Bible in 90 Days

The Pharisees ask again to see a miracle

16 Some Pharisees and Sadducees went to see Jesus. They wanted to test him to see what he would do. They asked him, ‘Do something powerful for us to see. Then we will believe that God has sent you.’

² Jesus answered them, ‘Sometimes the sky is red in the evening. Then you say, “Tomorrow the weather will be good.” ³ Sometimes in the morning the sky is red and there are dark clouds. Then you say, “Today there will be a storm.” So you look at the sky and you know what the weather will be. But special things are happening now. And you do not understand what they mean. ⁴ The people who are alive today are very bad. They do not obey God. 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.’

Then Jesus went away and left them.

Jesus talks about the Pharisees and the Sadducees

⁵ Jesus and his disciples sailed over to the other side of the lake. His disciples forgot to take any bread with them. ⁶ Jesus said to them, ‘Be careful! Do not accept the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.’

⁷ The disciples began to talk to each other about this. ‘Jesus is saying this because we did not bring any bread with us,’ they said.

⁸ Jesus knew what they were talking about. So he said to them, ‘You should not be arguing with each other about the bread. You should trust me more than you do. ⁹ You still do not understand. You should remember that I used five loaves of bread to feed 5,000 men. Think about how many baskets you filled with pieces of food after the meal. ¹⁰ Also remember that I used seven loaves of bread to give food to 4,000 men. And think about how many baskets you filled with pieces of food then. ¹¹ I spoke to you about the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I said that you must not accept it. You should understand now that I was not speaking about bread.’

¹² Then the disciples understood what Jesus was talking about. They did not need to be careful about the yeast that they used in their bread. Instead, they must be careful about what the Pharisees and Sadducees were teaching. They must not accept it.^[a]

Peter says who Jesus is

¹³ Jesus went into the part of the country near Caesarea Philippi. While he was there, he asked his disciples, ‘When people talk about the Son of Man, who do they say that he is?’

¹⁴ They replied, ‘Some people say that you are John the Baptist. Other people say that you are Elijah. And some other people say that you are Jeremiah, or another prophet of God.’

¹⁵ ‘But what do you think?’ Jesus asked them. ‘Who do you say that I am?’

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered him. ‘You are the Messiah. You are the Son of God, the God who lives for ever.’

¹⁷ Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, God has blessed you! No person on earth taught you that. God, my Father in heaven, has shown you this. ¹⁸ I tell you this. You are called Peter, which means a rock. And I will build my church on this rock.^[b] Not even the power of death will destroy my church. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. You will tell people here on earth what is right for them to do. And you will tell them what is not right for them to do. God in heaven will give you this authority. He will agree with what you say.’

²⁰ Then Jesus said strongly to his disciples, ‘Do not tell anyone that I am the Messiah.’^[c]

Jesus tells his disciples how he would die

²¹ After this, Jesus began to explain everything to his disciples. He told them, ‘I must go to Jerusalem. There, I will suffer in many ways. The important Jews, the leaders of the priests, and the teachers of God's Law will hurt me. Then people will kill me. But three days later, God will cause me to become alive again.’^[d]

²² Then Peter took Jesus away from the other disciples. He began to tell Jesus that he must not say things like that. ‘No, Lord! God will never let this happen to you!’ he said to Jesus.

²³ Jesus turned round and said to Peter, ‘Satan, go away from me! I must obey God. But you are trying to stop me. Your thoughts do not come from God. Instead, you are thinking like men think.’

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘A person who wants to come with me must not think about himself. He must decide that his own life is not important. He must be like someone who carries his own cross to go and die. Then he may come with me as my disciple. ²⁵ Whoever wants to keep his life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me will have true life. ²⁶ A person may get everything in the whole world for himself. But if he loses his life, it will not be any good for him. There is nothing that a person can give to get back his life. ²⁷ I tell you all this because I, the Son of Man, will come back to this earth with God's angels. When I come, I will have the powerful beauty of my Father. I will see what each person has done on earth. Then I will pay them what is right. ²⁸ I tell you this: When I, the Son of Man, come with power, some people who are standing here will see me at that time. Before they die, they will see me begin to rule in my kingdom.’

Three disciples see how great Jesus is

17 Six days after that, Jesus asked Peter and the two brothers, James and John, to go with him. Jesus led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² Peter, James and John saw Jesus change in front of them. He became different to look at. His face was bright like the sun. His clothes became very white and they shone. ³ Then Moses and Elijah appeared in front of the three disciples.^[e][f] They were talking with Jesus.

⁴ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. If you want, please let me build three huts. One hut will be for you. One hut will be for Moses and one hut will be for Elijah.’^[g]

⁵ While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud appeared. It covered them all. A voice spoke from the cloud and it said, ‘This is my Son and I love him. He makes me very happy. Listen to him.’

⁶ The disciples heard the voice. They threw themselves down to the ground. They were very frightened. ⁷ But Jesus came to them and he touched them. ‘Stand up,’ he said. ‘Do not be afraid.’ ⁸ When they looked up, they could not see anyone else. Only Jesus was there with them.

⁹ While they were walking down the mountain, Jesus said to the three disciples, ‘You must not tell anyone now about the things that you have just seen. One day, the Son of Man will die and then he will become alive again. Then you can tell people about these things.’

¹⁰ Then the three disciples said to Jesus, ‘The teachers of God's Law say that God's prophet Elijah must return first, before the Messiah comes. Why do they say this?’

¹¹ Jesus replied, ‘Yes, Elijah does come first. He gets everything ready. ¹² But I tell you that Elijah has already come. People did not recognize him. They did to him all the things that they wanted to do. In the same way, they will also give me, the Son of Man, great pain.’ ¹³ Then the disciples understood that he was really talking about John the Baptist.

Jesus makes a boy well

¹⁴ Then Jesus, and the three disciples reached the place where the crowd was. A man came to Jesus. He went down on his knees in front of him. ¹⁵ He said to Jesus, ‘Please sir, be kind to my son. He cannot control his body. Sometimes he does not know what he is doing. Often he falls into the fire, or he falls into water. ¹⁶ I brought the boy to your disciples, but they could not make him well.’

¹⁷ Jesus replied, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. You have turned away from him. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you.’ Then Jesus said to the man, ‘Bring the boy here to me.’ ¹⁸ Jesus said to the bad spirit, ‘Stop!’ Then the bad spirit left the boy and immediately he became well again.

¹⁹ When the disciples were alone with Jesus, they asked him, ‘Why could we not make the bad spirit leave the boy?’

²⁰ Jesus replied, ‘You could not do it because you do not trust God very much. I tell you this: You may believe in God only a little bit, like a very small seed. Even then, you could say to this mountain, “Go away from this place and move to that other place.” Then it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you to do.’^[h] [²¹ Jesus then said, ‘This kind of spirit will not leave a person unless you pray and you do not eat for a time.’]^[i]

²² When Jesus and his disciples all met together in Galilee, he said, ‘Soon they will deliver the Son of Man to powerful people. ²³ They will kill him. But three days after that, he will become alive again.’ When the disciples heard that, they were very sad.

