Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The altar on Mount Ebal

27 Moses and the leaders of Israel said to the people, ‘Obey all these commands that I am giving you today. ² You will soon go across the Jordan River and go into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. When you are there, you must put up some large stones on Mount Ebal. Cover them with thick white paint. ³ Then write on them all these laws and teaching. You must do that when you go across the river into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. It is a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. He promised your ancestors that he would give it to you. ⁴ After you go across the Jordan River, you must put these stones on Mount Ebal. Cover them with white paint. Do as I am telling you today.

⁵ Then you must build an altar there to worship the Lord your God. Do not use iron tools to cut the stones for the altar. ⁶ Use whole stones that you find to build it. Then offer burnt offerings to the Lord your God on the altar. ⁷ You must also offer friendship offerings there. Eat them with joy as you meet with the Lord your God. ⁸ Write all the words of this law on the stones that you will put there. Be sure to write them very clearly.’

The messages from Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim

⁹ Then Moses and the Levite priests said to all the Israelites, ‘Be quiet and listen carefully! Today, you have become the people who belong to the Lord your God. ¹⁰ Obey him. Obey his commands and his rules that I am giving you today.’

Jesus' disciples are like salt and light

¹³ Jesus said, ‘You are like salt for all people to taste and use. Salt is good. But if it is not salty any more, you cannot make it salty again. People can no longer use it for anything. They just throw it away and they walk on it.

¹⁴ You are like a light for everybody in this world. If people build a city on a hill, then other people can see it easily. ¹⁵ Nobody lights a lamp and then puts it under a pot. He will put the lamp in a high place.^[a] Everybody who is in the house can then see the light from the lamp. ¹⁶ You must be sure that your light shines well. Then you will give light to other people. They will see all the good things that you do.^[b] Then they will praise God, who is your Father in heaven.’

Jesus talks about the Laws that Moses gave to the Jews

¹⁷ Jesus said, ‘You should not think that I have come to destroy God's Law. Also, I have not come to destroy the messages that God's prophets wrote down. No, I have not come to destroy their words. I have come to make what they taught become true. ¹⁸ I tell you this: One day, even the earth and the sky will finish. But while they remain, God's Law will also remain. Nobody can remove even the smallest thing from it. The Law will remain until everything in it has happened.

¹⁹ A person may choose not to obey a rule in God's Law. He may think it is the least important rule. He may also teach other people to think like that. Then God will call him the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But a person may choose to obey all the rules in God's Law. And he may teach other people to obey them too. Then God will call that person great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ I tell you this: You must always do what is right. You must live in a way that is better than the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees.^[c] You will never come into the kingdom of heaven if you do not do better than them.’