Study Desk

When Jesus and his disciples came to Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked, "Does your teacher pay the Temple tax?"

"If anyone should cause one of these little ones to lose his faith in me, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone tied around his neck and be drowned in the deep sea.

"If your brother sins against you, go to him and show him his fault. But do it privately, just between yourselves. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back.

because the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants' accounts.

The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt.

The servant fell on his knees before the king. ‘Be patient with me,' he begged, ‘and I will pay you everything!'

"Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!' he said.

His fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!'

Some Pharisees came to him and tried to trap him by asking, "Does our Law allow a man to divorce his wife for whatever reason he wishes?"

And God said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.'

The Pharisees asked him, "Why, then, did Moses give the law for a man to hand his wife a divorce notice and send her away?"

I tell you, then, that any man who divorces his wife for any cause other than her unfaithfulness, commits adultery if he marries some other woman."

His disciples said to him, "If this is how it is between a man and his wife, it is better not to marry."

Some people brought children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and to pray for them, but the disciples scolded the people.

He placed his hands on them and then went away.

Jesus then said to his disciples, "I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said to them, "You can be sure that when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the New Age, then you twelve followers of mine will also sit on thrones, to rule the twelve tribes of Israel.

"The Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a man who went out early in the morning to hire some men to work in his vineyard.

He agreed to pay them the regular wage, a silver coin a day, and sent them to work in his vineyard.

"When evening came, the owner told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with those who were hired last and ending with those who were hired first.'