Study Desk

Sin, Forgiveness, Faith, and Service Jesus said to his disciples, "Stumbling blocks are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Watch yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, ‘I repent,' you must forgive him." The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" So the Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. "Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal'? Won't the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink'? He won't thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.'" Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, raised their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went along, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus' feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.) Then Jesus said, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to the man, "Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well." Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!' or ‘There!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst." Then he said to the disciples, "The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. Then people will say to you, ‘Look, there he is!' or ‘Look, here he is!' Do not go out or chase after them. For just like the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage—right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone who is on the roof, with his goods in the house, must not come down to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left."

For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people,

I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Now people were even bringing their babies to him for him to touch. But when the disciples saw it, they began to scold those who brought them.

But Jesus called for the children, saying, "Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was extremely wealthy.

When Jesus noticed this, he said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

He replied, "What is impossible for mere humans is possible for God."

Then Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of God's kingdom

For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; he will be mocked, mistreated, and spat on.

"What do you want me to do for you?" He replied, "Lord, let me see again."

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Therefore he said, "A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.

Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth.

For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.'

But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!'"

As he approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen:

saying, "If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side.