Gospel according to Luke 12

¹ Meanwhile the people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And he began to speak, first of all to his disciples. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees-that is, their hypocrisy.

² Everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.

³ For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetops.

⁴ ‘To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no mere.

⁵ I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

⁶ Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight.

⁷ Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

⁸ ‘I tell you, if anyone openly declares himself for me in the presence of men, the Son of Man will declare himself for him in the presence of God’s angels.

⁹ But the man who disowns me in the presence of men will be disowned in the presence of God’s angels.

¹⁰ ‘Everyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹ ‘When they take you before synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say,

¹² because when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say.’

¹³ A man in the crowd said to him, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance’.

¹⁴ ‘My friend,’ he replied-‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’

¹⁵ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs’.

¹⁶ Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land,

¹⁷ thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.”

¹⁸ Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them,

¹⁹ and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time”.

²⁰ But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?”.

²¹ So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’

²² Then he said to his disciples, ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it.

²³ For life means more than food, and the body more than clothing.

²⁴ Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. And how much more are you worth than the birds!

²⁵ Can any of you, for all his worrying, add a single cubit to his span of life?

²⁶ If the smallest things, therefore, are outside your control, why worry about the rest?

²⁷ Think of the flowers; they never have to spin or weave; yet, I assure you, not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these.

²⁸ Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he look after you, you men of little faith!

²⁹ But you, you must not set your hearts on things to eat and things to drink; nor must you worry.

³⁰ It is the pagans of this world who set their hearts on all these things. Your Father well knows you need them.

³¹ No; set your hearts on his kingdom, and these other things will be given you as well.

³² ‘There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.

³³ ‘Sell your possessions and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it.

³⁴ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

³⁵ ‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit.

³⁶ Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.

³⁷ Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly, he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them.

³⁸ It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready.

³⁹ You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what hour the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house.

⁴⁰ You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’

⁴¹ Peter said, ‘Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?’

⁴² The Lord replied, ‘What sort of steward[*a], then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time?

⁴³ Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment.

⁴⁴ I tell you truly, he will place him over everything he owns.

⁴⁵ But as for the servant who says to himself, “My master is taking his time coming”, and sets about beating the menservants and the maids, and eating and drinking and getting drunk,

⁴⁶ his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.

⁴⁷ The servant who knows what his master wants, but has not even started to carry out those wishes, will receive very many strokes of the lash.

⁴⁸ The one who did not know, but deserves to be beaten for what he has done, will receive fewer strokes. When a man has had a great deal given him, a great deal will be demanded of him; when a man has had a great deal given him on trust, even more will be expected of him.

⁴⁹ ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!

⁵⁰ There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!

⁵¹ ‘Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

⁵² For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three;

⁵³ the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

⁵⁴ He said again to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does.

⁵⁵ And when the wind is from the south you say it will be hot, and it is.

⁵⁶ Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?

⁵⁷ ‘Why not judge for yourselves what is right?

⁵⁸ For example: when you go to court with your opponent, try to settle with him on the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the bailiff and the bailiff have you thrown into prison.

⁵⁹ I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the very last penny.’