²⁴ After that, Jesus and his disciples arrived at Capernaum. Some men who received taxes for the temple went to talk to Peter. They asked him, ‘Does your teacher pay the tax for the temple?’^[j]

²⁵ Peter answered them, ‘Yes, my teacher does pay the tax.’

Then Peter returned to the house where Jesus was staying. Before Peter could say anything, Jesus spoke to him first. He said, ‘Here is a question for you to answer, Simon. Who are the people who must pay taxes and money to the kings in this world? Do the rulers take taxes from their own people? Or do they take taxes from other people?’

²⁶ ‘They take the taxes from other people,’ Peter replied.

Jesus said to him, ‘This means that people from the ruler's own country do not need to pay anything.^{[k] 27} But we do not want to make these men who take the tax angry. So go to the lake and throw out a line to catch fish. Pull up the first fish that you catch on your line. Open the mouth of the fish and you will find a coin inside it. Take the coin and give it to those who receive taxes for the temple. This will be enough money for both my tax and yours.’

Who is important in God's kingdom?

18 Soon after this, the disciples came to Jesus and they asked him, ‘Who is the most important person in the kingdom of heaven?’

² Jesus called a child to come to him. He made the child stand in the middle of them all. ³ He said, ‘I tell you this: You must change and become like little children. If not, you will never come into the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ This little child does not think that he is very important. You must also think as he does. Whoever does this will be the most important person in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ If anyone accepts a child like this because of me, that person also accepts me.’

⁶ Jesus said, ‘A person who believes in me may not seem important. But you should never make that person do wrong things.^[l] Do not do that! It would be better for you if someone tied a big stone round your neck. Then you would sink deep down into the sea and die. ⁷ Some things in this world will cause people to do wrong things. You can be sure that bad things will happen. But it will be very bad for the person who makes these things happen.

⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to do wrong things, you should cut it off. You should throw it away. It is better to have only one hand or one foot and to have God's true life. It will be much worse to keep both your hands and both your feet and still do wrong things. Then God will throw you into hell, where the fire always burns. ⁹ If your eye causes you to do wrong things, then you should take it out. You should throw it away. It is better to have only one of your eyes and to have God's true life. It will be much worse if you keep both your eyes but then God throws you into hell. There the fire always burns.

¹⁰ Be careful! Do not think that any of these little people are not important. I tell you this. They have angels who watch over them. Those angels are always standing in front of my Father in heaven.^[m]

¹¹ [I, the Son of Man, came to look for those who are far away from God.]^[n]

¹² Think about a man who has 100 sheep. He discovers that one of his sheep is not there with the others. What does he do? He leaves all his other sheep on the hills. He goes to look for the one lost sheep. ¹³ And I tell you this: If he finds that lost sheep, he will be very happy. All the other sheep are safe together. But they do not make him as happy as this one sheep does. ¹⁴ God, your Father in heaven, is like that shepherd. He does not want any of these little people to be lost, not even one of them.’^[o]

A friend does wrong things against you

¹⁵ Jesus said, ‘If your Christian friend has done something wrong against you, you must go and speak to him. When you are alone with him, tell him what he has done that is wrong. He may agree with what you say. If he does, then you can call him your friend again.

¹⁶ But maybe he does not want to listen to you. Then take one or two other people with you to speak to him. They will then know what wrong things your friend has done. Remember what the Bible says: “There must be two or three people to say certainly that another person has done something wrong. Two or three people must agree what has happened.” ¹⁷ If your friend still will not agree that he has done something wrong, then go and tell the church leaders.^[p] If he does not agree with the leaders, stop being his friend. He is like somebody who refuses to obey God.^[q]

¹⁸ I tell you this: You will tell people here on earth what is right for them to do. And you will tell them what is not right for them to do. God in heaven will give you this authority. He will agree with what you say.

¹⁹ Two people may agree together to ask God for something. If they agree like that, then my Father in heaven will give them what they ask for.^{[r] 20} Two or more people may meet together because they believe in me. If they do that, I will be there with them.’

Jesus tells the people about the servant who did not forgive

²¹ Then Peter came to talk to Jesus. He asked, ‘Lord, if my friend does wrong things against me many times, how many times should I forgive him? Must I forgive him as many as seven times for the wrong things that he has done against me?’

²² Jesus replied, ‘I do not say only seven times. I say you should forgive him 77 times!’^[s]

²³ Jesus then said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king wanted to check how much money his servants should give to him because of their debts. ²⁴ So the king began to check. His men led a servant to him who had a big debt. He must pay back 10,000 gold coins to the king.^[t]

²⁵ The servant could not pay his big debt to the king. So the king said to his men, “Sell the servant and his wife and his children and all his things. Then I will keep the money to pay his debt.”

²⁶ Then the servant went down on his knees in front of the king. He said to the king, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will pay you everything.” ²⁷ The king felt sorry for his servant. He forgave him for all the debt and let him go free.

²⁸ But then that same servant went away and he met another servant of the king. This other servant had to pay back a debt of 100 silver coins to the first servant. The first servant took hold of the neck of the other servant to hurt him. He said, “Give me the money that is mine.”

²⁹ The other servant went down on his knees in front of the first servant. He said, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will give you the money.”

³⁰ But the first servant would not agree. He put the other servant in prison until he could pay his debt to him. ³¹ The other servants of the king saw what had happened. They were very upset about it. So they went to see the king. They told him about everything that had happened.

³² When the king heard this, he told the first servant to come to him. “You are a very bad person,” the king said to the servant. “I forgave you the whole of your big debt to me. I did this because you asked me very strongly. ³³ I was kind to you. You should have been kind to that other servant in the same way.” ³⁴ The king was very angry with the first servant. He told his men to put him in prison. They punished the servant there very much, until he could pay all his debt to the king.’

³⁵ Then Jesus finished the story and he said, ‘You must forgive your friends completely. If you do not agree to forgive them, then my Father in heaven will do like that king did. He will not forgive you.’

Jesus teaches about when a man sends his own wife away

19 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he went away from Galilee. He went to the part of Judea that is on the other side of the Jordan River. ² Large crowds followed Jesus there. He made the sick people well again.

³ Some Pharisees came to talk to Jesus. They wanted to see how he would answer their question. They asked, ‘Can a man send his wife away so that she is no longer his wife? Is it right for him to do that for any reason he chooses?’

⁴ Jesus replied, ‘You surely have read about this in the Bible. At the start, when God created the world, he made people male and female.^{[u] 5} Because of this, a man leaves his father and his mother. God joins him and his wife together. The man and the woman become like one body. ⁶ They are not two separate people any longer. They have come together as one person. God has put them together to be husband and wife. So nobody should make them separate.’

⁷ Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Moses said that a man could write a letter to say that he and his wife are no longer married. Then the man can send the woman away. Why did Moses say this?’

⁸ Jesus answered them, ‘Moses said this because you people did not want to obey God. All these things were different at the start, when God made the world. ⁹ But now I say to you: A man must not send his wife away and marry another woman. If he does that, it is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. A man may only send his wife away if she has had sex with another man.’

