Jesus' Teaching on Prayer

¹One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

²Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this: ‘Father: May your holy name be honored; may your Kingdom come.

³Give us day by day the food we need.

⁴Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who does us wrong. And do not bring us to hard testing.’”

⁵And Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend's house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread.

⁶A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don't have any food for him!’

⁷And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don't bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.’

⁸Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.

⁹And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

¹⁰For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks.

¹¹Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish?

¹²Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?

¹³As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Jesus and Beelzebul

¹⁴Jesus was driving out a demon that could not talk; and when the demon went out, the man began to talk. The crowds were amazed,

¹⁵but some of the people said, “It is Beelzebul, the chief of the demons, who gives him the power to drive them out.”

¹⁶Others wanted to trap Jesus, so they asked him to perform a miracle to show that God approved of him.

¹⁷But Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long; a family divided against itself falls apart.

¹⁸So if Satan's kingdom has groups fighting each other, how can it last? You say that I drive out demons because Beelzebul gives me the power to do so.

¹⁹If this is how I drive them out, how do your followers drive them out? Your own followers prove that you are wrong!

²⁰No, it is rather by means of God's power that I drive out demons, and this proves that the Kingdom of God has already come to you.

²¹“When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe.

²²But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons the owner was depending on and divides up what he stole.

²³“Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering.

The Return of the Evil Spirit

²⁴“When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest. If it can't find one, it says to itself, ‘I will go back to my house.’

²⁵So it goes back and finds the house clean and all fixed up.

²⁶Then it goes out and brings seven other spirits even worse than itself, and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in worse shape than at the beginning.”

True Happiness

²⁷When Jesus had said this, a woman spoke up from the crowd and said to him, “How happy is the woman who bore you and nursed you!”

²⁸But Jesus answered, “Rather, how happy are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”

The Demand for a Miracle

²⁹As the people crowded around Jesus, he went on to say, “How evil are the people of this day! They ask for a miracle, but none will be given them except the miracle of Jonah.

³⁰In the same way that the prophet Jonah was a sign for the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a sign for the people of this day.

³¹On the Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will stand up and accuse the people of today, because she traveled all the way from her country to listen to King Solomon's wise teaching; and there is something here, I tell you, greater than Solomon.

³²On the Judgment Day the people of Nineveh will stand up and accuse you, because they turned from their sins when they heard Jonah preach; and I assure you that there is something here greater than Jonah!

The Light of the Body

³³“No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a bowl; instead, it is put on the lampstand, so that people may see the light as they come in.

³⁴Your eyes are like a lamp for the body. When your eyes are sound, your whole body is full of light; but when your eyes are no good, your whole body will be in darkness.

³⁵Make certain, then, that the light in you is not darkness.

³⁶If your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be bright all over, as when a lamp shines on you with its brightness.”

Jesus Accuses the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law

³⁷When Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and sat down to eat.

³⁸The Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus had not washed before eating.

³⁹So the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of your cup and plate, but inside you are full of violence and evil.

⁴⁰Fools! Did not God, who made the outside, also make the inside?

⁴¹But give what is in your cups and plates to the poor, and everything will be ritually clean for you.

⁴²“How terrible for you Pharisees! You give to God one tenth of the seasoning herbs, such as mint and rue and all the other herbs, but you neglect justice and love for God. These you should practice, without neglecting the others.

⁴³“How terrible for you Pharisees! You love the reserved seats in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴How terrible for you! You are like unmarked graves which people walk on without knowing it.”

⁴⁵One of the teachers of the Law said to him, “Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too!”

⁴⁶Jesus answered, “How terrible also for you teachers of the Law! You put onto people's backs loads which are hard to carry, but you yourselves will not stretch out a finger to help them carry those loads.

⁴⁷How terrible for you! You make fine tombs for the prophets—the very prophets your ancestors murdered.

⁴⁸You yourselves admit, then, that you approve of what your ancestors did; they murdered the prophets, and you build their tombs.

⁴⁹For this reason the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and messengers; they will kill some of them and persecute others.’

⁵⁰So the people of this time will be punished for the murder of all the prophets killed since the creation of the world,

⁵¹from the murder of Abel to the murder of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the Holy Place. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will be punished for them all!

⁵²“How terrible for you teachers of the Law! You have kept the key that opens the door to the house of knowledge; you yourselves will not go in, and you stop those who are trying to go in!”

⁵³When Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to criticize him bitterly and ask him questions about many things,

⁵⁴trying to lay traps for him and catch him saying something wrong.

A Warning against Hypocrisy

¹As thousands of people crowded together, so that they were stepping on each other, Jesus said first to his disciples, “Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees—I mean their hypocrisy.

²Whatever is covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known.

³So then, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in broad daylight, and whatever you have whispered in private in a closed room will be shouted from the housetops.

Whom to Fear

⁴“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot afterward do anything worse.

