Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²⁶ When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she cried for him. ²⁷ After she finished her time of sadness, David sent servants to bring her to his house. She became David’s wife and gave birth to his son. But the Lord did not like what David had done.

David’s Son Dies

12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When Nathan came to David, Nathan said, “There were two men in a city. One man was rich, but the other was poor. ² The rich man had very many sheep and cattle. ³ But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb he had bought. The poor man fed the lamb. It grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup. It slept in his arms. The lamb was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to give food to the traveler. But he didn’t want to take one of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler. Instead, he took the lamb from the poor man. The rich man killed the lamb and cooked it for his visitor.”

⁵ David became very angry at the rich man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this should die! ⁶ He must pay for the lamb four times for doing such a thing. He had no mercy!”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I appointed you king of Israel. I saved you from Saul. ⁸ I gave you his kingdom and his wives. And I made you king of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you even more. ⁹ So why did you ignore the Lord’s command? Why did you do what he says is wrong? You killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites! And you took his wife to become your wife! ¹⁰ So there will always be people in your family who will be killed by a sword. This is because you showed that you did not respect me! And you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite!’

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan answered, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. ¹⁴ But what you did caused the Lord’s enemies to lose all respect for him. For this reason the son who was born to you will die.”

¹⁵ Then Nathan went home. And the Lord caused the son of David and Bathsheba, Uriah’s widow, to become very sick.

It Is Better to Confess Sin

A maskil of David.

¹⁵ We were not born as non-Jewish “sinners,” but we were born as Jews. ¹⁶ Yet we know that a person is not made right with God by following the law. No! It is trusting in Jesus Christ that makes a person right with God. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we might be made right with God. And we are right with God because we trusted in Christ—not because we followed the law. For no one can be made right with God by following the law.

¹⁷ We Jews came to Christ to be made right with God. So it is clear that we were sinners too. Does this mean that Christ makes us sinners? No! ¹⁸ But I would really be wrong to begin teaching again those things of the Law of Moses that I gave up. ¹⁹ I stopped living for the law. It was the law that put me to death. I died to the law so that I can now live for God. I was put to death on the cross with Christ. ²⁰ I do not live anymore—it is Christ living in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God. He loved me and gave himself to save me. ²¹ This gift is from God, and it is very important to me. If the law could make us right with God, then Christ did not have to die.

Simon the Pharisee

³⁶ One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. ³⁷ A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ She stood at Jesus’ feet, crying, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She dried his feet with her hair, kissed them many times and rubbed them with the perfume. ³⁹ The Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this. He thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman who is touching him is a sinner!”

⁴⁰ Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.”

⁴¹ Jesus said, “There were two men. Both men owed money to the same banker. One man owed the banker 500 silver coins.^[a] The other man owed the banker 50 silver coins. ⁴² The men had no money; so they could not pay what they owed. But the banker told the men that they did not have to pay him. Which one of the two men will love the banker more?”

⁴³ Simon, the Pharisee, answered, “I think it would be the one who owed him the most money.”

Jesus said to Simon, “You are right.” ⁴⁴ Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet. But she washed my feet with her tears and dried my feet with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not kiss me, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in! ⁴⁶ You did not rub my head with oil, but she rubbed my feet with perfume. ⁴⁷ I tell you that her many sins are forgiven. This is clear because she showed great love. But the person who has only a little to be forgiven will feel only a little love.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ The people sitting at the table began to think to themselves, “Who is this man? How can he forgive sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”

The Group with Jesus

8 The next day, while Jesus was traveling through some cities and small towns, he preached and told the Good News about God’s kingdom. The 12 apostles were with him. ² There were also some women with him who had been healed of sicknesses and evil spirits. One of the women was Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. ³ Also among the women were Joanna, the wife of Chuza (Herod’s helper), Susanna, and many other women. These women used their own money to help Jesus and his apostles.