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A model prayer
1 Then it happened, when He finished praying in a certain place, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”
2 So He said to them: “Whenever you pray, say:
Our Father who is in the heavens,
your name must be reverenced.
Your Kingdom must come.
Your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 Also, forgive us our sins,
because we also forgive everyone indebted to us.
And, do not lead us into testing,
but deliver us from the malignant one.”
A request at midnight
5 Then He said to them: “Who among you will have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,
6 because a friend has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7 and he will answer from within and say, ‘Don't bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give to you?’
8 I say to you, even if he will not get up and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as many as he needs.
9 “So I say to you: ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 Because everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11 And which father among you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
A divided house
14 Then He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. As a result, when the demon had gone out the mute spoke! And the crowds marveled.
15 But some of them said, “It's by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that he casts out demons.”
16 While others kept asking Him for a sign from heaven, testing.
17 But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against itself falls.
18 So if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?—since you say I cast out demons by Beelzebul!
19 Further, if I am casting out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
20 But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his possessions are safe.
22 But when someone stronger than he attacks, he overcomes him, takes away all his armor in which he trusted, and distributes his spoils.
23 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
An empty house
24 “Whenever an unclean spirit goes out from a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest; and not finding any it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came out.’
25 And coming it finds it swept and put in order.
26 Then it goes and picks up seven other spirits, more malignant than itself, and they go in and live there; so the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
True blessedness
27 And then, as He was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!”
28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
Jonah is a sign
29 Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say: “This is a malignant generation. It keeps wanting a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
30 Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of the Man be to this generation.
31 The queen of the South will be raised up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
32 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and they will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
Light inside the body
33 “No one, having lit a lamp, puts it in hiding or under a basket, but on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.
34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, whenever your ‘eye’ is good, your whole body is illuminated. But when it is malignant, your body also is darkened.
35 So see to it that the ‘light’ in you not be darkness.
36 If then your whole body is full of light, not having any part dark, the whole will be illuminated, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”
Jesus derides scribes and Pharisees
37 Now as He spoke, a certain Pharisee invited Him to eat with him. So He went in and reclined.
38 But the Pharisee, noticing that He did not first wash before the meal, was critical.
39 So the Lord said to him: “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but your inside is full of greed and malignancy.
40 Fools! Did not He who made the outside also make the inside?
41 Nevertheless, give what is possible as alms; then indeed all things are clean to you.
42 “But woe to you Pharisees! You tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you ignore justice and the love of God. These it was necessary to do, without leaving those undone.
43 Woe to you Pharisees! You love the best seat in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplaces.
44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like unperceived graves, that people walk on without knowing it.”
Jesus derides lawyers
45 Then one of the lawyers reacted and said to him, “Teacher, by saying these things you insult us also!”
46 So He said: “Woe to you lawyers also! You load men down with burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 Woe to you! You restore the tombs of the prophets, it being your fathers who killed them.
48 Thereby you witness to and approve of the deeds of your fathers; because they indeed killed them, while you restore their tombs.
49 Also, because of this ‘the wisdom of God’ said: ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’
50 so that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation,
51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation!
52 Woe to you lawyers! You have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering!”
53 Well when He had said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge Him on vehemently and to cross-examine Him about many things,
54 lying in wait for Him, trying to catch Him in something He might say, so that they might accuse Him.