13
“If You Don’t Repent, All of You Will Meet a Sudden and Violent Ruin Just as They Did”
1 Now there were some people present on that occasion who told Jesus+ about the Galileans who, at Pilate’s command, were killed as they were offering their sacrifices at the temple.+
2 In response Jesus+ said to them, “Do ᵖyou think that these Galileans were, because they suffered these things, more sinful than all the other people from Galilee?
3 No, I tell ᵖyou! The truth is, if ᵖyou don’t repent, all of you will meet a sudden and violent ruin just as they did.
4 Or what about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower near the pool of Siloam fell on them? Do ᵖyou think that they were, themselves, worse sinners+ than all the other people who live in Jerusalem?
5 No, I tell ᵖyou! The truth is, if ᵖyou don’t repent, all of you will meet a sudden and violent ruin as they did.”
“A Certain Man Had a Fig Tree That Had Been Planted in His Vineyard”
6 Then Jesus+ told this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree that had been planted in his vineyard. The man+ came looking for fruit on it, but he didn’t find any.
7 So, he said to his vineyard worker, ‘Listen, I’ve been coming here looking for fruit on this tree for a good three years now, yet I’m still not finding any. Cut it down! Why should it go on depleting the soil?”
8 “ ‘Master,’ the vineyard worker replied, ‘please give it one more year.+ In the meantime,+ I will till up the ground at its base and give it some fertilizer.+
9 Maybe it will produce fruit next year. If it doesn’t, though, then go ahead and have it cut down.’ ”
“Dear Woman, You Are Set Free from Your Ailment”
10 Now Jesus+ was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath,
11 and a woman was there who had for eighteen years had been crippled by an evil spirit.+ She was hunched over and couldn’t straighten herself up all the way.
12 When Jesus saw her, he called her to himself and said to her, “Dear woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
13 And when he placed his hands on her, she straightened up instantly and began to glorify God.
14 In response the leader of the synagogue, indignant over the fact that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the crowd, “How many days are there for working? Six days.+ It is on those days,+ and not on the Sabbath,+ that ᵖyou are to come and be healed!”
15 “You hypocrites!” the Lord said to him in reply. “Each of you, on the Sabbath, unties his ox or his donkey from the feeding trough and leads it out to give it some water, doesn’t he? Of course!
16 Surely this woman, then, a very descendant+ of Abraham, whom Satan has kept tied up for eighteen long years, ought to be untied and set free from this bondage on the Sabbath,+ shouldn’t she?”
17 While Jesus+ was saying these things, all his adversaries were humiliated. All the people,+ though, were rejoicing over all the wonderful things he was doing.+
“It Is Like a Mustard Seed”
18 So, Jesus+ went on to say, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?
19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became as huge+ as a tree! And ‘the wild birds nested in its branches.’+”+
“It Is Like a Small Lump of Leavened Dough”
20 Again he said, “To what can I compare the Kingdom of God?
21 It is like a small lump of leavened dough,+ which a woman took and hid in+ fifty pounds+ of flour, and eventually the whole batch rose.+”+
“Do Everything You Possibly Can to Enter through the Narrow Door”
22 Jesus+ traveled through town after town and village after village, teaching as he continued his journey toward Jerusalem.
23 “Lord,” someone said to him, “are only a few people going to be saved?”+
24 “Do everything ᵖyou possibly can+ to enter through the narrow door,” Jesus+ said to them, “because many, many people, I tell ᵖyou, will try to enter but won’t be able to.
25 Once the master of the household gets up and shuts the door and you find yourselves standing outside and knocking on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’, then he will answer ᵖyou, ‘I don’t know ᵖyou or where you come from.’+
26 Then ᵖyou will begin to say, ‘But we enjoyed meals+ in ˢyour presence, and ˢyou taught right in our very streets!’
27 Yet he will tell ᵖyou, ‘I don’t know ᵖyou or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers+!’
28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ᵖyou see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.
29 And people+ will come from the east and west and from the north and south and recline at the table to eat in the Kingdom of God.
30 Take note: There are those who are now last who will at that time be first, and there are those who are now first who will at that time be last.”
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Who Kills the Prophets and Stones Those Who Are Sent to Her!”
31 Just then+ some Pharisees came up to Jesus and said to him, “ˢYou had better get out of here,+ because Herod intends+ to have you killed.”
32 Jesus+ said to them, “Go and tell that crafty fox, “Listen! I am going to drive out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will accomplish my work.+”
33 I must continue my journey, however, today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is unthinkable that a prophet would die anywhere other than+ in Jerusalem.
34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!+ How often I have wanted to gather ˢyour children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ᵖyou refused!
35 Look! ᵖYour house is doomed to be left to ᵖyou deserted!+ I tell ᵖyou this: ᵖYou will certainly not see me until the time comes when ᵖyou say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!’+”