¹⁰ Jesus' disciples said to him, ‘You say that this is what it is like for a man and his wife. Then maybe it is better if people do not marry.’

¹¹ Jesus replied, ‘Not everyone can agree with this idea. But God has helped some people to agree with it. ¹² There are several different reasons why a person may not marry. Some men cannot have sex. They were born like that. Some other people cannot have sex because people did something to them. Some people choose not to have sex. They do not marry because then they can work better for God and his kingdom. Anyone who can agree with this idea should do it.’

Jesus wants children to come to him

¹³ Then some people brought their little children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on each child's head. They wanted him to pray for them. But the disciples told the people that they should not do that.

¹⁴ Jesus said to them, ‘Do not stop the children. Let them come to me. People must become like these children so that God can rule their lives. That is what the kingdom of heaven is like.’ ¹⁵ So Jesus put his hands on each of the children's heads and he prayed for them. After that, he went away from that place.

Jesus meets a rich man

¹⁶ One day a man came to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked. ‘What good thing must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’

¹⁷ Jesus replied, ‘Why do you ask me about a good thing? Only God is good. Nobody else. If you want to have real life, then you must obey God's laws.’

¹⁸ The man asked Jesus, ‘Which laws must I obey?’

So Jesus replied, ‘Do not kill anyone. Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife. Do not rob anyone. Do not say things that are not true about people. ¹⁹ Love your father and your mother and obey them. Love other people as much as you love yourself.’

²⁰ ‘I have always obeyed these laws,’ the young man replied. ‘What else must I do?’

²¹ Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be completely good, then you must do this: 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.’

²² When the young man heard this, he went away. He was not happy. He was feeling sad because he was a very rich man.

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘What I say is true. It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives. ²⁴ The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But I tell you, it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’

²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were even more surprised. They said, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’

²⁶ Jesus looked at them and he replied, ‘For people, it really is impossible. But God can do it. God can do everything.’

²⁷ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples. What will we receive because we have done this?’

²⁸ Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you this: One day God will cause all things to become new. I, the Son of Man, will sit on my great throne as King and I will rule that new world. You who are my disciples will also sit like kings on thrones. You will judge the people of the 12 tribes of Israel. ²⁹ Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their brothers or sisters. Or they may have left their mother or their father. Or they may have left their wife or their children or their fields. They have done that because of me. God will give those people many more things than they have left behind, even 100 times more! And after they die, they will live for ever with God. ³⁰ But many people who are very important now will become the least important. And many people who are not important now will become very important then.’

Jesus tells a story about some workers in a field

20 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There was an important man who had a field where he grew grapes. He went out early in the morning. He wanted to find some people who would work in his field. ² The master agreed with the workers that he would pay them one silver coin for a day's work.^[v] Then he sent them to work in the field.

³ The master went out again about three hours later. He saw some other men standing in the market place. They had no work to do. ⁴ So the master said to these men, “You also go and work in my field. I will pay you the right amount of money.” ⁵ So the workers went to the master's field and started to work.

The master went out again at noon, and he went again three hours after that. Both times he sent men to his field to work. ⁶ Two hours later, at five o'clock, he went out again. He found more men who were standing there. And they had no work to do. The master asked them, “Why are you standing here all day and you are not working?”

⁷ The men said to the master, “Nobody has asked us to work for him.”

So the master said to them, “You also go now and work in my field.”

⁸ Then the evening came. The master of the field spoke to the man who had authority over the workers. He said to him, “Tell the workers to come here. Pay them their money. Begin with the workers who started to work at the end of the day. Finish with the workers who started first.”

⁹ The workers who had come to work at five o'clock in the evening received one silver coin each. ¹⁰ The workers who had come to work first thought that they would receive more than the other workers. But each of them also received one silver coin. ¹¹ When they received their money, they were not happy. They told the master that he had not been fair to them. ¹² They said to him, “Some of these other workers came last and only worked for one hour. But you have paid them the same money as you paid us. And we have worked all day in the hot sun.”

¹³ Then the master said to one of the workers, “My friend, I am being fair to you. You agreed to work for one day and to receive one silver coin. ¹⁴ Take your money and go home. I choose to give this last man the same amount of money as I gave to you. ¹⁵ It is my money. I can choose what to do with it. I want to be kind to people and give them more than we agreed. Does that make you upset?” ’

¹⁶ Jesus then said, ‘So, one day, those people who are not important now will become the most important. Those people who are very important now will become the least important.’

Jesus talks again about how he will die

¹⁷ Jesus and his disciples were going towards Jerusalem. As they walked along, Jesus took his 12 disciples away from the other people where he could speak to them alone. ¹⁸ ‘Listen!’ he said to them. ‘We are going to Jerusalem. There, someone will deliver the Son of Man to the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law. These Jewish leaders will decide that I must die. ¹⁹ Then they will take me and they will deliver me to people who are not Jews. They will laugh at me. They will hit me with whips. Then they will kill me on a cross.^[w] But after three days, I will become alive again.’

The mother of James and John asks Jesus for something

²⁰ Then the mother of James and John took them to see Jesus. (Their father was Zebedee.) She went down on her knees in front of Jesus. She asked him to do something good for her.

²¹ ‘What do you want me to do?’ Jesus asked her.

She said, ‘One day, you will be king. Then I want my two sons to rule with you. One may sit at your right side and the other one at your left side. Please will you do this?’

²² Jesus said to them, ‘You do not understand what you are asking for. I will have much pain and trouble. Are you ready to have the same pain?’

James and John replied, ‘Yes, we can do that.’

²³ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes, that is true. You will have pain and trouble like mine. But I cannot promise that you will sit at my right side or at my left side. My Father God has chosen the people who will sit there. He has prepared the places for those people.’

²⁴ When the other ten disciples heard about this, they were angry with the two brothers. ²⁵ Then Jesus told all the 12 disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘You know the things that rulers of other countries do. They show that they have great power over their people. The leaders of those countries use great authority over their people. ²⁶ But you should not be like that. The person who wants to be great among you must become your servant. ²⁷ The person who wants to be the most important person among you must work hard for everyone else. ²⁸ Even the Son of Man himself came to earth to be a servant to other people. He did not come here to have servants who must work for him. No, he came to die so that many people can be free.’

Jesus causes two men to see near Jericho

²⁹ Later, Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho. A large crowd of people followed him. ³⁰ Two men were sitting at the side of the road. They were blind. But they heard that Jesus was walking past them. So they shouted, ‘Master! Son of David!^[x] Please be kind to us and help us.’

³¹ The people who were in the crowd were angry with them. They told them that they should be quiet. But the men shouted even louder, ‘Master! Son of David! Please help us!’

³² Jesus stopped there. He asked the two men, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’

³³ ‘Sir,’ the men replied, ‘we want to see again.’

³⁴ Jesus felt sorry for the two men. He touched their eyes and immediately the men could see again. So they followed Jesus along the road.