⁵I will show you whom to fear: fear God, who, after killing, has the authority to throw into hell. Believe me, he is the one you must fear!

⁶“Aren't five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one sparrow is forgotten by God.

⁷Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!

Confessing and Rejecting Christ

⁸“I assure you that those who declare publicly that they belong to me, the Son of Man will do the same for them before the angels of God.

⁹But those who reject me publicly, the Son of Man will also reject them before the angels of God.

¹⁰“Whoever says a word against the Son of Man can be forgiven; but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹“When they bring you to be tried in the synagogues or before governors or rulers, do not be worried about how you will defend yourself or what you will say.

¹²For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

The Parable of the Rich Fool

¹³A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the property our father left us.”

¹⁴Jesus answered him, “Friend, who gave me the right to judge or to divide the property between you two?”

¹⁵And he went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.”

¹⁶Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops.

¹⁷He began to think to himself, ‘I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do?

¹⁸This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’”

²¹And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God's sight.”

Trust in God

²²Then Jesus said to the disciples, “And so I tell you not to worry about the food you need to stay alive or about the clothes you need for your body.

²³Life is much more important than food, and the body much more important than clothes.

²⁴Look at the crows: they don't plant seeds or gather a harvest; they don't have storage rooms or barns; God feeds them! You are worth so much more than birds!

²⁵Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?

²⁶If you can't manage even such a small thing, why worry about the other things?

²⁷Look how the wild flowers grow: they don't work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers.

²⁸It is God who clothes the wild grass—grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!

²⁹“So don't be all upset, always concerned about what you will eat and drink.

³⁰(For the pagans of this world are always concerned about all these things.) Your Father knows that you need these things.

³¹Instead, be concerned with his Kingdom, and he will provide you with these things.

Riches in Heaven

³²“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom.

³³Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that don't wear out, and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no thief can get to them, and no moth can destroy them.

³⁴For your heart will always be where your riches are.

Watchful Servants

³⁵“Be ready for whatever comes, dressed for action and with your lamps lit,

³⁶like servants who are waiting for their master to come back from a wedding feast. When he comes and knocks, they will open the door for him at once.

³⁷How happy are those servants whose master finds them awake and ready when he returns! I tell you, he will take off his coat, have them sit down, and will wait on them.

³⁸How happy they are if he finds them ready, even if he should come at midnight or even later!

³⁹And you can be sure that if the owner of a house knew the time when the thief would come, he would not let the thief break into his house.

⁴⁰And you, too, must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him.”

The Faithful or the Unfaithful Servant

⁴¹Peter said, “Lord, does this parable apply to us, or do you mean it for everyone?”

⁴²The Lord answered, “Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant? He is the one that his master will put in charge, to run the household and give the other servants their share of the food at the proper time.

⁴³How happy that servant is if his master finds him doing this when he comes home!

⁴⁴Indeed, I tell you, the master will put that servant in charge of all his property.

⁴⁵But if that servant says to himself that his master is taking a long time to come back and if he begins to beat the other servants, both the men and the women, and eats and drinks and gets drunk,

⁴⁶then the master will come back one day when the servant does not expect him and at a time he does not know. The master will cut him in pieces and make him share the fate of the disobedient.

⁴⁷“The servant who knows what his master wants him to do, but does not get himself ready and do it, will be punished with a heavy whipping.

⁴⁸But the servant who does not know what his master wants, and yet does something for which he deserves a whipping, will be punished with a light whipping. Much is required from the person to whom much is given; much more is required from the person to whom much more is given.

Jesus the Cause of Division

⁴⁹“I came to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already kindled!

⁵⁰I have a baptism to receive, and how distressed I am until it is over!

⁵¹Do you suppose that I came to bring peace to the world? No, not peace, but division.

⁵²From now on a family of five will be divided, three against two and two against three.

⁵³Fathers will be against their sons, and sons against their fathers; mothers will be against their daughters, and daughters against their mothers; mothers-in-law will be against their daughters-in-law, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law.”

Understanding the Time

⁵⁴Jesus said also to the people, “When you see a cloud coming up in the west, at once you say that it is going to rain—and it does.

⁵⁵And when you feel the south wind blowing, you say that it is going to get hot—and it does.

⁵⁶Hypocrites! You can look at the earth and the sky and predict the weather; why, then, don't you know the meaning of this present time?

Settle with Your Opponent

⁵⁷“Why do you not judge for yourselves the right thing to do?

⁵⁸If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, do your best to settle the dispute before you get to court. If you don't, you will be dragged before the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail.

⁵⁹There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.”

⁷A fool can use a proverb about as well as crippled people can use their legs.

⁸Praising someone who is stupid makes as much sense as tying a stone in a sling.

⁹A fool quoting a wise saying reminds you of a drunk trying to pick a thorn out of his hand.