Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Abraham is the father of all believers
13 The promise, you see, didn’t come to Abraham or to his family through the law—the promise, that is, that he would inherit the world. It came through the covenant justice of faith. 14 For if those who belong to the law are going to inherit, then faith is empty, and the promise has been abolished. 15 For the law stirs up God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no lawbreaking.
16 That’s why it’s “by faith”: so that it can be in accordance with grace, and so that the promise can thereby be validated for the entire family—not simply those who are from the law, but those who share the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all, 17 just as the Bible says, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.
Abraham’s faith—and ours
18 Against all hope, but still in hope, Abraham believed that he would become the father of many nations, in line with what had been said to him: “That’s what your family will be like.” 19 He didn’t become weak in faith as he considered his own body (which was already as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old), and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He didn’t waver in unbelief when faced with God’s promise. Instead, he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God had the power to accomplish what he had promised. 22 That is why “it was calculated in his favor, putting him in the right.”
23 But it wasn’t written for him alone that “it was calculated to him.” 24 It was written for us as well! It will be calculated to us, too, since we believe in the one who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was handed over because of our trespasses and raised because of our justification.
The call of Matthew
9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-office.
“Follow me!” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.
10 When he was at home, sitting down to a meal, there were lots of tax-collectors and sinners there who had come to have dinner with Jesus and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”
12 Jesus heard them.
“It isn’t the healthy who need a doctor,” he said, “it’s the sick. 13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘It’s mercy I want, not sacrifice.’ My job isn’t to call upright people, but sinners.”
The raising of the little girl
18 As Jesus was saying this, suddenly an official came up and knelt down in front of him.
“It’s my daughter!” he said. “She’s just died! But—if you’ll come and lay your hand on her, she’ll come back to life!”
19 Jesus got up and followed him. So did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman appeared. She had suffered from internal bleeding for twelve years. She came up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his coat.
21 “If I can only touch his coat,” she said to herself, “I’ll be rescued.”
22 Jesus turned round and saw her.
“Cheer up, my daughter!” he said. “Your faith has rescued you.”
And the woman was healed from that moment.
23 Jesus went into the official’s house. There he saw the flute-players, and everybody in a great state of agitation.
24 “Go away!” he said. “The little girl isn’t dead. She’s asleep!” And they laughed at him.
25 So when the crowd had been put out, he went in and took hold of her hand, and she got up. 26 The report of this went out around the whole of that region.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.