Luke 17-18

Luke 17

¹Jesus said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

²It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

³Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

⁴Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶And the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷Which of you whose servant comes in from plowing or shepherding in the field will say to him, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?

⁸Instead, won’t he tell him, ‘Prepare my meal and dress yourself to serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you may eat and drink’?

⁹Does he thank the servant because he did what he was told?

¹⁰So you also, when you have done everything commanded of you, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

¹¹While Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.

¹²As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers. They stood at a distance

¹³and raised their voices, shouting, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

¹⁴When Jesus saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were on their way, they were cleansed.

¹⁵When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice.

¹⁶He fell facedown at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving to Him—and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷“Were not all ten cleansed?” Jesus asked. “Where then are the other nine?

¹⁸Was no one found except this foreigner to return and give glory to God?”

¹⁹Then Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well!”

²⁰When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs.

²¹Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

²²Then He said to the disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

²³People will tell you, ‘Look, there He is!’ or ‘Look, here He is!’ Do not go out or chase after them.

²⁴For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day.

²⁵But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

²⁶Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:

²⁷People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

²⁹But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

³⁰It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

³¹On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind.

³²Remember Lot’s wife!

³³Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.

³⁴I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other left.

³⁵Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”

³⁷“Where, Lord?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”

Luke 18

¹Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart:

²“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men.

³And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,

⁵yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, she will wear me out with her perpetual requests.’”

⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to the words of the unjust judge.

⁷Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay in helping them?

⁸I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

⁹To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:

¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

¹¹The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

¹²I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’

¹³But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’

¹⁴I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹⁵Now people were even bringing their babies to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them. And when the disciples saw this, they rebuked those who brought them.

¹⁶But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

¹⁷Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

¹⁸Then a certain ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

²⁰You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”

²¹“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

²²On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

²³But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy.

²⁴Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷But Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

²⁸“Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow You.”

²⁹“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God

³⁰will fail to receive many times more in this age—and in the age to come, eternal life.”

³¹Then Jesus took the Twelve aside and said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything the prophets have written about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.

³²He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.

³³They will flog Him and kill Him, and on the third day He will rise again.”

³⁴But the disciples did not understand any of these things. The meaning was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what He was saying.

³⁵As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting beside the road, begging.

³⁶When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening.

³⁷“Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” they told him.

³⁸So he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

³⁹Those who led the way admonished him to be silent, but he cried out all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁰Jesus stopped and directed that the man be brought to Him. When he had come near, Jesus asked him,

⁴¹“What do you want Me to do for you?” “Lord,” he said, “let me see again.”

⁴²“Receive your sight!” Jesus replied. “Your faith has healed you.”

⁴³Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.