Unless You Repent
1Just then some people were there telling him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2He answered them, “Do you imagine that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this? 3Not at all, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all be destroyed in the same way. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them — do you imagine they were more in debt than everyone else living in Jerusalem? 5Not at all, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all be destroyed just as they were.” 6And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the vinedresser, ‘Three years now I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil?’ 8But the man answered, ‘Sir, leave it one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9Perhaps it will bear fruit next season; if not, you can cut it down.’”
The Woman Bent Double
10He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, 11and there was a woman there who for eighteen years had had a spirit that crippled her. She was bent double and could not straighten up at all. 12When Jesus saw her he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity,” 13and he laid his hands on her. At once she stood upright and began praising God. 14But the synagogue leader, indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the crowd, “There are six days on which work must be done. Come and be healed on those, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath and lead it out to drink? 16And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept tied up for eighteen years — should she not have been untied from her bonds on the Sabbath day?” 17At these words all his opponents were put to shame, while the whole crowd was delighted at the wonders he was doing.
A Seed and a Handful of Yeast
18So he said, “What is the kingdom of God like? To what shall I compare it? 19It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches.” 20And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21It is like yeast that a woman took and buried in three measures of flour, until the whole batch had risen.”
The Narrow Door
22He went on through towns and villages, teaching as he made his way toward Jerusalem. 23Someone said to him, “Lord, are only a few being saved?” He said to them, 24“Struggle to get in through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25Once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, you will be left standing outside, knocking at the door and saying, ‘Lord, open to us!’ And he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27And he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from. Get away from me, all you workers of injustice.’ 28There will be weeping and grinding of teeth there, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrown outside. 29And people will come from east and west, from north and south, and take their places at the table in the kingdom of God. 30And look: some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”
That Fox, and a Lament over Jerusalem
31At that same hour some Pharisees came up and said to him, “Get out and move on from here, because Herod wants to kill you.” 32He told them, “Go and tell that fox: look, I am driving out demons and completing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I reach my goal. 33Still, today and tomorrow and the next day I must keep going, because it is unthinkable for a prophet to die outside Jerusalem. 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you — how often I longed to gather your children the way a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused! 35Look, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