Jesus goes into Jerusalem

21 Jesus and his 12 disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They came to the village called Bethphage.^[y] They were on the Mount of Olives.^[z] Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.

² He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a donkey tied there with her young donkey. Undo the ropes and bring both the donkeys here to me. ³ Someone may ask you, “What are you doing?” Then say, “The Master needs them. He will send them back to you soon.” ’

⁴ A prophet had spoken a message from God about this long ago. Now it became true.

⁵ ‘Say to the people in Jerusalem,

⁶ So the two disciples went to the village. They did everything that Jesus had told them to do. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on the backs of the donkeys. Then Jesus got up and sat on one of them. ⁸ Many people in the crowd put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees. They put these branches down on the road.^[ab]

⁹ Many crowds of people went in front of Jesus and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,

¹⁰ When Jesus went into Jerusalem, everybody in the city had trouble in their minds. They were asking each other, ‘Who is this man?’

¹¹ The people in the crowd replied, ‘This is God's prophet, Jesus. He comes from Nazareth in Galilee.’

Jesus visits the temple

¹² Jesus then went into the yard of the temple.^[ad] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus made them all leave that place. He pushed over the tables of the men who changed coins.^[ae] He also pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.

¹³ Jesus spoke to them all. He said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people come together to pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’^[af]

¹⁴ Blind people went to meet Jesus in the yard of the temple. People who could not walk very well also went there. Jesus caused them all to become well. ¹⁵ The leaders of the priests and teachers of God's Law saw all the powerful things that Jesus did. They also saw children in the yard of the temple who were shouting, ‘Welcome! We pray that God will be good to you, Son of David!’ All these things caused the important Jews to become very angry.

¹⁶ They asked Jesus, ‘Can you hear what these children are saying?’

Jesus replied, ‘Yes, I can hear them. I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:

¹⁷ Then Jesus left everyone and he went out of Jerusalem. He stayed that night in Bethany, a village near the city.^[ah]

Jesus causes a fruit tree to die

¹⁸ On the next day, early in the morning, Jesus left Bethany to return to Jerusalem. On the way there, he was hungry. ¹⁹ He saw a fig tree near to the road. He went to see if it had fruit on it. But there were only leaves on the tree, and no fruit. Jesus said to the tree, ‘No fruit will ever grow on you again!’ Then, immediately, the tree became dry and it died.

²⁰ The disciples saw it happen and they were very surprised. And they asked Jesus, ‘How did the tree die so quickly?’

²¹ Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: You must believe in God. You must not have other ideas in your mind. If you believe in God, then you could also do the same thing to this fig tree. You could even say to this mountain, “Move away and throw yourself into the sea!” Then it would really happen. ²² So when you pray to ask God for something, believe in him. Then God will give you whatever you ask for.’

²³ Then Jesus returned to the yard of the temple. While he was teaching the people there, the leaders of the priests and important Jews went to him. They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Tell us. Who gave you the authority to do them?’

²⁴ Jesus replied, ‘I also will ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. ²⁵ John baptized people. Did God give him the authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it?’ Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other about Jesus' question. They said, ‘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.” ²⁶ But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority. All the people think that John was a prophet from God. We are afraid that the crowd might attack us.’

²⁷ So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’

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 two sons

²⁸ Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Tell me what you think about this story. A man had two sons. He went to the older son and said, “Son, go and work in my field today.”

²⁹ The older son replied, “I do not want to go and work there today.” But after he had said that, he did go and work in the field.

³⁰ The man went to his other son and he said the same thing to him. The second son replied, “Yes, father, I will go.” But then he did not go to work in the field.

³¹ Tell me, which of the man's sons did what his father wanted?’

The Jewish leaders replied, ‘The older son did what his father wanted.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: The men who take taxes from people are going into the kingdom of God before you. It is the same with prostitutes. They also are going into the kingdom of God before you. ³² John the Baptist came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him. But the men who take taxes did believe him. Prostitutes also believed him. Even after you saw this, you did not believe him. You did not change the way that you live.’

Jesus tells a story about a farmer

³³ Then Jesus said again to the Jewish leaders, ‘Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a man who had his own farm. He planted vines in a garden to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground for a winepress to make wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.^[ai]

The man then found some farmers to work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country. ³⁴ When it was nearly time for the harvest, the master sent his servants to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him the fruit that was his. ³⁵ But the farmers took hold of the servants. They hit one of them with sticks. They killed another one. They threw stones at another servant and killed him. ³⁶ So the master sent other servants to go to the farmers. He sent more servants than the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to those servants too. ³⁷ After that, the master sent his own son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”

³⁸ The farmers saw the master's son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. So we should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” ³⁹ Then the farmers took hold of the son. They threw him out of the garden and they killed him.’

⁴⁰ Jesus then said, ‘One day, the master will return to his garden. What do you think he will do then to those farmers?’

⁴¹ The Jewish leaders said to Jesus, ‘The master will completely destroy those bad people. Then he will give the garden to other farmers to take care of it. Those new farmers will give the master the fruit that he should have at the time of harvest.’

⁴² Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:

⁴³ I tell you this: Because you do not believe in me, God will take his kingdom away from you. He will give it to people who show that they obey him.

⁴⁴ 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.’^[al]

⁴⁵ The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus said in his stories. They knew that he was speaking against them. ⁴⁶ They wanted to take hold of him and put him in prison. But they did not try to do it because they were afraid of the people. The people thought that Jesus was a prophet from God.

Jesus tells a story about a meal at a marriage

22 Jesus continued to teach the people with stories. ² He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a special meal for his son's marriage. ³ He asked many people to come. When the meal was ready, he sent his servants out to tell those people to come. But they refused to come.

⁴ So the king then sent out other servants. He said to them, “Tell this message to all those people that I have asked to come. Tell them that the master says, ‘My servants have prepared the meal. They have killed my large oxen and some fat young cows to eat. Everything is ready. Now come to the marriage party!’ ”

⁵ But the people did not think that the king's message was important. They went away to do their own work. One man went to his farm and another man went to his business. ⁶ Other people took hold of the king's servants. They hurt them and then they killed them. ⁷ The king was very angry. He sent his soldiers to the city where those people lived. They killed the people who killed the king's servants. They destroyed their city with fire.

⁸ Then the king said to his other servants, “The meal for my son's marriage is ready. But the people that I had asked to come did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go out now to the town's streets where people meet together. Ask all the people that you find there to come to the marriage party.” ¹⁰ Then those servants went out into the streets. They brought to the king's house all the people that they met. Some were good people and some were bad people. Very many people came. The room for the marriage was full!

¹¹ Then the king came into the room to see all the people. He saw one man who was not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.^{[am] 12} The king said to the man, “How did you come in here, my friend? You are not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.” The man could not answer the king.

¹³ The king said to his servants, “Tie his hands and his feet. Take him and throw him into the dark place outside. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.”

¹⁴ God asks many people to come to him. But he only chooses a few people to be there with him.’

