Study Desk

"The men of Nineveh will stand up [as witnesses] at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and look, something greater than Jonah is here.

"But woe (judgment is coming) to you Pharisees, because you [self-righteously] tithe mint and rue and every [little] garden herb [tending to all the minutiae], and yet disregard and neglect justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done, without neglecting the others.

"Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the best seats in the synagogues and to be respectfully greeted in the market places.

But He said, "Woe to you lawyers as well, because you weigh men down with burdens [man-made rules, unreasonable requirements] which are hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers [to lighten the load].

"So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers, because they [actually] killed them, and you repair or build their tombs.

"Woe to you lawyers, because you have taken away the key to knowledge (scriptural truth). You yourselves did not enter, and you held back those who were entering [by your flawed interpretation of God's word and your man-made tradition]."

"You too, be continually ready; because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect."

Jesus replied to them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they have suffered in this way?

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."

At that very hour some Pharisees came up and said to Him, "Leave and go away from here, because Herod [Antipas] wants to kill You."

and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous (the just, the upright)."

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

"Whoever does not carry his own cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow after Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] cannot be My disciple.

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

"And when she has found it, she calls together her [women] friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, because I found the lost coin!'

"And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.'

"And his master commended the unjust manager [not for his misdeeds, but] because he had acted shrewdly [by preparing for his future unemployment]; for the sons of this age [the non-believers] are shrewder in relation to their own kind [that is, to the ways of the secular world] than are the sons of light [the believers].

"And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in severe agony in this flame.'

"He does not thank the servant just because he did what he was ordered to do, does he?

nor will people say, 'Look! Here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For the kingdom of God is among you [because of My presence]."