Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

(By David for praise.)

The Lord Is Kind and Merciful

Rebuild the Temple

1 ^(A) On the first day of the sixth month of the second year that Darius was king of Persia,^[a] the Lord told Haggai the prophet to speak his message to the governor of Judah and to the high priest.

So Haggai told Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua^{[b] 2-5} that the Lord All-Powerful had said to them and to the people:

You say this isn't the right time to build a temple for me. But is it right for you to live in expensive houses,^[c] while my temple is a pile of ruins? Just look at what's happening. ⁶ You harvest less than you plant, you never have enough to eat or drink, your clothes don't keep you warm, and your wages are stored in bags full of holes.

⁷ Think about what I have said! ⁸ But first, go to the hills and get wood for my temple, so I can take pride in it and be worshiped there. ⁹ You expected much, but received only a little. And when you brought it home, I made that little disappear. Why have I done this? It's because you hurry off to build your own houses, while my temple is still in ruins. ¹⁰ That's also why the dew doesn't fall and your harvest fails. ¹¹ And so, at my command everything will become barren—your farmland and pastures, your vineyards and olive trees, your animals and you yourselves. All your hard work will be for nothing.

¹² Zerubbabel and Joshua, together with the others who had returned from exile in Babylonia, obeyed the Lord's message spoken by his prophet Haggai, and they started showing proper respect for the Lord. ¹³ Haggai then told them that the Lord had promised to be with them. ¹⁴ So the Lord God All-Powerful made everyone eager to work on his temple, especially Zerubbabel and Joshua. ¹⁵ And the work began on the twenty-fourth day of that same month.

A Question about Jesus' Authority

(Matthew 21.23-27; Mark 11.27-33)

20 One day, Jesus was teaching in the temple and telling the good news. So the chief priests, the teachers, and the nation's leaders ² asked him, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

³ Jesus replied, “I want to ask you a question. ⁴ Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

⁵ They talked this over and said to each other, “We can't say God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. ⁶ And we can't say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize. The crowd will stone us to death, because they think John was a prophet.”

⁷ So they told Jesus, “We don't know who gave John the right to baptize.”

⁸ Jesus replied, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”