One Sabbath Jesus was walking through some grainfields, and his disciples began picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.[1] 2 Some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
3 Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you even read what David did when he and his men were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God, took the bread of the Presence, ate it, and gave it to his men — bread that is not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat.”[2] 5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and taught. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so they could find a charge against him. 8 But he knew what they were thinking. He said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand here in the middle.” The man got up and stood there.
9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm — to save a life or to destroy it?” 10 He looked around at all of them, then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man did, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with rage and began talking with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
12 In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13 When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also named messengers: 14 Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,[3] 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.[4]
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there, along with a huge crowd of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.[5] 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by unclean spirits were cured, 19 and the whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all.
20 Then he lifted up his eyes toward his disciples and said:
“Fortunate are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Fortunate are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Fortunate are you who cry now, for you will laugh.
22 Fortunate are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and throw out your name as evil because of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because your reward is great in heaven. That is exactly how their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are full now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and cry.
26 Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for that is exactly how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
27 But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. 28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. 29 To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from the one who takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.[6] 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back. 31 And as you want people to do to you, do the same to them.
32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to get back the same amount.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you — a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”[7]
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Won’t both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
41 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but you don’t notice the log in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck in your brother’s eye.
43 No good tree produces rotten fruit, and again, no rotten tree produces good fruit. 44 Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a bramble bush. 45 The good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings out what is good. And the evil person, out of the evil treasure, brings out what is evil. For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.
46 Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them — I will show you what he is like: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When a flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river burst against it, and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Notes
Note 1. Plucking grain by hand from a neighbor’s field was permitted (Deuteronomy 23:25). Later Jewish tradition listed thirty-nine categories of work forbidden on the Sabbath, among them harvesting, threshing, and grinding — and rubbing heads of grain to eat them could be read as doing all three in miniature. ↩
Note 2. This was a row of loaves — twelve of them — kept on a table in the sanctuary and replaced each week, holy food that Leviticus 24:5-9 reserves for the priests alone. The episode cited is 1 Samuel 21, where the fugitive David and his men eat it anyway. ↩
Note 3. The Greek zēlōtēs means “zealous one.” It is unclear whether it marks Simon as a member of an organized armed faction or simply describes his fervor, since the revolutionary party historians call the Zealots is usually dated to the run-up to the war with Rome (66-70 AD), after Jesus’ lifetime. The label is old enough that its precise sense was already uncertain. ↩
Note 4. The Greek word here is prodotes, “traitor.” It is the only place in the four Gospels that word appears. Everywhere else, what Judas did is described with paradidomi, “to hand over” — the same verb used when the chief priests hand Jesus to Pilate, when Pilate hands him to be crucified, and when the disciples are warned they will be handed over to councils. ↩
Note 5. Tyre and Sidon were old Phoenician port cities up the coast to the north, in what is now Lebanon — largely Gentile territory outside Israel. ↩
Note 6. The tunic (chitōn) was the inner garment worn against the skin; the cloak (himation) was the heavier outer one, doubling as a blanket at night. Jewish law protected it: a cloak taken as security for a loan had to be returned by sunset, “because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has” (Exodus 22:26-27). ↩
Note 7. The image is a grain merchant filling a measure to overflowing — pressing it down and shaking it so more will fit, then letting it spill. The “lap” is the fold of a loose outer garment, gathered up and used as a pouch to carry the heaped grain home. ↩