Study Desk

so that charges may be brought against this generation [holding them responsible] for the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world,

In the meantime, after so many thousands of the people had gathered that they were stepping on one another, Jesus began speaking first of all to His disciples, "Be continually on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees [that is, their pervasive, corrupting influence and teaching], which is hypocrisy [producing self-righteousness].

"But there is nothing [so carefully] concealed that it will not be revealed, nor so hidden that it will not be made known.

"So it is for the one who continues to store up and hoard possessions for himself, and is not rich [in his relationship] toward God."

"So if you are not even able to do a very little thing [such as that], why are you worried about the rest?

"So as for you, do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink; nor have an anxious and unsettled mind.

"Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and knocks they may immediately open the door for him.

"Whether he comes in the second watch (before midnight), or even in the third (after midnight), and finds them so [prepared and ready], blessed are those servants.

"Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he arrives.

"For while you are going with your opponent [at law] to appear before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle, so that he does not drag you before the judge, and the judge does not [rule against you and] turn you over to the officer, and the officer does not throw you into prison.

so he said to the vineyard-keeper, 'For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground [depleting the soil and blocking the sunlight]?'

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."

So this led Him to say, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?

"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.

"So the servant came back and reported this to his master. Then [his master,] the head of the household, became angry [at the rejections of his invitation] and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame.'

"Then the master told the servant, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled [with guests].

"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not [carefully consider the cost and then for My sake] give up all his own possessions.

So He told them this parable:

"The younger of them [inappropriately] said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.' So he divided the estate between them.

"So he went and forced himself on one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.