The Pharisees ask Jesus about taxes

¹⁵ After the Pharisees heard this, they thought about what they could do. They wanted to ask Jesus difficult questions. They wanted to make him say something wrong about the Roman ruler. ¹⁶ So the Pharisees sent their own disciples to Jesus. They also sent people who were friends of King Herod. They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. You teach us what God wants us to do. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. ¹⁷ So tell us your answer to this question: Should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’

¹⁸ Jesus knew that these men wanted to do bad things to him. So he said to them, ‘You are asking that question to cause trouble for me. You are not being honest! ¹⁹ Now, show me the coin that you use for the tax.’ So they brought a coin to him. ²⁰ Then Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’

²¹ They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’

Jesus said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. And give to God the things that belong to God.’

²² When they heard Jesus' answer, they were very surprised. So they left him and they went away.

The Sadducees ask Jesus a question

²³ On that day, some Sadducees also came to Jesus. Sadducees do not believe that anyone becomes alive again after they die. They wanted to ask Jesus a question.^[an]

²⁴ ‘Teacher,’ they said to him, ‘Moses said in the Bible: A man may die and leave behind a wife but no children. Then that man's brother must marry the woman. Then their children will be called the children of the brother who died. ²⁵ Once, there were seven brothers who lived here. The oldest brother married a woman. Then he died before they had any children. So the second brother married the woman. ²⁶ But then he also died with no children. So a third brother married this woman. And the same thing happened to all the brothers down to the seventh brother. They all died before the woman had any children. ²⁷ After all this, the woman also died. ²⁸ You teach that one day dead people will become alive again. On that day, whose wife will that woman be? She had married all seven of those brothers.’

²⁹ Jesus said to the Sadducees, ‘You are wrong. This is because you do not know the Bible. And you do not know how powerful God is. ³⁰ One day, God will raise people up after they have died. They will become alive again. But then men and women will not marry. They will not have husbands or wives. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹ It is true that one day dead people will become alive again. You have read in the Bible about what God said to you: ³² “I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.” God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive.’^[ao]

³³ The crowd heard this. They were very surprised about what Jesus was teaching.

Jesus teaches the Pharisees about the most important Law

³⁴ The Pharisees heard that Jesus had said these things to the Sadducees. Now the Sadducees could not say anything more to him. So the Pharisees met together. They decided what they would say to Jesus.

³⁵ One of the Pharisees had studied God's Law very well. He asked Jesus a question to see how he would answer. ³⁶ He said, ‘Teacher, which of God's Laws is the most important rule for us to obey?’

³⁷ Jesus replied to him, ‘You should love the Lord your God completely: Love him with all your mind. Love him with all that you are. Love him in all that you think. ³⁸ This is the greatest rule and the most important of all God's Laws. ³⁹ The second rule is also important, like the first one. You should love other people as much as you love yourself. ⁴⁰ All God's Laws that Moses gave us come from these two rules. All the things that the prophets wrote also come from them.’

Jesus teaches people about the Messiah

⁴¹ While the Pharisees met together with Jesus, he asked them, ⁴² ‘What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?’

The Pharisees replied, ‘He will be King David's son.’

⁴³ Jesus said to them, ‘So think about this: God's Holy Spirit helped King David to call the Messiah his Lord. David said, ⁴⁴ “The Lord said to my Lord:

⁴⁵ We know that King David calls the Messiah his Lord. So can you really say that the Messiah is David's son?’ ⁴⁶ Nobody could answer the question that Jesus asked. After this, everyone was afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.

Jesus talks about dangerous teachers

23 After that, Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. ² He said, ‘The teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees have authority to explain the Law of Moses. ³ So you must obey everything that they teach you. But you should not do the same things that they do. They tell you what the Law of Moses teaches. But then they themselves do not obey it. ⁴ The rules that they give you are difficult to obey. Their rules are like heavy luggage, which they make you carry. But they themselves will not help you to carry that luggage. They will not agree to use even one finger to help you.^[ap]

⁵ The Pharisees do things only so that people will see them. They wear little boxes with words from the Bible in them, but they make them really big. They also make the tassels on their clothes very long.^{[aq] 6} They like to sit in the important places at special meals. They also choose to sit in the best seats in the meeting places. ⁷ They like people to praise them in the market place. They want people to call them “Teacher.”

⁸ You all belong to God's family. You have only one Teacher. So nobody should call another person, “Teacher”.^{[ar] 9} Also, do not call any other person in the world, “Father”. You have only one Father, and he is in heaven.^{[as] 10} And do not call each other “Leader”. You have only one Leader. He is the Messiah that God has chosen. ¹¹ The person among you who is most important will be your servant. ¹² Some people lift themselves up to be important. But God will bring them down low. Other people are humble. God will lift up those people to a good place.’

Jesus speaks against the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees

¹³ Jesus spoke to the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees. ‘It will be very bad for you,’ he said. ‘You are hypocrites! You have stopped people who wanted to go into the kingdom of heaven. It is like you have shut the door so that they cannot go in. Then you yourselves do not even go in.

¹⁴ [It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You take things away from women after their husbands have died. You pray for a long time so that other people will praise you. God will punish you much more than other people.]^[at]

¹⁵ It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You travel far across land and sea. You do this to make one person believe what you believe. Then, when he does believe your ideas, he becomes worse than you are. He shows that he belongs to hell even more than you do.

¹⁶ It will be very bad for you, teachers. You cannot see what is true, but you show people which way to go.^[au] You say to people, “You may make a promise by the name of the temple. Then it is not a serious promise. You do not have to do it. But you may also make a promise by the gold things in the temple. Then it is a serious promise, and you must do it.” ¹⁷ This shows that you are fools. You do not understand what is true. Think about which of these is more important. Is it the gold things in the temple? Or is it the temple itself? It is the temple that makes the gold things special. ¹⁸ You also say to people, “You may make a promise by the altar in the temple. Then it is not a serious promise. You do not have to do it. But you may also make a promise by the gifts on that altar. Then it is a serious promise and you must do it.” ¹⁹ You are people who cannot understand what is true. Think about which of these things is more important. Is it the gifts on the altar? Or is it the altar itself? It is the altar that makes the gifts special. ²⁰ Remember this: Somebody may make a promise by the name of the altar. Then he is making a promise by God's name. The altar as well as all the gifts on it are special to God. ²¹ Also, somebody may make a promise by the name of the temple. Then he is making a promise in the name of God, who lives there. ²² Or somebody may make a promise by heaven. Then he is making a promise by the place where God sits and rules. So he is making a promise by the name of God himself.^[av]

²³ It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! 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 obey the more important parts of God's Law. You do not help people in a good way. You are not kind to them. You do not always do what God says is right. You should have done these important things as well as the other small things. ²⁴ You are like blind people, but you show other people which way to go. You carefully take a small fly out of your water so that you do not drink it. But then you drink the large animal that is swimming in it!^[aw]

²⁵ It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You always clean the outside of your cups and plates very carefully. You only clean the outside part that people can see. But on the inside, everything is still dirty. Inside you, your minds are full of bad thoughts. You want to have more things for yourself. You hurt other people to get what you want. ²⁶ Pharisees, you do not see what is true! You must first clean the inside of the cup. Then the outside that people can see will also be clean.

