Study Desk

For when, with your opponent, you are going before the magistrate, on the way take pains to get out of his power; for fear that, if he should drag you before the judge, the judge may hand you over to the officer of the court, and the officer lodge you in prison.

And He gave them the following parable. "A man," He said, "who had a fig-tree growing in his garden came to look for fruit on it and could find none.

And He put His hands on her, and she immediately stood upright and began to give glory to God.

But the Lord's reply to him was, "Hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his bullock or his ass from the stall and lead him to water?

When He had said this, all His opponents were ashamed, while the whole multitude was delighted at the many glorious things continually done by Him.

It is like a mustard seed which a man drops into the soil in his garden, and it grows and becomes a tree in whose branches the birds roost."

Also to His host, who had invited Him, He said, "When you give a breakfast or a dinner, do not invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbours, lest perhaps they should invite you in return and a requital be made you.

After listening to this teaching, one of His fellow guests said to Him, "Blessed is he who shall feast in God's Kingdom."

At dinner-time he sent his servant to announce to those who had been invited, "`Come, for things are now ready.'

"So the servant came and brought these answers to his master, and they stirred his anger. "`Go out quickly,' he said, `into the streets of the city--the wide ones and the narrow. You will see poor men, and crippled, blind, lame: fetch them all in here.'

On His journey vast crowds attended Him, towards whom He turned and said,

"If any one is coming to me who does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be a disciple of mine.

No one who does not carry his own cross and come after me can be a disciple of mine.

And when he has found it, he lifts it on his shoulder, glad at heart.

Then coming home he calls his friends and neighbours together, and says, `Congratulate me, for I have found my sheep--the one I had lost.'

The younger of them said to his father, "`Father, give me the share of the property that comes to me.' "So he divided his wealth between them.

No long time afterwards the younger son got all together and travelled to a distant country, where he wasted his money in debauchery and excess.

So he went and hired himself to one of the inhabitants of that country, who sent him on to his farm to tend swine;

"So he rose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and pitied him, and ran and threw his arms round his neck and kissed him tenderly.

"But the father said to his servants, "`Fetch a good coat quickly--the best one--and put it on him; and bring a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet.