Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Christian athlete

²⁴ Don’t you know that when people run on the racetrack everybody runs, but only one person gets the prize? Run in such a way that you’ll win it. ²⁵ Everyone who goes in for athletics exercises self-discipline in everything. They do it to gain a crown that perishes; we do it for an imperishable one. ²⁶ Well then: I don’t run in an aimless fashion! I don’t box like someone punching the air! ²⁷ No: I give my body rough treatment, and make it my slave, in case, after announcing the message to others, I myself should end up being disqualified.

⁴⁰ A man with a virulent skin disease came up to him. He knelt down and begged him, “If you want to, you can make me clean!”

⁴¹ Jesus was deeply moved. He reached out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do want to: be clean!” ⁴² The disease left him at once, and he was clean.

⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once, with this stern warning: ⁴⁴ “Mind you don’t say anything to anyone! Just go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering Moses commanded, to purify yourself and to give them a sign.”

⁴⁵ But the man went out and began to spread the news far and wide. He did this so effectively that Jesus couldn’t any longer go publicly into a town. He stayed out in the open country, and people came to him from all around.