After this the Master appointed seventy-two others, and sent them on before him, two by two, to every town or place to which he intended to come.

Whenever you go to stay at a house, first say, 'Peace to this household!'

'The very dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off in protest. But understand this: the Kingdom of God is at hand!'

At that moment he was inspired with joy, and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the learned and intelligent, and revealing it to children! Yes, I thank you, Father, for choosing to have it so!

As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you!"

As the crowds pressed a round him, he went on to say, "This is a wicked age! It demands a sign, and no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah.

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

The queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation at the Judgment and will condemn them, for she came from the very ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and there is more than Solomon here!

Men of Nineveh will rise with this generation at the Judgment and will condemn it, for they repented at Jonah's preaching, and there is more than Jonah here.

When he said this, a Pharisee asked him to lunch with him, and he went to his house and took his place at table.

At this, one of the experts in the Law said to him, "Master, when you say that, you affront us too."

This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute'??50 so that this age may be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the creation of the world,

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you! This age will be charged with it all!

And he told them this story: "A certain rich man's lands yielded heavily.

Then he said, 'This is what I will do; I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and in them I will store all my grain and my goods.

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you. Then who will have all you have prepared?'

But you may be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known what time the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into.

Peter said to him, "Master, do you mean this figure for us, or is it for everybody?"

You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the look of the earth and sky; and why can you not interpret this present time?

And he answered, "Do you think, because this happened to them, that these Galileans were worse sinners than any other Galileans?

He used this figure: "A man had a fig tree growing in his garden, and he went to look for fruit on it, and could not find any.

And he said to the gardener, 'Here I have come three years to look for fruit on this fig tree, without finding any. Cut it down. Why should it waste the ground?'

He answered, 'Let it stand this one year more, sir, till I dig around it and manure it;

And did not this woman, who is a descendant of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen years, have to be released from those bonds on the Sabbath day?"

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, and all the people were delighted at all the splendid things that he did.

And they could make no reply to this.

He noticed that the guests picked out the best places, and he gave them this illustration:

and your host will come and say to you 'Make room for this man,' and then you will proceed in confusion to take the poorest place.

One of the other guests heard this, and said to him, "Blessed is the man who shall be at the banquet in the Kingdom of God!"

So the slave went back, and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his slave, 'Hurry out into the streets and squares of the city, and bring the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame in here!'

and say, 'This man started to erect a building, and could not finish it!'

And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, and said, "This man welcomes irreligious people, and even eats with them!"

So in speaking to them he used this figure:

And he said to his disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and it was reported to him that this man was squandering his property.

So he called him in and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Make an accounting for your conduct of my affairs, for you cannot be manager any longer!'

And his master praised the dishonest manager, because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are shrewder in their relation to their own age than the sons of the light.

The Pharisees, who were avaricious, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.

Besides there is a great chasm set between you and us, so that those who want to go over from this side to you cannot, and they cannot cross from your side to us.'

for I have five brothers; let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torture.'

And the Master said, "If your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you might have said to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and planted in the sea,' and it would have obeyed you!

Was no one found to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?"

But first he must go through much suffering, and be refused by this age.

They said to him, "Where will this be, Master?" And he said to them, "Wherever there is a dead body the vultures will flock!"

yet because this widow bothers me, I will protect her, so that she may not finally wear me out with her coming.' "

And the Master said, "Listen to what this dishonest judge said!

To some who were confident of their own uprightness, and thought nothing of others, he used this illustration:

The Pharisee stood up and uttered this prayer to himself: 'O God, I thank you that I am not like other men, greedy, dishonest, or adulterous, like that tax-collector.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "There is one thing that you still lack. Sell all that you have, and divide the money among the poor, and then you will have riches in heaven; and come back and be a follower of mine."

who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the coming age eternal life."

And they did not understand any of this; the words were obscure to them, and they did not know what he meant.

And when they saw this, everyone complained, and said, "He has gone to stay with an irreligious man!"

