Study Desk

"Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

"But if that slave says in his heart, 'My master will take a long time to come,' and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk;

"And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accordance with his will, will receive many blows,

And He began telling this parable: "A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.

And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she stood up straight again, and began glorifying God.

But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites, does each of you on the Sabbath not untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it?

And as He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.

"It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches."

And He was passing through one city and village after another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem.

and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, because everything is ready now.'

"And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.'

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

"And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

"And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!'

"The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that is coming to me.' And so he divided his wealth between them.

"And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his estate in wild living.

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

"And he longed to have his fill of the carob pods that the pigs were eating, and no one was giving him anything.