Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath day
1Jesus and his disciples walked through a wheat_field. It was on a Sabbath day. The disciples picked some of the wheat and they took out the grains_of_wheat with their hands and ate them. 2Then some of the Pharisees asked: ‘Why are you picking wheat on the Sabbath day? You know that the laws of God say that you may not work on the Sabbath day.’
3Jesus said to them: ‘Did you read what David did when he and his men were hungry and they had no food? 4David went into the temple and he took the bread that only the priests may eat. David ate that bread and he also gave some of that bread to his men.’ 5Jesus told them: ‘I, the Son of man, am Lord and I can decide what people may do on the Sabbath day.’
The man with a crippled hand
6On another Sabbath day Jesus went to a synagogue and He was teaching the people. There was a man whose right hand was crippled. 7The teachers_of_the_Laws and Pharisees looked at Jesus to see if He was going to heal the man on the Sabbath day. They wanted to accuse Jesus of doing something wrong. 8But Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said to the man with the crippled hand: ‘Come up and stand here where all the people can see you.’ The man did what Jesus said. 9Jesus asked the teachers_of_the_Laws and the Pharisees: ‘Tell Me, is it right to save the life of a person or to kill a person on the Sabbath day?’
10Jesus looked at the people, then He told the man: ‘Put out your hand.’ The man put out his hand and his hand was healed. 11The teachers_of_the_Laws and Pharisees were very angry. They made plans to do something bad to Jesus.
Jesus chooses 12 apostles
12Not long after that, Jesus went to the mountain to pray. He prayed to God all night long. 13The next morning He called his disciples together and He chose 12 of them to be his apostles. 14Their names were Simon, whose other name was Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon the patriot, 16Judas, son of James, and Judas Iscariot who later betrayed Jesus.
A lot of people come to Jesus
17Jesus and the apostles came down from the mountain to a flat place. There were a lot of his disciples and many other people who came from all over the province of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the towns of Tyre and Sidon near the sea. 18They listened to Jesus and asked Him to heal their sick people. There were people who had evil_spirits in them and Jesus also chased_out those spirits. 19Everyone wanted to touch Jesus, because there was power that came from Him that healed people.
People who are really happy
20Jesus looked at his disciples and He said to them:
‘You who are poor are happy people,
because God is your King.
21You who are hungry are happy people,
because God will give you enough food to eat.
You who are crying now are happy people,
because you will laugh.
22You are happy people
if other people hate you and chase you away
and say bad things about you
because you belong to Me, the Son of man.
23You must be happy
when they do bad things to you,
so happy that you want to jump up and down,
because in heaven
God will be very good to you.
Can you remember what happened
to the prophets?
The fathers of the people who hate you now
did the same bad things
to the prophets long ago.
24But you rich people will suffer,
because in this_life here on earth
you have had an easy life.
25You who have too much food now,
God will cause you to be hungry.
You who laugh now,
God will cause you to cry and mourn.
26Trouble will come to you
if all the people say only nice things about you.
Their fathers and forefathers long ago
also said nice things about the false_prophets.’
You must love your enemies
27Jesus also said: ‘I am telling all of you who listen to Me: You must love your enemies. You must be good to people who hate you. 28You must bless the people who curse you. You must pray for the people who are doing bad things to you. 29If someone hits you on the side of your face, turn your head and tell him that he may also hit you on the other side of your face. If someone wants to take your coat, give him your coat and your shirt. 30Give to everyone who asks you for something. And if someone takes your things, don't ask him to give them back. 31You must do good things to other people, as you want them to do good things to you.
32If you love only those people who love you, then God will not be good to you, because the sinners do the same. They also love their friends. 33If you do good only to those who are good to you, then you are not better than the sinners, because they do the same. 34If you give money only to people who can pay you back, God will not say that you did something good, because bad people also lend money to each other and they know they will get their money back.
35No, you must not be the same as those people. You must love your enemies, and you must be good to everyone. You must lend things to them but do not hope to get them back. Then the Lord will be good to you and you will be children of the Most High God. God is good to everyone, also to the people who do not thank Him for it. He is also good to bad people. 36You must feel sorry for other people and be good to them, like your Father is good to everyone.’
Do not judge other people
37Jesus said: ‘Do not say other people are wrong and God must punish them. If you do not judge them, then God will not judge you. You must forgive other people, then God will also forgive you. 38Give to other people, then God will give to you. You will get all you need and much more. What you do to other people, God will let them do to you.’
39Jesus used parables to teach them. He said:
‘A blind man can not lead another blind man. If he does, the 2 of them will both fall into the water. 40A disciple is not more important than his teacher who teaches him. But if he learned everything, then he would be like his teacher.
41Why do you see the small piece of wood in your brother's eye, but you do not see the big piece of wood in your own eye? 42You can not tell your brother that you want to take out the small piece of wood in his eye, when you have a big piece of wood in your own eye. If you do that, then you are a hypocrite. You must first take out the big piece of wood from your own eye, then you will be able to take out the small piece of wood from your brother's eye.’
A tree and its fruit
Jesus also said:
‘You will know what tree it is when you see what fruit the tree has. 43A good tree can not have bad fruit and a bad tree can not have good fruit. 44How do you know what kind of tree it is? You look at the fruit on the tree. You do not pick figs from a thorn tree. You can not pick grapes from a bush. 45It is the same with people: Good people do good things because there are good things in their hearts. And bad people do bad things because there are bad things in their hearts. Yes, the words that you speak show what is in your heart.’
There are 2 kinds of foundations
46Jesus asked them:
‘Why do you say again and again that I am your Lord, but you don't want to do what I tell you? 47I will tell you what someone is like who comes to Me and listens to Me and does what I say. 48He is like a man who built a house with a strong foundation on a rock. When the storm came and the flood water came up to his house, the river could not wash away the house, because the man had built a strong foundation on the rock.
49Someone who hears what I say, but does not want to do what I tell him, is like a man who built his house on the sand. It did not have a strong foundation. When the storm came and the flood water came up to his house, the house was destroyed immediately. It was gone.’
