¹¹ On his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus was travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² When he was going into a village, ten men came towards him. These men had a bad disease of the skin. They stopped and stood a long way away from Jesus. ¹³ They shouted, ‘Jesus, Master, please be kind to us.’

¹⁴ Jesus saw them and said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’

While they were going on their way, they became well again. ¹⁵ One of these ten men saw that Jesus had made him well. He turned back and he praised God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He went down on his knees in front of Jesus and thanked him. This man was from Samaria.

¹⁷ Then Jesus said, ‘I made ten men well again, didn't I? There should be another nine men somewhere! ¹⁸ But only this one man came back to thank God. And he is a foreign man from Samaria!’

¹⁹ Then Jesus spoke to the man. ‘Stand up and go on your way. You believed in me, so now you are really well.’

Jesus talks about the time when God will rule

²⁰ Then some Pharisees asked Jesus a question. ‘When will the kingdom of God begin here?’

Jesus replied, ‘When God begins to rule here, people will not see it with their eyes. ²¹ Nobody will say, “Look everyone! God is ruling here,” or “Look! God is ruling over there.” No, it is not like that. God is already ruling in the lives of his people.’

²² Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The time will come when you will very much want to see me, the Son of Man, return to the earth. But you will not see that day. ²³ People may say to you, “Look, there he is!” or “Here he is!” But do not go out with them to look. ²⁴ When lightning shines, it quickly makes the whole of the sky light from one side to the other. It will be like that on the day when the Son of Man returns.^{[bg] 25} But before this happens, the people of today will refuse to accept me. And I will feel much pain.

²⁶ Remember what happened when Noah was alive.^[bh] It will be like that at the time when the Son of Man returns to the earth. ²⁷ In Noah's time, people were eating their meals every day. Men and women continued to marry. They continued to do all this until the day when Noah went into his boat. Then it rained for a long time and there was deep water everywhere. The water killed all the people.

²⁸ The same kind of thing happened when Lot was alive.^[bi] People in the city of Sodom were eating their meals every day. They were buying and selling things. They were planting their seeds and they were building their houses. ²⁹ But one day Lot went away from Sodom. On that same day, God caused it to rain fire and burning stones from the sky. This killed all the people in Sodom.

³⁰ It will happen quickly like that, on the day when I, the Son of Man, show myself clearly. ³¹ On that day, a person who is up on the roof of his house must not go back down into the house. He must not get his things that are inside the house to take with him. In the same way, people that are working outside in their fields must not go back to their homes. ³² Remember what happened to Lot's wife.^[bj]

³³ Whoever wants to keep his own life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me will have true life. ³⁴ I tell you this. At that time, two men will be sleeping in one bed. God will take one of them away but he will leave the other man behind. ^35-36 Two women will be preparing food together in the same place. God will take one of them away but he will leave the other one behind.’

³⁷ Jesus' disciples asked him, ‘Where will this happen?’ Jesus replied, ‘If a dead body is lying somewhere, vultures will come together in that place.’^[bk]

Jesus talks about how to pray

18 Then Jesus told his disciples a story. He wanted to teach them that they must go on praying always. They must not get tired. ² He said to them, ‘In a certain city, there was a judge.^[bl] He was not afraid of God. He did not respect people.

³ A woman lived in that same city. Her husband had died. She came to the judge many times with a problem. “Somebody is doing bad things against me. Please keep me safe from that person,” she was saying. ⁴ For a long time, the judge would not do anything to help her. Later, he thought, “I am not afraid of God. Nor do I respect people. ⁵ But this woman causes me trouble. If I do not do anything for her, she will continue to come to me again and again. She will make me ill. So I will help her to be safe. I will say that she is right.” ’

⁶ Jesus then said, ‘This judge was not a good man. But you should think about what he said. He helped the woman because she caused him trouble. ⁷ But as for God, he always helps those that he has chosen to be his children. When they continue to ask him for help, in the day and in the night, he will answer them. He will not wait. ⁸ I tell you this. He will show that they are right. He will help them quickly. I, the Son of Man, will return to earth. But will I find many people that still believe in me then, or not?’

