Teach Us to Pray
1He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, may your name be held holy; may your kingdom come. 3Give us each day the bread we need, 4and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us; and do not bring us to the test.”
The Friend at Midnight
5Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6because a friend of mine has arrived from a journey and I have nothing to set before him,’ 7and the man answers from inside, ‘Do not bother me. The door is already locked and my children are in bed with me. I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him something because he is his friend, he will get up and give him all he needs because of his shameless persistence. 9So I say to you: ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened. 11Which father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will hand him a snake instead of the fish? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will hand him a scorpion? 13So if you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
By Whose Power
14He was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed. 15But some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” 16Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign out of heaven. 17Knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, “Every kingdom split against itself is laid waste, and a house falls upon a house. 18If Satan too is split against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. 19And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? They themselves, then, will be your judges. 20But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has already reached you. 21While a strong man in full armor guards his own courtyard, his possessions are safe. 22But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he strips him of the armor he trusted in and shares out the plunder. 23Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
The Spirit That Returns
24When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it wanders through waterless country looking for a resting place, and finding none it says, ‘I will go back to the house I left.’ 25On its arrival it finds the place swept clean and put in order. 26Then it goes off and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and settle there; and that person ends up worse off than before.” 27While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts that nursed you.” 28But he said, “Happier still are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
The Only Sign They Will Get
29As the crowds pressed in around him, he began to say: “This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, and no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah. 30For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31The queen of the south will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon — and look, there is something greater than Solomon here. 32The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching — and look, there is something greater than Jonah here.
The Lamp of the Body
33No one lights a lamp and puts it in a cellar or under a basket; he puts it on the lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is clear, your whole body is full of light; but when it is diseased, your body is dark as well. 35So watch out that the light inside you is not darkness. 36If, then, your whole body is full of light, with no part of it dark, it will be radiant all through, as when a lamp lights you with its blaze.”
At a Pharisee’s Table
37As he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to have a meal with him, so he went in and took his place at the table. 38The Pharisee was taken aback to see that he had not washed first, before the meal. 39The Lord said to him, “So you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, while inside you are full of greed and malice. 40You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside as well? 41Give what is inside as alms, and see, everything is clean for you. 42But how terrible for you Pharisees, because you pay tithes on mint and rue and every garden herb and walk straight past justice and the love of God. These are the things you should have done, without neglecting the others. 43How terrible for you Pharisees, because you love the front seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. 44How terrible for you, because you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”
Woe to the Experts in the Law
45One of the experts in the law replied, “Teacher, when you say such things you insult us too.” 46He answered, “How terrible for you experts in the law as well, because you load people down with burdens hard to carry, and you yourselves will not touch those burdens with one finger. 47How terrible for you, because you build the tombs of the prophets — and your fathers were the ones who killed them. 48So you are witnesses, and you approve of what your fathers did: they did the killing and you do the building. 49That is why the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ 50so that this generation may be held to account for the blood of all the prophets poured out since the foundation of the world, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held to account. 52How terrible for you experts in the law, because you have carried off the key of knowledge. You did not go in yourselves, and you blocked those who were going in.” 53When he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him bitterly and to badger him with questions about many things, 54lying in wait to trap him in something he might say.
