Read the Gospels in 40 Days
Forgiveness, faith and obedience
17 Jesus said to his disciples, “There are bound to be things that trip people up; but woe betide the person who brings them about! 2 It would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck, and be thrown into the sea, than to trip up one of these little ones. 3 So watch out for yourselves.
“If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he apologizes, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times, and turns round seven times and says ‘sorry’ to you, you must forgive him.”
5 The apostles said to the master, “Give us greater faith!”
6 “If you had faith,” replied the master, “as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
7 “Supposing one of you has a slave ploughing or keeping sheep out in the field. When he comes in, what will you say? ‘Come here at once, and sit down for a meal?’ 8 No; you will be far more likely to say, ‘Get something ready for me to eat! Get properly dressed, and wait on me while I eat and drink! After that you can have something to eat and drink yourself.’ 9 Will you thank the slave because he did what you told him?
10 “That’s how it is with you. When you’ve done everything you’re told, say this: ‘We’re just ordinary slaves. All we’ve done is what we were supposed to do.’ ”
Ten men healed
11 As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he passed along the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into one particular village he was met by ten men with virulent skin diseases who stayed at some distance from him.
13 “Jesus, Master!” they called out loudly. “Have pity on us!”
14 When Jesus saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were healed.
15 One of them, seeing that he had been healed, turned back and gave glory to God at the top of his voice. 16 He fell on his face in front of Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.
17 “There were ten of you healed, weren’t there?” responded Jesus. “Where are the nine? 18 Is it really the case that the only one who had the decency to give God the glory was this foreigner?
19 “Get up, and be on your way,” he said to him. “Your faith has saved you.”
The coming of the kingdom
20 The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming.
“God’s kingdom,” replied Jesus, “isn’t the sort of thing you can watch for and see coming. 21 People won’t say ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘Look, over there!’ No: God’s kingdom is within your grasp.”
22 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the son of man, and you won’t see it. 23 They will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Don’t go off or follow them. 24 The son of man in his day will be like lightning that shines from one end of the sky to the other. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26 “What will it be like in the days of the son of man? It will be like the days of Noah. 27 People were eating and drinking, they were getting married and giving wedding parties, until the day when Noah went into the ark. And on that day the flood came and swept them all away. 28 And it will be like the days of Lot. They were eating and drinking, they were buying and selling, they were planting and building. 29 But on the day when Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and they were all destroyed. 30 That’s what it will be like on the day when the son of man is revealed.
31 “On that day anyone up on the roof, with all their possessions in the house, shouldn’t go down to get them. Anyone out in the field shouldn’t go back to get anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 If you try to save your life you’ll lose it, but anyone who loses it will keep it.
34 “Let me tell you, in that night there will be two people sleeping side by side: one will be taken, and the other left behind. 35 There will be two women working side by side grinding corn: one will be taken, and the other left behind.”
37 “Where will this be, Master?” they asked him.
“Where the body is,” replied Jesus, “there the vultures will gather.”
The parables of the persistent widow and the tax-collector
18 Jesus told them a parable, about how they should always pray and not give up.
2 “There was once a judge in a certain town,” he said, “who didn’t fear God, and didn’t have any respect for people. 3 There was a widow in that town, and she came to him and said, ‘Judge my case! Vindicate me against my enemy!’
4 “For a long time he refused. But, in the end, he said to himself, ‘It’s true that I don’t fear God, and don’t have any respect for people. 5 But because this widow is causing me a lot of trouble, I will put her case right and vindicate her, so that she doesn’t end up coming and giving me a black eye.’
6 “Well,” said the master, “did you hear what this unjust judge says? 7 And don’t you think that God will see justice done for his chosen ones, who shout out to him day and night? Do you suppose he is deliberately delaying? 8 Let me tell you, he will vindicate them very quickly. But—when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
9 He told this next parable against those who trusted in their own righteous standing and despised others.
10 “Two men,” he said, “went up to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, the other was a tax-collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed in this way to himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the other people—greedy, unjust, immoral, or even like this tax-collector. 12 I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
13 “But the tax-collector stood a long way off, and didn’t even want to raise his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am.’ 14 Let me tell you, he was the one who went back to his house in the right before God, not the other. Don’t you see? People who exalt themselves will be humbled, and people who humble themselves will be exalted.”
The rich young ruler
15 People were bringing even tiny babies to Jesus for him to touch them. When the disciples saw it, they forbade them sternly. 16 But Jesus called them. “Let the children come to me,” he said, “and don’t stop them! God’s kingdom belongs to the likes of these. 17 I’m telling you the truth: anyone who doesn’t receive God’s kingdom like a child will never get into it.”
18 There was a ruler who asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the life of the age to come?”
19 “Why call me good?” said Jesus to him. “No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: Don’t commit adultery, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t swear falsely, honor your father and mother.”
21 “I’ve kept them all,” he said, “since I was a boy.”
22 When Jesus heard that, he said to him, “There’s just one thing you’re short of. Sell everything you own, and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.”
23 When he heard that he became very sad. He was extremely wealthy.
24 Jesus saw that he had become sad, and said, “How hard it is for those with possessions to enter God’s kingdom! 25 Yes: it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.”
26 The people who heard it said, “So who can be saved?”
27 “What’s impossible for humans,” said Jesus, “is possible for God.”
28 “Look here,” said Peter, “we’ve left everything and followed you.”
29 “I’m telling you the truth,” said Jesus, “everyone who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, because of God’s kingdom, 30 will receive far more in return in the present time—and in the age to come they will receive the life that belongs to that age.”
Jesus heals a blind beggar
31 Jesus took the Twelve aside.
“Look,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem. Everything that’s written in the prophets about the son of man will be fulfilled. 32 Yes: he will be handed over to the pagans; he’ll be mocked, abused and spat upon. 33 They will beat him and kill him; and on the third day he’ll be raised.”
34 They didn’t understand any of this. The word was hidden from them, and they didn’t know what he meant.
35 As they were getting near Jericho there was a blind man sitting by the road, begging. 36 When he heard a crowd passing through the town he asked what was going on.
37 “Jesus of Nazareth is coming by,” people said to him.
38 So he shouted out, “Jesus—David’s son! Have pity on me!”
39 The people who were at the front of the group firmly told him to be silent. But he yelled out all the more, “David’s son! Have pity on me!”
40 Jesus stopped, and told them to bring the man to him. When he came up, he asked him, 41 “What d’you want me to do for you?”
“Master,” he said, “I want to see again.”
42 “Then see again,” said Jesus. “Your faith has saved you.”
43 At once he received his sight again, and followed him, glorifying God. And when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.