Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that trip people up are bound to come, but how terrible for the one who brings them. 2 It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea than to trip up one of these little ones.[1] 3 Watch yourselves.
“If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he changes his heart, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day and comes back to you seven times saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ you must forgive him.”
5 The messengers said to the Lord, “Give us more faith.”
6 The Lord answered, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea,’ and it would obey you.[2]
7 “Which of you, if you had a slave out plowing or herding sheep, would say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come on in and sit down for dinner’? 8 Wouldn’t you say instead, ‘Fix me something to eat, get yourself ready, and serve me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink’? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what he was told? 10 It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything you were told to do, say, ‘We’re just slaves doing our job. We’ve only done what we owed.’”
11 On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out loudly, “Jesus! Master! Have mercy on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.[3]
15 One of them, seeing that he was healed, turned back. He praised God in a loud voice, 16 fell facedown at Jesus’ feet, and thanked him. And this man was a Samaritan.[4]
17 Jesus responded, “Weren’t all ten made clean? Where are the other nine? 18 Did no one return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to the man, “Get up and go. Your faith has saved you.”
20 The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. He answered, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come in ways you can watch for. 21 No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ because the kingdom of God is right there among you.”
22 Then he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you’ll long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you won’t see it. 23 People will say to you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ Don’t go out. Don’t chase after them. 24 For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will the Son of Man be on his day. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage — right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. 29 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from the sky and destroyed them all. 30 That’s exactly how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
31 “On that day, if someone is on the rooftop and their belongings are inside the house, they shouldn’t go down to get them. And the one out in the field shouldn’t turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever tries to hold on to their life will lose it, but whoever lets go of their life will keep it alive. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed — one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together — one will be taken and the other left.”
37 They asked him, “Where, Lord?”
He said, “Where the body is, there the vultures will gather.”[5]
Notes
Note 1. The Greek names a stone from a grain mill. The largest of these were massive circular stones turned by a donkey, which could weigh a hundred pounds or more. ↩
Note 2. The Greek word here, συκάμινος (sykaminos), is the black mulberry (Morus nigra), common in the region and known for its deep, tenacious roots and long life. ↩
Note 3. Leviticus 14 required anyone recovering from a skin disease to be examined by a priest and go through a set of rituals before rejoining the community; the priest, not a doctor, certified a person “clean.” ↩
Note 4. Samaritans and Jews shared roots but had split sharply — Samaritans kept only the first five books of scripture and worshipped at Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem — and the two groups generally avoided each other. ↩
Note 5. The Greek ἀετοί can mean either eagles or vultures, and older translations often say “eagles.” Eagles hunt live prey, while vultures are the birds that flock to a carcass, so many translators render it “vultures” here, where the saying is built on a corpse (σῶμα). ↩