Dead Bury Their Dead

Gospel of Matthew 8

When Jesus had come down from the hill, great crowds followed him. 2 And he saw a leper who came up, and bowed to the ground before him, and said: “Master, if only you are willing, you are able to make me clean.” 3 Stretching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying as he did so: “I am willing; become clean.” Instantly he was made clean from his leprosy; 4 And then Jesus said to him: “Be careful not to say a word to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift directed by Moses, as evidence of your cure.”

5 After Jesus had entered Capernaum, a captain in the Roman army came up to him, entreating his help. 6 “Sir,” he said, “my servant is lying ill at my house with a stroke of paralysis, and is suffering terribly.” 7 “I will come and cure him,” answered Jesus. 8 “Sir,” the captain went on, “I am unworthy to receive you under my roof; but only speak, and my manservant will be cured. 9 For I myself am a man under the orders of others, with soldiers under me; and, if I say to one of them ‘Go,’ he goes, and to another ‘Come,’ he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this,’ he does it.”

10 Jesus was surprised to hear this, and said to those who were following him: “Never, I tell you, in any Israelite have I met with such faith as this! 11 Yes, and many will come in from East and West and take their places beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; 12 While the heirs to the kingdom will be ‘banished into the darkness’ outside; there, there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the captain: “Go now, and it shall be according to your faith.” And the man was cured that very hour.

14 When Jesus went into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother–in–law prostrated with fever. 15 On his taking her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and began to wait upon him. 16 In the evening the people brought to Jesus many who were possessed by demons; and he drove out the spirits with a word, And cured all who were ill, 17 In fulfillment of these words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our infirmities on himself, and bore the burden of our diseases.’

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What is the Lord’s Prayer?

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18 Seeing a crowd round him, Jesus gave orders to go across. 19 And a teacher of the law came up to him, and said: “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 “Foxes have holes,” answered Jesus, “and wild birds their roosting–places, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 “Master,” said another, who was a disciple, “let me first go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus answered: “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”

23 Then he got into the boat, followed by his disciples. 24 Suddenly so great a storm came upon the sea that the waves broke right over the boat. But Jesus was asleep; 25 And the disciples came and roused him. “Master,” they cried, “save us; we are lost!” 26 “Why are you so timid?” he said. “O ye of little faith!” Then Jesus rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and a great calm followed. 27 The men were amazed, and exclaimed: “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”

28 And on getting to the other side—the country of the Gadarenes—Jesus met two men who were possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one was able to pass that way. 29 Suddenly they shrieked out: “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before our time?”

30 A long way off, there was a drove of many pigs, feeding; 31 And the foul spirits began begging Jesus: “If you drive us out, send us into the drove of pigs.” 32 “Go,” he said. The spirits came out, and entered the pigs; and the whole drove rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and died in the water. 33 At this the men who tended them ran away and went to the town, carrying the news of all that had occurred, and of what had happened to the possessed men. 34 At the news the whole town went out to meet Jesus, and, when they saw him, they entreated him to go away from their neighborhood.

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To read Chapter 8 of the Gospel of Matthew, please go to: Sheep Among Wolves

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Browse the entire Gospel of Matthew here: Gospel of Matthew

Luke – Gospel 17 – The Kingdom of God is Within You

Jesus said to his disciples: “It is inevitable that there should be snares; yet woe to you who is answerable for them! 2 It would be better for you to be flung into the sea with a mill-stone round your neck, than that you should prove a snare to even one of these lowly ones. 3 Be on your guard! If your brother does wrong, reprove him; but if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he wrongs you seven times a day, but turns to you every time and says ‘I am sorry,’ you must forgive him.”

5 “Give us more faith,” said the apostles to the Master; 6 But the Master said: “If your faith were only like a mustard-seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be up-rooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

7 “Which of you, if you had a servant ploughing, or tending the sheep, would say to him when he came in from the fields, ‘Come at once and take your place at table,’ 8 Instead of saying, ‘Prepare my dinner, and then make yourself ready and wait on me while I am eating and drinking, and after that you shall eat and drink yourself’? 9 Does he feel grateful to his servant for doing what he is told? 10 And so with you—when you have done all that you have been told, still say, ‘We are but useless servants; we have done no more than we ought to have done.’”

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus passed between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. 13 Standing still, some distance off, they called out loudly: “Jesus! Sir! Pity us!” 14 When Jesus saw them, he said: “Go and show yourselves to the priest.” And, as they were on their way, they were made clean.

15 One of them, finding he was cured, came back, praising God loudly, 16 And threw himself on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done; and this man was a Samaritan. 17 “Were not all the ten made clean?” asked Jesus. “But the nine, where are they? 18 Were there none to come back and praise God except this foreigner? 19 Get up,” he said to him, “and go on your way. Your faith has delivered you.”

20 Being once asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was to come, Jesus answered: “The kingdom of God does not come in a way that admits of observation, 21 Nor will people say ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ for the kingdom of God is within you!”

22 “The day will come,” he said to his disciples, “when you will long to see but one of the days of the Son of Man, and will not see it. 23 People will say to you, ‘There he is! or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go and follow them. 24 For, just as lightning will lighten and flare from one side of the heavens to the other, so will it be with the Son of Man.”

25 “But first he must undergo much suffering, and he must be rejected by the present generation. 26 As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be again in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being married, up to the very day on which Noah entered the ark, and then the flood came and destroyed them all.”

28 “So, too, in the days of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 29 But, on the very day on which Lot came out of Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from the skies and destroyed them all. 30 It will be the same on the day on which the Son of Man reveals himself. 31 On that day, if you are on your house-top and your goods are in the house, you must not go down to get them; nor if you are on a farm should you turn back.”

32 “Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever is eager to get the most out of his life will lose it; but whoever will lose it shall preserve it. 34 On that night, I tell you, there shall be two in one bed, the one will be taken and the other left; 35 Two shall be grinding together, one will be taken and the other left. 36 Two shall be in the field, the one taken and the other left.

37 “Where will it be, Master?” interposed the disciples. “Where there is a body,” said Jesus, “‘there will the vultures flock.’”

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To read the next chapter of the Book of Luke, please go to The Gospel of Luke – 18.

This Online New Testament Gospel of Luke is excerpted from the book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life (with New Century Gospels). Including over 200 bookmarked citations from the canonical Gospels, this Progressive Christian book appeals to the Unitarian spirit at the heart of all faiths.

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