²⁷ It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You are like a grave that has nice white paint on the outside and it looks beautiful. But on the inside it is full of bones and disgusting things. ²⁸ You are the same as that. Other people look at you. They think that you are good and you obey God. But on the inside you are hypocrites. Your minds are full of many bad thoughts.

²⁹ It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You build up the places where people have buried God's prophets. You make the places where they have buried good people to be beautiful. ³⁰ You say, “Our ancestors killed God's prophets long ago. If we had lived at that time, we would not have helped our ancestors to do that.” ³¹ So you are speaking against yourselves. You show that you are the sons of those people who killed God's prophets. ³² Now you must finish the work that your ancestors began to do!

³³ You are like a family of dangerous snakes! You will not be able to run away. God will surely punish you, and he will send you to hell. ³⁴ So listen to this. God says, “I will send prophets to you. I will also send to you people who know many things. And I will send people to teach you what is true. But you will kill some of these people. You will kill some of them on a cross. In the places where you meet to pray, you will hit some of them with whips. They will run from one town to another town, but you will follow them.” ³⁵ Because of all this, God will punish you for all the good people that you and your ancestors have killed. Long ago, Abel was the first of those good people. You also killed Zechariah, the son of Berekiah. He died in the yard of the temple near the altar.^{[ax] 36} Yes, I tell you this: God will punish the people who are alive today for all those murders.

³⁷ Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Your people have killed God's prophets. 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. ³⁸ So listen! Your place will now become like a wilderness where nobody lives. ³⁹ And 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!” ’^[ay]

Jesus talks about the temple

24 Jesus left the temple. While he was leaving, his disciples came to him. They began to talk to him about the buildings of the temple. ² So Jesus said to them, ‘Yes, you can see all these beautiful buildings now. But I tell you this: Enemies will completely destroy them.^[az] Not even one stone will remain on top of another stone.’

³ After that, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. While he was alone, his disciples came to him. They said to him, ‘Please tell us when all these things will happen. Also tell us what will show us that you will soon return? What will show us that the world will soon end?’

⁴ Jesus said, ‘You must be careful! Some people will tell you things that are not true. Do not believe them. ⁵ Many people will say that they have come on my behalf. They will say, “I am the Messiah.” Many people will believe their false words. ⁶ You will hear about wars. You will hear reports about wars in other places. But you must not be afraid. Those things must happen first, but it is not yet the end of everything. ⁷ People in one country will attack the people in another country. Kings and their armies will fight against other kings and their armies. In some places, people will be hungry, with no food. The ground will shake in many different places. ⁸ All those things will be like the first pains that a mother has before her baby is born.

⁹ Then people will take hold of you and they will give you pain. They will even kill some of you. People in every country will hate you because you are my disciples. ¹⁰ At that time, many people who believe in me will stop believing. They will put some of my disciples in the power of their rulers. They will hate each other. ¹¹ Also at that time, many people will say that they are prophets from God. Their message is false, but many people will believe them. ¹² More and more people everywhere will be doing very bad things. Because of this, many people will no longer love each other in the way that they did before. ¹³ But God will save the person who remains strong until the end. ¹⁴ People will tell the good news about God's kingdom to people all over the world. People in every country will hear the true message from God. Then God will cause the world to come to an end.

¹⁵ Long ago, God's prophet Daniel wrote in the Bible about something that would happen. He said that one day people would put a disgusting thing that causes trouble in the temple. You will see it in the holy place. (When you read this, you must understand what it means.) ¹⁶ At that time, people in Judea must run away to the hills to hide.

¹⁷ A person who is on the roof of his house must not go down into his house.^[ba] He must not stop to get anything from his home to take with him. ¹⁸ People who are outside in their fields must not go back to their homes. They must not even go to fetch their coats. ¹⁹ That will be a bad time for women who are soon to have a baby! It will also be a bad time for those women who have little babies! ²⁰ You must pray to God about this time when you have to run away quickly. Pray that this time of trouble will not happen in winter. Pray that it will not happen on your day of rest. ²¹ Great troubles will happen to people at that time. Nothing as bad has ever happened before, since the beginning of the world. Nothing as bad will ever happen again. ²² God will cause those days of great trouble to be not so many. If he did not do that, there would be nobody still alive. But God will cause those days to come to an end. He will do that to help the people that he has chosen. ²³ At that time, someone may say to you, “Look, here is the Messiah.” Or they may say, “There he is!” When they say that, do not believe them. ²⁴ Some people will say to you, “I am the Messiah!” Other people will say, “I am a prophet from God.” But their words will be false. They will do strange and powerful things for people to see. If possible, they would even deceive the people that God has chosen. ²⁵ So be careful! I have told you about these things before they happen.

²⁶ Some people may say to you, “Look, the Messiah is out there in the wilderness.” But do not go out to see who is there. Some people may say to you, “Look, the Messiah is hiding in that secret room.” You must not believe these people. ²⁷ Lightning shines quickly and it lights up the whole of the sky from one side to the other. It will be like that when the Son of Man returns. ²⁸ If the dead body of an animal is lying somewhere, vultures will come together in that place.^[bb]

²⁹ Then after all these bad things have happened,

³⁰ Then people will see a powerful thing in the sky. This will show them that the Son of Man is coming. All the families of people in the world will cry because they are very sad. Then they will see the Son of Man. He will be riding on the clouds in the sky. He will have great power and bright glory. ³¹ People will hear the sound of a loud trumpet. The Son of Man will send out his angels. They will go in every direction. They will bring together all the people that God has chosen from every part of the earth and from every part of the sky.’

Jesus tells a story about a fig tree

³² ‘Here is a lesson for you to learn about the fig tree. When the new branches on the tree start to grow, the leaves appear. Then you know that the summer will come soon. ³³ In the same way, you will see all these strange things happening. Then you will know that the Son of Man will come very soon. He will be like someone at the door who is ready to come in. ³⁴ I tell you this: The people who are alive now will not all die until all these things happen. ³⁵ One day, the earth and the sky will have an end. But my words will be there for ever.’

Nobody will know when the Son of Man will return

³⁶ Jesus then said, ‘Nobody knows the day or the hour when all these things will happen. Only God the Father knows when they will happen. The angels who are in heaven do not know. Even the Son does not know. ³⁷ Remember what happened when Noah was alive.^[bd] It will be like that when the Son of Man returns to the earth. ³⁸ In Noah's time, in the days before the flood, people were eating their meals every day. Men married women and women married men. They continued to do all these things until the day that Noah went into his big boat. ³⁹ The people did not know what would happen. Then rain fell for a long time and all these people died in the deep water. When the Son of Man returns, it will happen quickly in the same way. ⁴⁰ At that time, it will be like this: Two men will be working in a field. God will take one man away, but he will leave the other man behind. ⁴¹ Two women will be preparing food together in the same place. God will take one of them away, but he will leave the other woman behind.

