Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
23 Here they are, every morning, new!
Your faithfulness, God, is as broad as the day.
24 Have courage, for the Eternal is all that I will need.
My soul boasts, “Hope in God; just wait.”
25 It is good. The Eternal One is good to those who expect Him,
to those who seek Him wholeheartedly.
26 It is good to wait quietly
for the Eternal to make things right again.
27 It is good to have to deal
with restraint and burdens when young.
28 Just leave in peace the one who waits in silence,
patiently bearing the burden of God;
29 Just don’t interfere if he falls, gape-mouthed in the dust.
There may well be hope yet.
30 Just let him offer his cheek when struck.
Let him be the butt of jokes.
This is the heart of the lament. Pain and despair are deep and lasting, but God’s rejection is not forever because Jerusalem is the city of the Lord.
31 Kept in God’s care:
the Lord won’t reject him forever.
32 Kindness prevails: Even though God torments sometimes,
the greatness of God’s loyal love wins out.
33 Keeping us down: it is not the desire or way of God’s heart
to hurt and grieve the children of men.
Psalm 30
A song of David. For the dedication of the temple.
1 I praise You, Eternal One. You lifted me out of that deep, dark pit
and denied my opponents the pleasure of rubbing in their success.
2 Eternal One, my True God, I cried out to You for help;
You mended the shattered pieces of my life.
3 You lifted me from the grave with a mighty hand,
gave me another chance,
and saved me from joining those in that dreadful pit.
4 Sing, all you who remain faithful!
Pour out your hearts to the Eternal with praise and melodies;
let grateful music fill the air and bless His name.
5 His wrath, you see, is fleeting,
but His grace lasts a lifetime.
The deepest pains may linger through the night,
but joy greets the soul with the smile of morning.
6 When things were quiet and life was easy, I said in arrogance,
“Nothing can shake me.”
7 By Your grace, Eternal,
I thought I was as strong as a mountain;
But when You left my side and hid away,
I crumbled in fear.
8 O Eternal One, I called out to You;
I pleaded for Your compassion and forgiveness:
9 “I’m no good to You dead! What benefits come from my rotting corpse?
My body in the grave will not praise You.
No songs will rise up from the dust of my bones.
From dust comes no proclamation of Your faithfulness.
10 Hear me, Eternal Lord—please help me,
Eternal One—be merciful!”
11 You did it: You turned my deepest pains into joyful dancing;
You stripped off my dark clothing
and covered me with joyful light.
12 You have restored my honor. My heart is ready to explode, erupt in new songs!
It’s impossible to keep quiet!
Eternal One, my God, my Life-Giver, I will thank You forever.
7 Just as you are rich in everything—in faith and speech, in knowledge and all sincerity, and in the love we have shown among you[a]—now I ask you to invest richly in this gracious work too. 8 I am not going to command you, but I am going to offer you the chance to prove your love genuine in the same way others have done. 9 You know the grace that has come to us through our Lord Jesus the Anointed. He set aside His infinite riches and was born into the lowest circumstance so that you may gain great riches through His humble poverty. 10-11 Listen, it’s been a year since we called your attention to this opportunity to demonstrate God’s grace, so here’s my advice: pull together your resources and finish what you started.
Remember how excited you were at first; it’s time to complete this task in the same spirit. 12 Now if there is a willingness to help, give within your means. That’s perfectly acceptable. No one expects you to go without or borrow to give. 13-14 The objective is not to go under so others will have some relief; the objective is to use this opportunity today to supply their needs out of your abundance. One day it may be the other way around, and they will need to supply your needs from what they have. That’s equality. 15 As it is written, “The one who gathered plenty didn’t have more than he needed; the one who gathered little didn’t have less.”[b]
This is the only time in the Gospels when Jesus seems to listen to the pleading of a demon or a demon-possessed person. The demons immediately acknowledge Jesus as all-powerful; the possessed man’s first reaction on seeing Jesus is to fall at His feet and call Him the “Son of the Most High.” Although we can’t know why Jesus listens to their pleading, the effect is clear: the people in that region see firsthand the power of evil and its ultimate destiny, namely, destruction.
Instead of being pleased that they are now free from the terror of the demon-possessed man, the people in the town ask Jesus to leave. After all, the local economy takes a pretty big hit when 2,000 of their choicest pigs rush into the sea.
21 After Jesus returned across the sea, a large crowd quickly found Him, so He stayed by the sea. 22 One of the leaders of the synagogue—a man named Jairus—came and fell at Jesus’ feet, 23 begging Him to heal his daughter.
Jairus: My daughter is dying, and she’s only 12 years old. Please come to my house. Just place Your hands on her. I know that if You do, she will live.
24 Jesus began traveling with Jairus toward his home.
In the crowd pressing around Jesus, 25 there was a woman who had suffered continuous bleeding for 12 years, bleeding that made her ritually unclean and an outcast according to the purity laws. 26 She had suffered greatly; and although she spent all her money on her medical care, she had only gotten worse. 27 She had heard of this Miracle-Man, Jesus, so she snuck up behind Him in the crowd and reached out her hand to touch His cloak.
Woman (to herself): 28 Even if all I touch are His clothes, I know I will be healed.
29 As soon as her fingers brushed His cloak, the bleeding stopped. She could feel that she was whole again.
30 Lots of people were pressed against Jesus at that moment, but He immediately felt her touch; He felt healing power flow out of Him.
He stopped. Everyone stopped. He looked around.
Jesus: Who just touched My robe?
31 His disciples broke the uneasy silence.
Disciples: Jesus, the crowd is so thick that everyone is touching You. Why do You ask, “Who touched Me?”
32 But Jesus waited. His gaze swept across the crowd to see who had done it. 33 At last, the woman—knowing He was talking about her—pushed forward and dropped to her knees. She was shaking with fear and amazement.
Woman: I touched You.
Then she told Him the reason why. 34 Jesus listened to her story.
Jesus: Daughter, you are well because you dared to believe. Go in peace, and stay well.
Jesus occasionally instigates His own miracles: He goes up to someone, such as a paralyzed man, and offers to heal him. More often, as in the case of Jairus’s daughter, people come to Jesus and ask for healings. But the woman in this story is unique because she receives her healing without asking for it—simply by touching Jesus in faith. He is surrounded by crowds pressing in on every side, but Jesus feels that one person’s touch is different, in a way that only He can perceive: one woman is touching Him deliberately, in hope and faith, knowing He has the power to heal her.
35 While He was speaking, some members of Jairus’s household pushed through the crowd.
Jairus’s Servants (to Jairus): Your daughter is dead. There’s no need to drag the Teacher any farther.
36 Jesus overheard their words. Then He turned to look at Jairus.
Jesus: It’s all right. Don’t be afraid; just believe.
37-38 Jesus asked everyone but Peter, James, and John (James’s brother) to remain outside when they reached Jairus’s home. Inside the synagogue leader’s house, the mourning had already begun; the weeping and wailing carried out into the street.
39 Jesus and His three disciples went inside.
Jesus: Why are you making all this sorrowful noise? The child isn’t dead. She’s just sleeping.
40 The mourners laughed a horrible, bitter laugh and went back to their wailing. Jesus cleared the house so that only His three disciples, Jairus, and Jairus’s wife were left inside with Him. They all went to where the child lay. 41 Then He took the child’s hand.
Jesus: Little girl, it’s time to wake up.
42 Immediately the 12-year-old girl opened her eyes, arose, and began to walk. Her parents could not believe their eyes.
Jesus (to the parents): 43 Don’t tell anybody what you’ve just seen. Why don’t you give her something to eat? I know she is hungry.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.