Jesus said to him, "Salvation has come to this house today, for he too is a descendant of Abraham.

As they were listening to this, Jesus went on to give them an illustration, because he was near Jerusalem and they supposed that the Kingdom of God was immediately going to appear.

But his countrymen hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, 'We do not want this man made king over us.'

Then he went on to give the people this illustration: "A man once planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went away for along absence.

But when the tenants saw him, they argued with one another, 'This is his heir! Let us kill him, so that the property will belong to us!'

He will come and put those tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others." When they heard this they said, "Heaven forbid!"

He looked at them and said, "Then what does this saying of Scripture mean, "'That stone which the builders rejected Has become the cornerstone'?

And the scribes and high priests wanted to arrest him then and there, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that he had aimed this illustration at them.

Jesus said to them, "The people of this world marry and are married,

And he said, "I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all the rest.

"As for all this that you are looking at, the time is coming when not one stone will be left here upon another that will not be torn down!"

Then they asked him, "Master, when will this happen, and what will be the sign that it is going to take place?"

But before all this, men will arrest you and persecute you, and hand you over to synagogues and prisons and have you brought before kings and governors on my account.

But alas for women who are with child at that time, or who have babies, for there will be great misery in the land and anger at this people.

But when this begins to happen, look up and raise your heads, for your deliverance will be at hand."

But you must be vigilant and always pray that you may succeed in escaping all this that is going to happen, and in standing in the presence of the Son of Man."

And he said to them, "I have greatly desired to eat this Passover supper with you before I suffer.

And when he was handed a cup, he thanked God, and then said, "Take this and share it among you, for I tell you,

And he took a loaf of bread and thanked God, and broke it in pieces, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body.

And they began to discuss with one another which of them it was who was going to do this.

For I tell you that this saying of Scripture must find its fulfilment in me: 'He was rated an outlaw.' Yes, that saying about me is to be fulfilled!"

But they said, "See, Master, here are two swords!" And he said to them, "Enough of this!"

and said, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. But not my will but yours be done!"

But Jesus answered, "Let me do this much!" And he touched his ear and healed him.

When I was among you day after day in the Temple you never laid a hand on me! But you choose this hour, and the cover of darkness!"

A maid saw him sitting by the fire and looked at him and said, "This man was with him too."

About an hour later, another man insisted, "This man was certainly with him too, for he is a Galilean!"

But from this time on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of God Almighty!"

and they made this charge against him: "Here is a man whom we have found misleading our nation, and forbidding the payment of taxes to the emperor, and claiming to be an anointed king himself."

And Pilate said to the high priests and the crowd, "I cannot find anything criminal about this man."

When Pilate heard this, he asked if the man were a Galilean

and said to them, "You brought this man before me charged with misleading the people, and here I have examined him before you and not found him guilty of any of the things that you accuse him of.

For if this is what they do when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

For there was a notice above his head, "This is the king of the Jews!"

And we are suffering it justly, for we are only getting our deserts, but this man has done nothing wrong."

When the captain saw what had happened he praised God, and said, "This man was really innocent!"

They were in great perplexity over this, when suddenly two men in dazzling clothing stood beside them.

and they went back from the tomb and told all this to the eleven and all the rest.

They were Mary of Magdala and Joanna and Mary, James's mother; and the other women also told this to the apostles.

And he said to them, "What is all this that you are discussing with each other on your way?" They stopped sadly,

But we were hoping that he was to be the deliverer of Israel. Why, besides all this, it is three days since it happened.

But some women of our number have astounded us. They went to the tomb early this morning

Then he said to them, "This is what I told you when I was still with you??hat everything that is written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must come true."

You are to be witnesses to all this, beginning at Jerusalem.

This, the first of the signs of his mission, Jesus showed at Cana in Galilee. By it he showed his greatness, and his disciples believed in him.

After this Jesus went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

Then the Jews addressed him and said, "What sign have you to show us, for acting in this way?"

Jesus answered, "Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it in three days!"

The Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary, and are you going to raise it in three days?"