Jesus tells a story about two men who were praying

⁹ Jesus told a story to teach other people. These people thought that they were very good in front of God. They thought that they were much better than other people.

¹⁰ Jesus said, ‘One day, two men went into the temple to pray. One man was a Pharisee. The other man took taxes from people. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood there by himself. He prayed like this: “Thank you, God, that I am different from all these other people. They are bad people. They rob other people. They have sex with women who are not their wife. Thank you, God, that I am not like this man who takes taxes on behalf of the government. ¹² I fast for two days of each week. I give to you one tenth of all the things and money that I receive.”

¹³ But the other man stood far away. He would not even look up towards heaven. He was hitting his body with his hands to show how sorry he was. He prayed like this: “Please, God, be kind to me. I have done many bad things.” ’

¹⁴ Jesus then said, ‘Let me tell you about these men when they went home. The man that took taxes from people was now right with God. But the Pharisee was still guilty. Some people lift themselves up to be important. But God will bring all of them down low. Other people are humble. God will lift up those people to a good place.’

Little children come to Jesus

¹⁵ People were also bringing babies to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on each child's head. But Jesus' disciples did not like this. They told the people that they should not do it.

¹⁶ Then Jesus told the children to come to him. He said to his disciples, ‘Let the children come to me. Do not try to stop them. People must become like these children so that God can rule their lives. That is what the kingdom of God is like. ¹⁷ I tell you this: A person must become like a little child for God to rule in his life. If he does not become like a child, he will not come into the kingdom of God.’

Jesus meets a rich ruler

¹⁸ A Jewish ruler came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’

¹⁹ Jesus asked him, ‘Why do you say that I am good? Only God is good. Nobody else. ²⁰ You know God's rules: “Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife. Do not kill anyone. Do not rob anyone. Do not say things that are not true about people. Love your father and your mother, and obey them.” ’

²¹ The man replied, ‘I have obeyed all these laws since I was a young man.’

²² Jesus heard what he said and he replied, ‘There is still just one thing that you must do. You must sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’

²³ When the ruler heard this, he became very sad. This was because he was a very rich man.

²⁴ Jesus saw that the ruler had become sad. He said, ‘It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives. ²⁵ The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’

²⁶ The people who were listening to Jesus said, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’ ²⁷ Jesus replied, ‘God can do things that are impossible for people to do.’

²⁸ Peter then said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples.’

²⁹ Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their wife or their brothers. Or they may have left their parents or their children. They have done this to work for the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Now, in this world, God will give these people many more things than they have left behind. And in the future world they will live for ever with God.’

³¹ Jesus took the 12 disciples away from the other people. ‘Listen!’ he said to them. ‘We are going to Jerusalem. There, many bad things will happen to me. All the things that God's prophets wrote down long ago about the Son of Man will now happen to me. ³² The Jewish leaders will deliver me to people that are not Jews. They will laugh at me. They will say bad things against me. They will spit at me. ³³ They will hit me with whips and then they will kill me. But after three days, I will become alive again.’

³⁴ The 12 disciples did not understand any of these things. What Jesus said did not mean anything to them. So they did not know what Jesus was talking about.

Jesus makes a blind man well

³⁵ When Jesus was getting near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the side of the road. He was asking people to give him money. ³⁶ Then he heard a large crowd of people as they went along the road. So he asked the people near him what was happening. ³⁷ They told him, ‘Jesus from Nazareth is walking past.’

³⁸ The man began to shout out. ‘Jesus! Son of David! Please be kind to me and help me.’ ³⁹ The people who were walking at the front of the crowd were angry with him. They told him that he should be quiet. But he started to shout even louder, ‘Son of David! Please help me!’

⁴⁰ Then Jesus stopped. He said to the people, ‘Bring that man to me.’ When the man came near, Jesus asked him, ⁴¹ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Sir,’ the blind man replied, ‘I want to see again.’

