Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Elijah Visits the Widowed Mother of Zarephath

⁸ Then this message came to him from the Lord: ⁹ “Get up, move to Zarephath in Sidon, and stay there. Look! I’ve commanded a widow to sustain you there.”

¹⁰ So he got up and went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance to the city, a widow was there gathering sticks. So he asked her, “Please, may I have some water in a cup so I can have a drink.” ¹¹ While she was on her way to get the water, he called out to her, “Would you please also bring me a piece of bread while you’re at it?”^[a]

¹² “As the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have so much as a muffin, just a handful of flour in a bowl and some oil left in a bottle. Now I’m going to find some sticks so I can cook a last meal for my son and for me. Then we’re going to eat it and die.”

¹³ But Elijah told her, “You can stop being afraid. Go and do what you said, but first make me a muffin and bring it to me. Then make a meal for yourself and for your son, ¹⁴ because this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘That jar of flour will not run out, nor will that bottle of oil become empty until the very day that the Lord sends rain on the surface of the ground.’”

¹⁵ So she went out and did precisely what Elijah told her to do. As a result, Elijah,^[b] the widow,^[c] and her son^[d] were fed for days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour never ran out and the bottle of oil never became empty, just as the Lord had promised^[e] through^[f] Elijah.

Praise to God the Help of Israel

²⁴ For the Messiah^[a] did not go into a sanctuary made by human^[b] hands that is merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear now in God’s presence on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor did he go into heaven^[c] to sacrifice himself again and again, the way the high priest goes into the Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the creation of the world. But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once for all to remove sin by his sacrifice. ²⁷ Indeed, just as people are destined to die once and after that to be judged,^{[d] 28} so the Messiah^[e] was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And he will appear a second time, not to deal with sin,^[f] but to bring salvation to those who eagerly wait for him.

Jesus Denounces the Scribes^(A)

³⁸ As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes! They like to walk around in long robes, to be greeted in the marketplaces, ³⁹ and to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁰ They devour widows’ houses^[a] and say long prayers to cover it up. They will receive greater condemnation!”

The Widow’s Offering^(B)

⁴¹ As Jesus^[b] sat facing the offering box, he watched how the crowd was dropping their money into it.^[c] Many rich people were dropping in large amounts. ⁴² Then a destitute widow came and dropped in two small copper coins,^[d] worth about a cent.^{[e] 43} He called his disciples and told them, “I tell all of you^[f] with certainty, this destitute widow has dropped in more than everyone who is contributing to the offering box, ⁴⁴ because all of them contributed out of their surplus, but out of her poverty she has given everything she had to live on.”