Daily Gospel Plan

¹Then some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and said,

²"Why do Your disciples violate the tradition (religious laws) handed down by the [Jewish] elders? For Your disciples do not [ceremonially] wash their hands before they eat."

³He replied to them, "Why also do you violate the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders]?

⁴For God said [through Moses], 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of or insults or treats improperly father or mother is to be put to death.'

⁵But you say, 'If anyone says to his father or mother, "Whatever [money or resource that] I have that would help you is [already dedicated and] given to God,"

⁶he is not to honor his father or his mother [by helping them with their need].' So by this you have invalidated the word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect] for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders].

⁷You hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said,

⁸'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.

⁹'But in vain do they worship Me, For they teach as doctrines the precepts of men.'"

¹⁰After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said, "Listen and understand this:

¹¹It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that defiles and dishonors him, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles and dishonors him."

¹²Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard you say this?"

¹³He answered, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant will be torn up by the roots.

¹⁴Leave them alone; they are blind guides[leading blind followers]. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

¹⁵Peter asked Him, "Explain this parable [about what defiles a person] to us."

¹⁶And He said, "Are you still so dull [and unable to put things together]?

¹⁷Do you not understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?

¹⁸But whatever [word] comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what defiles and dishonors the man.

¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts and plans, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slanders (verbal abuse, irreverent speech, blaspheming).

²⁰These are the things which defile and dishonor the man; but eating with [ceremonially] unwashed hands does not defile the man."

²¹After leaving there, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

²²And a Canaanite woman from that district came out and began to cry out [urgently], saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David (Messiah); my daughter is cruelly possessed by a demon."

²³But He did not say a word in answer to her. And His disciples came and asked Him [repeatedly], "Send her away, because she keeps shouting out after us."

²⁴He answered, "I was commissioned by God and sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

²⁵But she came and began to kneel down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"

²⁶And He replied, "It is not good (appropriate, fair) to take the children's bread and throw it to the pet dogs."

²⁷She said, "Yes, Lord; but even the pet dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their [young] masters' table."

²⁸Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in My power] is great; it will be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that moment.

²⁹Jesus went on from there and passed along by [the eastern shore of] the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on the hillside and was sitting there.

³⁰And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they put them down at His feet; and He healed them.

³¹So the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they praised and glorified the God of Israel.

³²Then Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "I feel compassion for the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing [left] to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, because they might faint [from exhaustion] on the way [home]."

³³The disciples said to Him, "Where are we to get enough bread in this isolated place to feed so large a crowd?"

³⁴And Jesus asked them, "How many loaves [of bread] do you have?" They replied, "Seven, and a few small fish."

³⁵He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground,

³⁶and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and when He had given thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples [gave them] to the people.

³⁷And they all ate and were satisfied, and they gathered up seven full baskets of the broken pieces that were left over.

³⁸[Among] those who ate were 4,000 men, not counting women and children.

³⁹Then Jesus sent the crowds away, got into the boat and went to the district of Magadan.

¹Now the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus [to get something to use against Him], they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven [which would support His divine authority].

²But He replied to them, " When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.'

³And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and has a threatening look.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but cannot interpret the signs of the times?

⁴An evil and [morally] unfaithful generation craves a [miraculous] sign; but no sign will be given to it, except the sign of [the prophet] Jonah." Then He left them and went away.

⁵When the disciples reached the other side of the sea, they realized that they had forgotten to bring bread.

⁶Jesus said to them, "Watch out and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

⁷They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, "He said that because we did not bring bread."

⁸But Jesus, aware of this, said, "You men of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you have no bread?

⁹Do you still not understand or remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you picked up?

¹⁰Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many large baskets you picked up?

¹¹How is it that you fail to understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

¹²Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the [false] teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³Now when Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

¹⁴And they answered, "Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or [just] one of the prophets."

¹⁵He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

¹⁶Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of the living God."

¹⁷Then Jesus answered him, "Blessed [happy, spiritually secure, favored by God] are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood (mortal man) did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

¹⁸And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades (death) will not overpower it [by preventing the resurrection of the Christ].

¹⁹I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth will have [already] been loosed in heaven."

²⁰Then He gave the disciples strict orders to tell no one that He was the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed).

²¹From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples [clearly] that He must go to Jerusalem, and endure many things at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and scribes (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court), and be killed, and be raised [from death to life] on the third day.

²²Peter took Him aside [to speak to Him privately] and began to reprimand Him, saying, "May God forbid it! This will never happen to You."

²³But Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on things of God, but on things of man."

²⁴Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].

²⁵For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity].

²⁶For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

²⁷For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory and majesty of His Father with His angels, and then He will repay each one in accordance with what he has done.

²⁸"I assure you and most solemnly say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."