Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 130

A pilgrimage song.

Joseph’s brothers return for Jacob

¹⁶ When Pharaoh’s household heard the message “Joseph’s brothers have arrived,” both Pharaoh and his servants were pleased. ¹⁷ Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Give your brothers these instructions: Load your pack animals and go back to the land of Canaan. ¹⁸ Get your father and your households and come back to me. Let me provide you with good things from the land of Egypt so that you may eat the land’s best food. ¹⁹ Give them these instructions too: Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and wives, and pick up your father and come back. ²⁰ Don’t worry about your possessions because you will have good things from the entire land of Egypt.”

²¹ So Israel’s sons did that. Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh instructed, and he gave them provisions for the road. ²² To all of them he gave a change of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing. ²³ To his father he sent ten male donkeys carrying goods from Egypt, ten female donkeys carrying grain and bread, and rations for his father for the road. ²⁴ He sent his brothers off; and as they were leaving, he told them, “Don’t be worried about the trip.”^[a]

²⁵ So they left Egypt and returned to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. ²⁶ They announced to him, “Joseph’s still alive! He’s actually ruler of all the land of Egypt!” Jacob’s heart nearly failed, and he didn’t believe them.

²⁷ When they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, Jacob recovered. ²⁸ Then Israel said, “This is too much! My son Joseph is still alive! Let me go and see him before I die.”

A man with a skin disease

8 Now when Jesus had come down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. ² A man with a skin disease came, kneeled before him, and said, “Lord, if you want, you can make me clean.”

³ Jesus reached out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do want to. Become clean.” Instantly his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴ Jesus said to him, “Don’t say anything to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded. This will be a testimony to them.”

Healing of the centurion’s servant

⁵ When Jesus went to Capernaum, a centurion approached, ⁶ pleading with him, “Lord, my servant is flat on his back at home, paralyzed, and his suffering is awful.”

⁷ Jesus responded, “I’ll come and heal him.”

⁸ But the centurion replied, “Lord, I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. ⁹ I’m a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and the servant does it.”

¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he was impressed and said to the people following him, “I say to you with all seriousness that even in Israel I haven’t found faith like this. ¹¹ I say to you that there are many who will come from east and west and sit down to eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the children of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.” ¹³ Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it will be done for you just as you have believed.” And his servant was healed that very moment.