Luke 17
1 He said to His disciples, ``It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!
2 ``It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.
3 ``Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
4 ``And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, `I repent,' forgive him."
5 The apostles said to the Lord, ``Increase our faith!"
6 And the Lord said, ``If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you.
7 ``Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, `Come immediately and sit down to eat'?
8 ``But will he not say to him, `Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'?
9 ``He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?
10 ``So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, `We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"
11 While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.
12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him;
13 and they raised their voices, saying, ``Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"
14 When He saw them, He said to them, ``Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed.
15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice,
16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.
17 Then Jesus answered and said, ``Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine--where are they?
18 ``Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?"
19 And He said to him, ``Stand up and go; your faith has made you well."
20 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ``The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
21 nor will they say, `Look, here it is! ' or, `There it is! ' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst."
22 And He said to the disciples, ``The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
23 ``They will say to you, `Look there! Look here!' Do not go away, and do not run after them.
24 ``For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.
25 ``But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26 ``And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 ``It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 ``It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
31 ``On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back.
32 ``Remember Lot's wife.
33 ``Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
34 ``I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left.
35 ``There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left.
36 [ `` Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left."]
37 And answering they said to Him, ``Where, Lord?" And He said to them, ``Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered."
Luke 18
1 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart,
2 saying, ``In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.
3 ``There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, `Give me legal protection from my opponent.'
4 ``For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, `Even though I do not fear God nor respect man,
5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'"
6 And the Lord said, ``Hear what the unrighteous judge said;
7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?
8 ``I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10 ``Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 ``The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: `God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 `I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'
13 ``But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'
14 ``I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
15 And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them.
16 But Jesus called for them, saying, ``Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
17 ``Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. "
18 A ruler questioned Him, saying, ``Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
19 And Jesus said to him, ``Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
20 ``You know the commandments, `DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"
21 And he said, ``All these things I have kept from my youth."
22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him, ``One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
24 And Jesus looked at him and said, ``How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!
25 ``For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26 They who heard it said, ``Then who can be saved?"
27 But He said, ``The things that are impossible with people are possible with God."
28 Peter said, ``Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You."
29 And He said to them, ``Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,
30 who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life."
31 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, ``Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.
32 ``For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon,
33 and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again."
34 But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.
35 As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging.
36 Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was.
37 They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.
38 And he called out, saying, ``Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
39 Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, ``Son of David, have mercy on me!"
40 And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him,
41 ``What do you want Me to do for you?" And he said, ``Lord, I want to regain my sight!"
42 And Jesus said to him, ``Receive your sight; your faith has made you well."
43 Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.
Luke 19
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.
3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ``Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."
6 And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.
7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, ``He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."
8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, ``Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much."
9 And Jesus said to him, ``Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
10 ``For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
11 While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.
12 So He said, ``A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return.
13 ``And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, `Do business with this until I come back. '
14 ``But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, `We do not want this man to reign over us.'
15 ``When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done.
16 ``The first appeared, saying, `Master, your mina has made ten minas more.'
17 ``And he said to him, `Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.'
18 ``The second came, saying, `Your mina, master, has made five minas.'
19 ``And he said to him also, `And you are to be over five cities.'
20 ``Another came, saying, `Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief;
21 for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.'
22 ``He said to him, `By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow?
23 `Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?'
24 ``Then he said to the bystanders, `Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.'
25 ``And they said to him, `Master, he has ten minas already. '
26 ``I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
27 ``But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence."
28 After He had said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples,
30 saying, ``Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.
31 ``If anyone asks you, `Why are you untying it?' you shall say, `The Lord has need of it.'"
32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them.
33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, ``Why are you untying the colt?"
34 They said, ``The Lord has need of it."
35 They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it.
36 As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.
37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,
38 shouting: ``BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, ``Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."
40 But Jesus answered, ``I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!"
41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it,
42 saying, ``If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.
43 ``For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side,
44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
45 Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling,
46 saying to them, ``It is written, `AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER,' but you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN."
47 And He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him,
48 and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said.
