Study Desk

Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it demands a sign, and so no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

"For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

"No one lights a lamp and puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in and reclined at the table.

"But give that which is within as a charitable gift, and then all things are clean for you.

"But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not fear; you are more valuable than a great number of sparrows.

"And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.

But He said to him, "You there—who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over the two of you?"

And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive.

"And which of you by worrying can add a day to his life's span?

"Therefore if you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about the other things?

"Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor does a moth destroy.

"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;

then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

but the one who did not know it, and committed acts deserving of a beating, will receive only a few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

"But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!

And He was also saying to the crowds, "Whenever you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'A shower is coming,' and so it turns out.

"And whenever you feel a south wind blowing, you say, 'It will be a hot day,' and it turns out that way.

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 there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent over double, and could not straighten up at all.