⁴² Jesus said to him, ‘See again! You are well now because you believed in me.’ ⁴³ Immediately, the man could see again. He started to follow Jesus along the road. He was praising God.

Many people saw what had happened. They also praised God.

Zacchaeus meets Jesus

19 Jesus went into Jericho and he was walking through the city. ² There was a man there called Zacchaeus. He was a leader of the men who took taxes from people. He had become very rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was. There was a big crowd there and he was a small man. So he could not see Jesus. ⁴ He ran on in front of the crowd and he climbed up a tree. He could see Jesus more easily from the tree, because Jesus would walk along that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up at Zacchaeus. He said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly. Today I must stay in your home.’

⁶ So Zacchaeus came down immediately and took Jesus into his home. He was very happy about this. ⁷ The people saw what had happened. They were not happy, and they were saying, ‘Jesus has gone to stay in the home of a man that does bad things.’

⁸ Later, Zacchaeus stood up in front of everyone. He said to the Lord Jesus, ‘Listen, Master! I will give half of all the things that I have to poor people. I may have taken too much money from some people. I will give back to them four times as much as I took from them wrongly.’

⁹ Jesus said to him, ‘Today God has saved people in this home. Now Zacchaeus also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ I, the Son of Man, came to look for people who are far away from God. They are in danger and I have come to save them.’

Jesus tells a story about 10 servants

¹¹ While the people were still listening, Jesus told them a story. He did this because the people had wrong thoughts. He was now getting near to Jerusalem. So the people with him were thinking that God would begin to rule his people immediately.

¹² Jesus said to them, ‘An important man left his home and he travelled a long way to another country. There he would receive authority to rule his own country. After that, he would return home and he would be king. ¹³ Before he left, he asked ten of his servants to come to him. He gave each of them ten pounds of silver.^[bm] “Use this money to get more money for me while I am away,” he said.^[bn]

¹⁴ But the people who were living in his country did not like the man. So they sent some of their people to the foreign country with a message. They said, “We do not want this man to rule over us.”

¹⁵ Then the man returned home and he was now their king. He asked those ten servants to come to him. He had given them each some money. Now he wanted to know how much more money they had now. They should have bought things with it and then they should have sold those things again for more money.

¹⁶ The first servant came to him and said, “Master, your money has made ten more pounds for you.” ¹⁷ The king was happy and said to his servant, “You have done well. You are a good servant that I can trust. You have used a small amount of money well. So now you will rule over ten cities.”

¹⁸ The second servant came and said, “Master, your money has made five more pounds.” ¹⁹ The king replied, “You will rule over five cities.”

²⁰ Then another servant came. He said, “Master, here is your money. I put it away in a piece of cloth to keep it safe. ²¹ I did this because I was afraid of you. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take things that you did not work for. You take food from fields where you did not plant any seed.”

²² The king replied, “You are a very bad servant! I will use your own words to show you that you have done the wrong thing. You say that I tell people what they should do all the time. That I take things that I did not work for. That I take food from fields where I did not plant any seed. Did you know all that about me? ²³ Then you should have put my money into the bank. When I came home, I would have received my money back, with extra money.”

²⁴ Some other servants were standing near to their master. He said to them, “Take the money from this bad servant. Give it to the servant that has ten pounds.” ²⁵ “But, master,” they replied, “that servant has ten pounds already.”

²⁶ “Let me tell you this,” the king said. “Some people have received good things. They will all receive more. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. ²⁷ Now I must punish these other people that did not want me to rule over them. Bring them here and kill them in front of me.” ’^[bo]

Jesus goes into Jerusalem

²⁸ When Jesus had said all this, he went on in front of them. He was going towards Jerusalem. ²⁹ He was getting near to two villages called Bethphage and Bethany.^[bp] They were on the Mount of Olives.^[bq] Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further. ³⁰ He told them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will find a young donkey. Someone has tied it there. Nobody has yet ridden on it. Undo the rope and bring the donkey here to me. ³¹ Someone may ask you, “Why are you taking the donkey?” Then say to them, “The Master needs it.” ’

³² The two men went into the village. They saw everything there that Jesus had told them about. ³³ While they were taking the young donkey, some men spoke to them. It was their own donkey. They asked, ‘Why are you taking the donkey?’ ³⁴ ‘The Master needs it,’ the disciples replied.

