Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁸ When people who are turning away from God hear about the cross, they say, `That is foolish!' But for us who are being saved, the cross is the power God uses to save us.

¹⁹ God says in the holy writings, `I will fool the wise people. I will bring to nothing the understanding of the clever people.'

²⁰ Where are your wise people, the men who know books, the men who like to talk about the things of this world? God has shown that the clever things of this world are nothing.

²¹ God is wise. But the people of the world were not wise enough to know God. So he chose to save people who believe the good news that we tell them, even though the good news may seem to be foolish.

²² The Jews say, `We must see a sign.' Those who are not Jews say, `We want something we can understand.'

²³ But we tell people about Christ who died on a cross. The leaders of the Jews do not like this, and those who are not Jews laugh at it.

²⁴ But some have been called by God. They are chosen, both Jews and other people. Christ is God's power to save them. This shows how wise he is.

²⁵ When God seems foolish, he is more wise than men. When God seems weak, he is stronger than men.

¹³ The time for the Passover Feast of the Jews was near. So Jesus went to Jerusalem.

¹⁴ In the temple he found people buying and selling things. They were selling cows, sheep, and doves. Others were sitting at tables changing money for the people.

¹⁵ Jesus tied some pieces of cord together to make a whip. Then he drove out all the people who were buying and selling in the temple. And he drove out the sheep and the cows. He threw down the tables of the money changers and their money.

¹⁶ He said to the people who sold doves, `Take these things out of here. Do not make my Father's house into a market place.'

¹⁷ His disciples remembered that God's word says, `My love for your house is like a fire burning in me.'

¹⁸ The leaders of the Jews said to Jesus, `Who gave you the right to do this? What big work will prove it to us?'

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, `Break down this temple and in three days I will raise it up.'

²⁰ The Jewish leaders said, `It took forty-six years to build this temple. Do you say you will raise it in three days?'

²¹ But Jesus was talking about the temple which was his body.

²² After Jesus died and had been raised from death, the disciples remembered that he had said this to them. Then they believed what the holy writings say. They also believed what Jesus had said to them.