6
“The Son of Man Is Lord of the Sabbath”
1 One Sabbath, while Jesus was passing through some grainfields, his disciples began picking and eating the heads of wheat, rubbing off the husks in their hands.
2 Some of the Pharisees said, “Why are ᵖyou doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath?”
3 “Surely ᵖyou’ve read, haven’t you, what David did when he was hungry—he and those with him, too?” Jesus replied to them.
4 “When he entered the house of God, what was it that he received and ate and gave to those who were with him? The very Bread of the Presence, which is forbidden to be eaten by anyone except the priests.”
5 Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
“Which Does the Torah Permit on the Sabbath: To Do Good, or to Do Harm?”
6 On yet another Sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was there whose right hand was shrunken and paralyzed.
7 Well, the Torah-experts and the Pharisees were watching him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could have something of which to accuse him.
8 Jesus, however, knew what they were thinking. “Get up and stand where everyone can see you,” he said to the man whose hand was paralyzed. The man did so.
9 Then Jesus said to them, “I have a question for ᵖyou. Which does the Torah permit on the Sabbath: To do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to destroy it?”
10 After looking around at all of them, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man did so, and his hand was restored!
11 The Pharisees and Torah-experts, though, were beside themselves with rage and began discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.
“He…Chose for Himself Twelve of Them, Whom He Designated Apostles”
12 Now it was during this time that Jesus went out to the mountainside to pray, and he spent the whole night praying to God.
13 At daybreak, he called to himself his disciples and chose for himself twelve of them, whom he designated apostles:
14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot,
16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who later became a traitor.
“Jesus...Directed His Attention to His Disciples and Said”
17 Jesus came down the mountain with these men and stopped at a level place. A large crowd of his disciples had gathered along with a vast multitude of people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
18 They had come to listen to him and to be healed of their diseases. Those tormented by unclean spirits were being healed,
19 and the entire crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing everyone.
20 Jesus, then, directed his attention to his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you…”
“Blessed are you who have been crushed,
for ᵖyou will surely possess the Kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are ᵖyou who are hungry now,
for you will in due time eat as much as you want.
Blessed are ᵖyou who weep now,
for you will in due time rejoice with laughter.
22 “Blessed are ᵖyou when people hate you and when they exclude you and insult you and slander you as evil because of the Son of Man.
23 Rejoice when that happens and leap for joy, because a great reward is stored away for ᵖyou in heaven. The same kind of things, you see, were done to the prophets by their ancestors.
“Woe and calamity to you…”
24 “But woe and calamity to ᵖyou who are at ease in your riches,
for you have already received all the consolation you will ever get.
25 Woe to ᵖyou who eat your fill now,
for ᵖyou will in due time be hungry.
Woe to ᵖyou who rejoice with laughter now,
for you will in due time mourn and weep.
26 “Woe and calamity when, in regard to ᵖyou, all people speak nothing but praise. The same kind of praise and honor, you see, was lavished on the false prophets by their ancestors.
“I say to you, however, who are listening”
27 “I say to ᵖyou, however, who are listening: Keep on loving ᵖyour enemies. Continually do good to those who hate ᵖyou.
28 Keep blessing those who curse you. Keep praying for those who mistreat you.
29 If someone strikes ˢyou on one cheek, offer him the other as well, and if someone takes your cloak, let him have, too, your inner garment.
30 If anyone is pleading with ˢyou for some help, give, and if someone takes what belongs to ˢyou, don’t demand it back.
31 However ᵖyou would want others to treat you, keep treating them likewise.
32 If ᵖyou love only those who love you, what credit is that to you yourselves? After all, even sinners love those who love them.
33 Likewise, if ᵖyou do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you yourselves? Even sinners do that!
34 And if ᵖyou lend only to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you yourselves? Even sinners lend to sinners in the expectation of getting back what they lend.
35 No! Keep on loving your enemies and doing good to them and lending to them without expecting anything in return. Then ᵖyour reward will be great, and you will show yourselves to be children of the Most High. He, after all, is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
36 ᵖYou are to be merciful, just as your Father himself is merciful.
37 Don’t condemn others, and ᵖyou will surely not be condemned. Don’t withhold mercy from others, and it will certainly not be withheld from ᵖyou. Forgive, and ᵖyou will be forgiven.
38 Give, and it will be given to ᵖyou. It will be given back to you like grain poured into the fold of ᵖyour garment in very generous amounts—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over. The amount ᵖyou deal out to others, you see, is the amount that will be dealt back out to you.”
39 He also told them this parable: “One blind person can’t guide another blind person, can he? Of course not. Both will fall into a pit.
40 A disciple is not above his teacher. Rather, when any disciple has been fully trained, he will turn out like his teacher.
41 “Why do ˢyou gawk at the speck in the eye of your brother or sister, but give no consideration to that beam of timber in your own eye?
42 How in the world can ˢyou say to your brother, ‘Brother! Let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself can’t even see that beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye; only then will you see clearly enough to remove the speck that is itself in the eye of your brother or sister.
43 “In regard to these things, a tree is not good if it is producing bad fruit, nor is a tree diseased if it is producing good fruit.
44 Indeed, here is how every tree is recognized: By its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, you see, nor are grapes picked from shrubs with thorns.
45 A good person produces good things from where? Out of the good stored up in his heart. And a wicked person produces wicked things from where? Out of the wickedness stored up in him. It is out of the overflow of the heart, you see, that the mouth speaks.
46 “Now, how foolish it is for ᵖyou to address me with, “Lord, Lord,” but not do what I command.
47 Anyone who comes to me and hears my teachings and obeys them—I will show ᵖyou what he is like.
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on bedrock. Now when a flood came, the torrent struck that house but was unable to shake it, because it had been built well.
49 If someone hears my teachings and does not obey them, however, he is like a man who built a house right on top of the ground without any foundation. As soon as the torrent struck it, it collapsed. And the ruin of that house was great.”