Chronological Plan

¹After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go.

²He told them, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.

³Now go; I’m sending you out like lambs among wolves.

⁴Don’t carry a money-bag, traveling bag, or sandals; don’t greet anyone along the road.

⁵Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’

⁶If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

⁷Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they offer, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Don’t move from house to house.

⁸When you enter any town, and they welcome you, eat the things set before you.

⁹Heal the sick who are there, and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near you.’

¹⁰When you enter any town, and they don’t welcome you, go out into its streets and say,

¹¹‘We are wiping off even the dust of your town that clings to our feet as a witness against you. Know this for certain: The kingdom of God has come near.’

¹²I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.

¹³“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

¹⁴But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.

¹⁵And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will go down to Hades.

¹⁶Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

¹⁷The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

¹⁸He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

¹⁹Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; nothing at all will harm you.

²⁰However, don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

²¹At that time he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure.

²²All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.”

²³Then turning to his disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see the things you see!

²⁴For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see but didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them.”

²⁵Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

²⁷He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind;” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

²⁸“You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰Jesus took up the question and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead.

³¹A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

³²In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

³³But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion.

³⁴He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

³⁵The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

³⁶“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

³⁷“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

³⁸While they were traveling, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said.

⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.”

⁴¹The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things,

⁴²but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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 also taught his disciples.”

²He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say, Father, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come.

³Give us each day our daily bread.

⁴And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us. And do not bring us into temptation.”

⁵He also said to them: “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

⁶because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’

⁷Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’

⁸I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish?

¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

¹³If you then, who are 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?”

¹⁴Now he was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon came out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed.

¹⁵But some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

¹⁶And others, as a test, were demanding of him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷Knowing their thoughts, he told them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and a house divided against itself falls.

¹⁸If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say I drive out demons by Beelzebul.

¹⁹And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? For this reason they will be your judges.

²⁰If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹When a strong man, fully armed, guards his estate, his possessions are secure.

²²But when one stronger than he attacks and overpowers him, he takes from him all his weapons he trusted in, and divides up his plunder.

²³Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters.

²⁴“When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest, and not finding rest, it then says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’

²⁵Returning, it finds the house swept and put in order.

²⁶Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that person’s last condition is worse than the first.”

²⁷As he was saying these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the one who nursed you!”

²⁸He said, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

²⁹As the crowds were increasing, he began saying: “This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

³⁰For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.

³¹The queen of the south will rise up 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 — something greater than Solomon is 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 — something greater than Jonah is here.

³³“No one lights a lamp and puts it in the cellar or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see its light.

³⁴Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is also full of light. But when it is bad, your body is also full of darkness.

³⁵Take care, then, that the light in you is not darkness.

³⁶If, therefore, your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be entirely illuminated, as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

³⁷As he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined at the table.

³⁸When the Pharisee saw this, he was amazed that he did not first perform the ritual washing before dinner.

³⁹But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil.

⁴⁰Fools! Didn’t he who made the outside make the inside too?

⁴¹But give from what is within to the poor, and then everything is clean for you.

⁴²“But woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others.

⁴³“Woe to you Pharisees! You love the front seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴“Woe to you! You are like unmarked graves; the people who walk over them don’t know it.”

⁴⁵One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things you insult us too.”

⁴⁶Then he said: “Woe also to you experts in the law! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, and yet you yourselves don’t touch these burdens with one of your fingers.

⁴⁷“Woe to you! You build tombs for the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

⁴⁸Therefore, you are witnesses that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their monuments.

⁴⁹Because of this, 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 responsible for the blood of all the prophets shed 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 responsible.

⁵²“Woe to you experts in the law! You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn’t go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were trying to go in.”

⁵³When he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to oppose him fiercely and to cross-examine him about many things;

⁵⁴they were lying in wait for him to trap him in something he said.

²²Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.

²³Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade.

²⁴The Jews surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵“I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me.

²⁶But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep.

²⁷My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

³⁰I and the Father are one.”

³¹Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him.

³²Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?”

³³“We aren’t stoning you for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you — being a man — make yourself God.”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, I said, you are gods?

³⁵If he called those whom the word of God came to ‘gods’ — and the Scripture cannot be broken — 

³⁶do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God?

³⁷If I am not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me.

³⁸But if I am doing them and you don’t believe me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”

³⁹Then they were trying again to seize him, but he eluded their grasp.

⁴⁰So he departed again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there.

⁴¹Many came to him and said, “John never did a sign, but everything John said about this man was true.”

⁴²And many believed in him there.