Study Desk

But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, "There are six days in which work ought to be done; so come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day."

But the Lord replied to him, "You hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders)! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it?

but He will say to you, 'I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS!'

"In that place there will be weeping [in sorrow and pain] and grinding of teeth [in distress and anger] when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out and driven away.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones [to death] those [messengers] who are sent to her [by God]! How often I have wanted to gather your children together [around Me], just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were not willing!

But they kept silent. Then He took hold of the man and healed him, and sent him on his way.

"But when you are invited, go and sit down [to eat] at the last place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; and then you will be honored in the presence of all who are at the table with you.

"But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind,

But Jesus said to him, "A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many guests;

"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have purchased a piece of land and I have to go out and see it; please consider me excused.'

"Therefore, salt is good; but if salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

"He would have gladly eaten the [carob] pods that the pigs were eating [but they could not satisfy his hunger], and no one was giving anything to him.

"But when he [finally] came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough food, while I am dying here of hunger!

"So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

"But the father said to his servants, 'Quickly bring out the best robe [for the guest of honor] and put it on him; and give him a ring for his hand, and sandals for his feet.

"But the elder brother became angry and deeply resentful and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him.

"But he said to his father, 'Look! These many years I have served you, and I have never neglected or disobeyed your command. Yet you have never given me [so much as] a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;

but when this [other] son of yours arrived, who has devoured your estate with immoral women, you slaughtered that fattened calf for him!'

'But it was fitting to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was [as good as] dead and has begun to live. He was lost and has been found.'"

"And his master commended the unjust manager [not for his misdeeds, but] because he had acted shrewdly [by preparing for his future unemployment]; for the sons of this age [the non-believers] are shrewder in relation to their own kind [that is, to the ways of the secular world] than are the sons of light [the believers].