³⁵ They brought the donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on its back. Then they helped Jesus to sit on it. ³⁶ While he was riding along, the people were putting their coats down on the road in front of him.

³⁷ Jesus got near to the lowest part of the Mount of Olives. The whole crowd of his disciples were very happy. They began to praise God with loud voices. They thanked him for all the great things that they had seen. ³⁸ They said:

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, stop your disciples from saying these things.’

⁴⁰ ‘Let me tell you this,’ Jesus replied. ‘If these people were quiet, the stones of the city would shout out instead!’

⁴¹ When Jesus got near to the city, he looked at it. He cried because he felt very sorry for the people in it. ⁴² He said, ‘You need to know what would really help you. Then you could have lived without trouble. But now, you are unable to understand properly. ⁴³ As a result, days of trouble will come to you. Your enemies will build a wall round you. They will shut you in completely, and they will not let you leave. ⁴⁴ So your enemies will knock you down. They will completely destroy your city and all the people who live in it. They will not leave even one stone on top of another stone. You did not understand that God had come to save you at this time. That is why these bad things will happen to you.’^[br]

Jesus teaches in the temple

⁴⁵ Jesus went into the yard of the temple. Some people were selling things there. He began to make them all leave that place. ⁴⁶ He said to them, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people come to pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’

⁴⁷ Jesus was teaching every day in the temple. The leaders of the priests and teachers of God's Law wanted to kill him. Some other important people also wanted to kill him. ⁴⁸ But all the people were listening to him very carefully. They wanted to hear everything that he was saying. So those leaders did not know how they could kill him.

Jesus talks about his authority

20 One day, Jesus was teaching people in the yard of the temple. He was telling people the good news about God. Then the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law came to him. With them were some other important Jews. ² They asked him, ‘Tell us what authority you have to do these things? Who gave you the authority to do them?’

³ Jesus replied, ‘I also will ask you a question. Tell me the answer. ⁴ John baptized people. Did God give him the authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it?’

⁵ The Jewish leaders talked to each other about Jesus' question. ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” ⁶ But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority. Then all the people would throw stones at us to kill us. They are sure that John really was a prophet from God.’ ⁷ So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus, ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’

⁸ Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’

Jesus tells a story about farmers

⁹ Then Jesus began to tell this story to the people. He said, ‘A man planted vines in his garden to grow grapes there. He found some farmers to work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country and he stayed there for a long time.

¹⁰ At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him some fruit from the garden.

But the farmers hit the servant with sticks and they sent him away with nothing.

¹¹ The master sent another servant to go to the farmers. They hit him with sticks too, and they did other bad things to him. They also sent him away with nothing. ¹² The master then sent a third servant to the farmers. They hurt him badly too, and they threw him out of the garden.

¹³ Then the master of the garden said to himself, “I know what I will do. I will send my own son to go to them. I love him very much. Perhaps they will respect him.” ¹⁴ But the farmers saw him coming. They said to each other, “This is the son of our master. When our master dies, the garden will belong to his son. So we should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.”

¹⁵ So they threw the son out of the garden and they killed him.’

Jesus went on to ask, ‘Then what will the master of the garden do to those farmers? ¹⁶ I tell you, he will come to those farmers and he will kill them. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it.’

When the people heard this, they replied, ‘That must never happen!’^[bs]

¹⁷ Jesus then looked at the people and he said, ‘You say that this must not happen. But you have read this in the Bible and you should know what it means:

¹⁸ When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.” ’

The leaders ask Jesus a question

¹⁹ The teachers of God's Law and the leaders of the priests knew that Jesus had told this story about them. They were the bad farmers in the story. So they wanted to take hold of Jesus immediately. But they did not do it, because they were afraid of the people.