Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Day of Cleansing

16 Now two of Aaron’s sons had died while offering incense to the Lord. At that time the Lord spoke to Moses. ² He said, “Talk to your brother Aaron. Tell him there are times when he cannot go behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant is. If he goes in when I appear in a cloud over the lid on the Ark of the Covenant, he will die.

³ “Aaron may enter the Most Holy Place only on the Day of Cleansing. Before he enters, he must offer a bull for a sin offering. And he must offer a male sheep for a whole burnt offering. ⁴ He must put on these clothes. He will put on the holy linen inner robe. The linen underclothes will be next to his body. His belt will be the cloth belt. And he will wear the linen turban. These are holy clothes. So he must wash his whole body with water before he puts them on.

⁵ “Aaron must take from the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering. And he must take one male sheep for a burnt offering.

²⁰ “Aaron will make the Most Holy Place, the Meeting Tent and the altar clean. Then he will bring the goat alive to the Lord. ²¹ He will put both his hands on the head of the living goat. Then he will confess all the sins and crimes of Israel over the goat. In this way Aaron will put the people’s sins on the goat’s head. Then he will send the goat away into the desert. A man who has been appointed will lead the goat away. ²² So the goat will carry all the people’s sins on itself. It will go to a lonely place in the desert. The man who leads the goat will let it loose there.

²³ “Then Aaron will enter the Meeting Tent. He will take off the linen clothes. (He had put them on before he went into the Most Holy Place.) He must leave these clothes there. ²⁴ He will wash his whole body with water in a holy place. Then he will put on his regular clothes. He will come out and offer the whole burnt offering for himself. And he will offer the whole burnt offering for the people. He will remove sins from himself and the people so they will belong to the Lord. ²⁵ Then he will burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar.

²⁶ “The person who led the goat into the desert must wash his clothes. Then he must wash his whole body with water. After that, he may come back into the camp.

²⁷ “The bull and goat for the sin offerings must be taken outside the camp. The blood from these animals was brought into the Most Holy Place. It was to make the Holy Place ready for service to the Lord. The priests will burn the animals’ skins, bodies and intestines in the fire. ²⁸ Then the one who burns them must wash his clothes. And he must wash his whole body with water. After that, he may come back into the camp.

The Power of Faith

¹⁸ Early the next morning, Jesus was going back to the city. He was very hungry. ¹⁹ He saw a fig tree beside the road. Jesus went to it, but there were no figs on the tree. There were only leaves. So Jesus said to the tree, “You will never again have fruit!” The tree immediately dried up.

²⁰ His followers saw this and were amazed. They asked, “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?”

²¹ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth. If you have faith and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I did to this tree. And you will be able to do more. You will be able to say to this mountain, ‘Go, mountain, fall into the sea.’ And if you have faith, it will happen. ²² If you believe, you will get anything you ask for in prayer.”