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A Sign from God

(Matthew 12.38-42; Mark 8.12)

29 (A) As crowds were gathering around Jesus, he said:

You people of today are evil! You keep looking for a sign from God. But what happened to Jonah[a] is the only sign you will be given. 30 (B) Just as Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh, the Son of Man will be a sign to the people of today. 31 (C) When the judgment comes, the Queen of the South[b] will stand there with you and condemn you. She traveled a long way to hear Solomon's wisdom, and yet here is something far greater than Solomon. 32 (D) The people of Nineveh will also stand there with you and condemn you. They turned to God when Jonah preached, and yet here is something far greater than Jonah.

Light

(Matthew 5.15; 6.22,23)

33 (E) No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a clay pot. A lamp is put on a lampstand, so everyone who comes into the house can see the light. 34 Your eyes are the lamp for your body. When your eyes are good, you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. 35 So be sure your light isn't darkness. 36 If you have light, and nothing is dark, then light will be everywhere, as when a lamp shines brightly on you.

Jesus Condemns the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law of Moses

(Matthew 23.1-36; Mark 12.38-40; Luke 20.45-47)

37 When Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him home for a meal. Jesus went and sat down to eat.[c] 38 The Pharisee was surprised that he did not wash his hands[d] before eating. 39 So the Lord said to him:

You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but on the inside you are greedy and evil. 40 You fools! Didn't God make both the outside and the inside?[e] 41 If you would only give what you have to the poor, everything you do would please God.

42 (F) You Pharisees are in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your gardens, such as mint and rue. But you cheat people, and you don't love God. You should be fair and kind to others and still give a tenth to God.

43 You Pharisees are in for trouble! You love the front seats in the synagogues, and you like to be greeted with honor in the market. 44 But you are in for trouble! You are like unmarked graves[f] that people walk on without even knowing it.

45 A teacher of the Law of Moses spoke up, “Teacher, you said cruel things about us.”

46 Jesus replied:

You teachers are also in for trouble! You load people down with heavy burdens, but you won't lift a finger to help them carry the loads. 47 Yes, you are really in for trouble. You build monuments to honor the prophets your own people murdered long ago. 48 You must think that was the right thing for your people to do, or else you would not have built monuments for the prophets they murdered.

49 Because of your evil deeds, the Wisdom of God said, “I will send prophets and apostles to you. But you will murder some and mistreat others.” 50 You people living today will be punished for all the prophets who have been murdered since the beginning of the world. 51 (G) This includes every prophet from the time of Abel to the time of Zechariah,[g] who was murdered between the altar and the temple. You people will certainly be punished for all of this.

52 You teachers of the Law of Moses are really in for trouble! You carry the keys to the door of knowledge about God. But you never go in, and you keep others from going in.

53 Jesus was about to leave, but the teachers and the Pharisees wanted to get even with him. They tried to make him say what he thought about other things, 54 so they could catch him saying something wrong.

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Footnotes

  1. 11.29 what happened to Jonah: Jonah was in the stomach of a big fish for three days and nights (see Matthew 12.40).
  2. 11.31 South: Sheba, probably a country in southern Arabia.
  3. 11.37 sat down to eat: See the note at 7.36.
  4. 11.38 did not wash his hands: The Jewish people had strict laws about washing their hands before eating, especially if they had been out in public.
  5. 11.40 Didn't God make both the outside and the inside: Or “Doesn't the person who washes the outside always wash the inside too?”
  6. 11.44 unmarked graves: Tombs were whitewashed to keep anyone from accidentally touching them. A person who touched a dead body or a tomb was considered unclean and could not worship with other Jewish people.
  7. 11.51 from the time of Abel … Zechariah: Genesis is the first book in the Jewish Scriptures, and it tells that Abel was the first person to be murdered. Second Chronicles is the last book in the Jewish Scriptures, and the last murder that it tells about is that of Zechariah.

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