⁴² So you must watch carefully! You do not know the day when your Master will come back. ⁴³ You can be sure about this. The master of a house does not know at what time of night a man would come to rob him. If he knew the time, he would watch his house more carefully. He would not let the robber come into his house and take away his things. ⁴⁴ So you must also be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time when you are not thinking about it.’

Jesus tells a story about two servants

⁴⁵ Jesus then said, ‘You should be like a wise servant. Be someone that the master can trust. The master will choose a man like that. He will say to him, “Rule over my house and all my other servants. Give everyone their food to eat at the right time.” ⁴⁶ That servant will be very happy when his master comes home. His master will see that he has done everything well. ⁴⁷ Yes, I tell you this: The master will give that servant authority to rule over everything in his house. ⁴⁸ But another servant might be bad. He might say to himself, “My master will not come yet.” ⁴⁹ Then he begins to hit the other servants. He eats too much and he drinks too much. He meets with other people who become drunk. ⁵⁰ 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. ⁵¹ Then the master will punish him a lot. He will put the servant with those people who do not obey him. The people in that place will cry and they will bite their teeth together.’

Jesus tells a story about ten young women

25 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you another story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There were ten young women who were going to a marriage party. They took their lamps with them and they went to meet the man who was marrying a wife. ² Five of these young women were silly. The other five young women were wise. ³ The silly women took their lamps with them, but they did not take any extra oil with them. ⁴ The five wise women took jars of oil with their lamps. ⁵ The man who was marrying a wife did not come for a long time. So all the young women became tired, and they went to sleep.

⁶ In the middle of the night, someone shouted out, “The man is coming! Come out to meet him!”

⁷ The ten young women woke up. Then they prepared their lamps to make them work well. ⁸ The five silly young women said to the other five young women, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are not giving much light.” ⁹ The wise women replied, “If we did that, then there would not be enough oil for all of us. You must go instead to the people who sell oil. You must buy some oil for yourselves.”

¹⁰ So these five women went to buy some oil. While they were away, the man arrived for the marriage party. The five wise women were ready. They went with him into the house for the party. Then the servants shut the door.

¹¹ Later, the five silly women also came to the house. They said, “Sir, Sir, please open the door for us.” ¹² But he replied, “I tell you, I do not know you.” ’

¹³ Then Jesus said to the people, ‘So you must watch carefully. You do not know on what day or at what time I will return.’^[be]

Jesus tells a story about three servants

¹⁴ Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who began a journey. Before the master went away, he told his servants to come to him. He said to them, “Take care of all my money and all my things for me.” ¹⁵ The master gave one servant 5,000 gold coins. He gave another servant 2,000 gold coins, and to another servant he gave 1,000 gold coins. The master gave to each servant what he would be able to use well.^[bf] Then he went away on his journey.

¹⁶ The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins went out immediately. He bought and sold things with the money. When he did this, he got 5,000 more gold coins. ¹⁷ The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins did the same thing. This servant got 2,000 more gold coins. ¹⁸ But the servant who had received only 1,000 gold coins did something different. He went outside and he dug a hole in the ground. He buried the money that his master had given him.

¹⁹ After a long time, the master came home.^[bg] He asked the servants to come to him. He wanted to know how much money they had now. ²⁰ The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 5,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 5,000 gold coins.”

²¹ The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”

²² The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins also came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 2,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 2,000 gold coins.”

²³ The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”

²⁴ The servant who had received 1,000 gold coins then came to his master. The servant said, “Master, I know what you are like. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take food from fields where you did not put any seed in the ground. You get fruit from trees that you did not plant. ²⁵ So I was afraid of you. I went and I buried your gold coins in the ground. Look! Here they are. You can have your money back again.”

²⁶ The master said to him, “You are a bad and lazy servant. You know what I am like, do you? I get food from fields where I did not put any seeds. I get fruit from trees that I did not plant. You knew all that. ²⁷ So you should have put the money into a bank. Then, when I came home, I could have received my money back from the bank, with extra money.”

²⁸ Then the master said to his other servants, “Take the 1,000 gold coins from this bad servant. Give them to the man who now has 10,000 coins. ²⁹ Some people have received good things. They will all receive even more and have lots of good things. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. ³⁰ This servant cannot work for me any longer. Take him outside and throw him into a dark place. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.” ’^[bh]

God judges everybody

³¹ Jesus said, ‘I, the Son of Man, will return one day. Then people will see that I am great and powerful. All God's angels will come with me. I will sit on my great seat as king. ³² People from all the countries in the world will come together in front of me. I will put them into two groups. I will do it in the same way that a shepherd puts his sheep and goats into two groups. ³³ He puts the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left side.^[bi]

³⁴ The king will say to those people who are on his right side, “Come here. My Father has been good to you. He has prepared a place for you in his kingdom. That kingdom has been ready for you since the time that God made the world. ³⁵ I was hungry and you gave me some food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me some water to drink. I was visiting your town and you asked me to stay in your home. ³⁶ I did not have enough clothes and you gave me some clothes to wear. I was ill and you took care of me. I was in prison and you came to visit me there.”

³⁷ Then the people on the right side will say to the king, “Master, when did we see that you were hungry and give you some food? When did we see that you were thirsty and we gave you some water to drink? ³⁸ When did we ask you to stay in our home because you were alone? When did we give you some clothes to wear? ³⁹ When did we take care of you because you were ill? When did we come to visit you in prison?”

⁴⁰ The king will answer them, “I tell you this: You did all these things to help other people. They were not important people, but they were my friends. When you helped them, then you also helped me.”

⁴¹ Then the king will say to those people who are at his left side, “Go away from me. God has decided to punish you. He has prepared a fire that will burn for ever. He has prepared it for Satan and his servants. You will also go into that fire. ⁴² I was hungry but you did not give me any food to eat. I was thirsty but you did not give me anything to drink. ⁴³ I visited your town but you did not ask me to stay in your home. I did not have enough clothes but you did not give me anything to wear. I was ill but you did not take care of me. I was in prison but you did not come to visit me.”

⁴⁴ Then these other people will say, “Master, when did we see you and you were hungry, or you were thirsty? When did we see you alone or without clothes? When did we see you and you were ill, or in prison? When did you need our help and we did not help you?”

⁴⁵ Then the king will reply, “I tell you this: You did not help people who are my friends. They were not important people. But when you did not help them, you also did not help me.”

⁴⁶ Then those people on the king's left side will go away to the place where God will punish them for ever. But the good people on the king's right side will live for ever with God.’

Those who are against Jesus want to take hold of him

26 When Jesus finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ² ‘You know that after two days it will be the time of the Passover festival. Then those people who are against me will put me into the power of the rulers. They will fix me, the Son of Man, to a cross to kill me.’^[bj]

³ Then the leaders of the priests and the important Jews met together in the house of the most important priest. His name was Caiaphas. ⁴ They wanted to kill Jesus. But they wanted to take hold of him secretly. So they tried to decide how they could do that. ⁵ They said to each other, ‘We do not want to take hold of him during the Passover festival. If we do that, the people will be angry and they may fight against us.’

