Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Jesus Heals a Sick Man
1 One Sabbath Jesus went to
eat a meal at the home of one
of the leading Pharisees; and people
were watching Jesus closely.
2 A
man whose legs and arms were
swollen came to Jesus,
3 and Jesus
spoke up and asked the teachers of
the Law and the Pharisees, “Does
our Law allow healing on the Sabbath
or not?”
4 But they would not say a thing.
Jesus took the man, healed him, and
sent him away.
5 Then he said to
-- --
them, “If any one of you had a son or
an ox that happened to fall in a well
on a Sabbath, would you not pull
him out at once on the Sabbath itself?” note
6 But they were not able to answer
him about this.
Humility and Hospitality
7 Jesus noticed how some of the
guests were choosing the best
places, so he told this parable to all
of them:
8 “When someone invites
you to a wedding feast, do not sit
down in the best place. It could happen
that someone more important
than you has been invited,
9 and your
host, who invited both of you, would
have to come and say to you, ‘Let
him have this place.’ Then you
would be embarrassed and have to
sit in the lowest place.
10 Instead,
when you are invited, go and sit in
the lowest place, so that your host
will come to you and say, ‘Come on
up, my friend, to a better place.’ This
will bring you honor in the presence
of all the other guests. note
11 For everyone
who makes himself great will be
humbled, and everyone who humbles
himself will be made great.” note
12 Then Jesus said to his host,
“When you give a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your
brothers or your relatives or your
rich neighbors—for they will invite
you back, and in this way you will be
paid for what you did.
13 When you
give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled,
the lame, and the blind;
14 and
you will be blessed, because they are
not able to pay you back. God will
repay you on the day the good people
rise from death.”
The Parable of the Great Feast
(Matthew 22.1–10)
15 When one of the men sitting at
the table heard this, he said to Jesus,
“How happy are those who will sit
down at the feast in the Kingdom of
God!”
16 Jesus said to him, “There was
once a man who was giving a great
feast to which he invited many people.
17 When it was time for the feast,
he sent his servant to tell his guests,
‘Come, everything is ready!’
18 But
they all began, one after another, to
make excuses. The first one told the
servant, ‘I have bought a field and
must go and look at it; please accept
my apologies.’
19 Another one said, ‘I
have bought five pairs of oxen and
am on my way to try them out;
please accept my apologies.’
20 Another
one said, ‘I have just gotten
married, and for that reason I cannot
come.’
21 The servant went back and
told all this to his master. The master
was furious and said to his servant,
‘Hurry out to the streets and alleys
of the town, and bring back the
poor, the crippled, the blind, and the
lame.’
22 Soon the servant said, ‘Your
order has been carried out, sir, but
there is room for more.’
23 So the
master said to the servant, ‘Go out
to the country roads and lanes and
make people come in, so that my
house will be full.
24 I tell you all that
none of those men who were invited
will taste my dinner!’”
The Cost of Being a Disciple
(Matthew 10.37–38)
25 Once when large crowds of people
were going along with Jesus, he
turned and said to them,
26 “Whoever
comes to me cannot be my disciple
unless he loves me more than
he loves his father and his mother,
his wife and his children, his brothers
and his sisters, and himself as
well. note
27 Whoever does not carry his
own cross and come after me cannot
be my disciple. note
28 If one of you is
planning to build a tower, he sits
down first and figures out what it
will cost, to see if he has enough
money to finish the job.
29 If he
doesn't, he will not be able to finish
the tower after laying the foundation;
and all who see what happened
will make fun of him.
30 ‘This man
began to build but can't finish the
job!’ they will say.
31 If a king goes
-- --
out with ten thousand men to fight
another king who comes against him
with twenty thousand men, he will
sit down first and decide if he is
strong enough to face that other
king.
32 If he isn't, he will send messengers
to meet the other king to ask
for terms of peace while he is still a
long way off.
33 In the same way,”
concluded Jesus, “none of you can
be my disciple unless he gives up
everything he has.
Worthless Salt
(Matthew 5.13; Mark 9.50)
34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its
saltiness, there is no way to make it
salty again.
35 It is no good for the
soil or for the manure pile; it is
thrown away. Listen, then, if you
have ears!”
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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