A woman pours beautiful oil on Jesus' head

⁶ Then Jesus went to Bethany and he visited Simon at his house. At one time, Simon had had a bad disease of the skin.^[bk]

⁷ While Jesus was eating a meal there, a woman came into the house. She brought a small stone jar with her. The jar contained expensive oil with a very nice smell.^[bl] She poured the oil over Jesus' head while he sat there.

⁸ Jesus' disciples saw what the woman had done. They became angry and they said, ‘This woman should not have wasted the oil. ⁹ She could have sold it for a lot of money. Then she could have given the money to poor people.’

¹⁰ Jesus knew what his disciples were saying. So he said to them, ‘Do not cause trouble for her. She has done a good thing to me. ¹¹ You will always have poor people with you. But you will not always have me with you. ¹² She has poured oil over my body. So now I will be ready for people to bury me. ¹³ I tell you this: Everywhere in the world people will speak about this good news. At the same time, they will also tell people about the good thing that this woman has done. And so people will remember her.’

Judas Iscariot promises to sell Jesus for money

¹⁴ Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus' 12 apostles. He went to see the leaders of the priests ¹⁵ and he asked them, ‘How much money will you give me if I help you to take hold of Jesus?’ The priests gave Judas 30 silver coins. ¹⁶ Judas then waited for the right moment to help them to take hold of Jesus.

Jesus eats his last meal with his 12 disciples

¹⁷ The first day of the festival when the Jews eat flat bread arrived.^[bm] Jesus' disciples came to him and they asked him, ‘Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you to eat?’

¹⁸ Jesus replied, ‘Go to a certain man in the city and say to him, “The teacher says: This is the moment that God has prepared for me. I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples in your house.” ’ ¹⁹ So Jesus' disciples did what he had told them to do. They went and they prepared the Passover meal.

²⁰ When it was evening, Jesus and the 12 apostles sat down to eat the Passover meal together. ²¹ While they were eating, Jesus said, ‘I tell you this: One of you will help the Jewish leaders to take hold of me.’

²² They were very sad about what Jesus had said. Each one of them said to Jesus, ‘Lord, surely you do not mean me, do you?’

²³ Jesus said to them ‘The man who will give me to the rulers is eating from the same dish as I am.^{[bn] 24} The Son of Man must die in the way that the Bible says. But it will be very bad for the man who gives me to my enemies. It would be better for that man if he had not been born.’

²⁵ Judas was the one who would give Jesus to the Jewish leaders. But he said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, surely you do not mean me, do you?’ Jesus replied to him, ‘Yes, you have said it.’

²⁶ While Jesus and his disciples were eating, he took a loaf of bread. He thanked God for it and then he broke the bread into pieces. He gave some of it to each of them. He said, ‘Take this bread and eat it. This is my body.’

²⁷ Then Jesus took a cup. He thanked God for the wine in the cup. Then he gave it to them and he said, ‘All of you should drink some of this wine. ²⁸ This is my blood that shows God's promise. When I die, my blood will pour out of my body. In that way God will forgive many people for the wrong things that they have done. That is the promise that God makes because of my death. ²⁹ I tell you this. I will not drink wine again until I drink it with you in my Father's kingdom. Then it will be new wine.’^[bo]

³⁰ Then Jesus and his disciples sang a song to praise God.^[bp] Then they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus tells Peter what will happen

³¹ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Tonight, all of you will turn away from me. It will happen in the way that the Bible says:

³² Jesus then said, ‘But after that happens, I will become alive again. Then I will go to Galilee, and you will meet me there.’

³³ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Even if everyone else runs away, I will not leave you.’

³⁴ Jesus replied to Peter, ‘I tell you this: Even tonight, you will say three times that you do not know me. This will happen before the cockerel sings early tomorrow morning.’

³⁵ But Peter said to Jesus, ‘I will die with you if I need to. But I will never say that I do not know you.’ All the other disciples said the same thing.

Jesus prays in a garden on the Mount of Olives

³⁶ Then Jesus and his disciples arrived at a large garden called Gethsemane. Jesus said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there to pray.’ ³⁷ Then Jesus took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, with him. He became very sad and upset. ³⁸ He said to them, ‘I am very sad. I feel as if I could die because I feel so sad. Wait here with me and stay awake.’

³⁹ Jesus went a short way beyond them. He went down with his face on the ground. He prayed, ‘Father, if it is possible, please save me from this time of great pain. But Father, I do not ask you to do what I want. Do what you want to do.’

⁴⁰ Jesus returned to the three disciples. Now they were sleeping. He said to Peter, ‘You men could not stay awake with me for even one hour! ⁴¹ You must stay awake and pray. God can help you, so that you will not do something wrong. You really want to do the right thing, but your bodies are weak.’

⁴² Jesus went away a second time and he prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible to save me from this time of great pain, then I want to obey you. Do what you want for me.’

⁴³ Then Jesus returned again to Peter, James and John. He saw that they were sleeping. They could not keep their eyes open. ⁴⁴ So Jesus went away from them again and he prayed a third time. He said the same words to God.

⁴⁵ When he returned to the disciples, he said, ‘You should not still be sleeping and resting. Look! The moment has arrived! Someone will now give me, the Son of Man, to my enemies. ⁴⁶ Stand up, we will go now. Look! The man who will give me to my enemies is here.’

The soldiers take hold of Jesus

⁴⁷ While Jesus was still speaking, Judas arrived. He was one of Jesus' 12 disciples. A crowd also came with him. They were carrying swords and heavy sticks. The leaders of the priests and the important Jews had sent these people with Judas. ⁴⁸ Judas was ready to help the Jewish leaders to take hold of Jesus. Before this, he had told them, ‘I will kiss one of the men. You must take hold of that man.’

⁴⁹ Now Judas went immediately to Jesus. He said, ‘Hello, Teacher.’ Then he kissed Jesus in a friendly way.^[br]

⁵⁰ Jesus said to Judas, ‘My friend, now do what you have come here to do.’

Then the crowd of men came up to Jesus. They took hold of him to lead him away. ⁵¹ Then one of Jesus' disciples took hold of his sword. He hit the servant of the leader of the priests with it and he cut off the servant's ear.

⁵² Then Jesus said to the disciple, ‘Put your sword back in its place. People who use a sword to kill others will themselves die in the same way. Someone will kill them with a sword. ⁵³ You should know that I could ask my Father God to help me. He would immediately send more than 12 large groups of angels to fight for me. ⁵⁴ They would save me. But then the things that God has said in the Bible about this would not happen. So it must happen in this way.’

⁵⁵ At that time, Jesus said to the crowd, ‘You have come out here with swords and heavy sticks to take hold of me. Do you really believe that I am leading people to fight against our country's rulers? No! I was teaching people every day in the yard of the temple. But you did not try to take hold of me then. ⁵⁶ The prophets wrote long ago that all this would happen to me. Now it has become true.’

Then all of Jesus' disciples ran away and left him.