Gospel according to Luke 18

¹ Then he told them a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.

² ‘There was a judge in a certain town’ he said ‘who had neither fear of God nor respect for man.

³ In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, “I want justice from you against my enemy!”

⁴ For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, “Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man,

⁵ but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death”.’

⁶ And the Lord said ‘You notice what the unjust judge has to say?

⁷ Now will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them?

⁸ I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?’

⁹ He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else,

¹⁰ ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.

¹¹ The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here.

¹² I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.”

¹³ The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”.

¹⁴ This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’

¹⁵ People even brought little children to him, for him to touch them; but when the disciples saw this they turned them away.

¹⁶ But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

¹⁷ I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’

¹⁸ A member of one of the leading families put this question to him, ‘Good Master, what have I to do to inherit eternal life?’

¹⁹ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.

²⁰ You know the commandments: You must not commit adultery; You must not kill; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; Honour your father and mother.’

²¹ He replied, ‘I have kept all these from my earliest days till now’.

²² And when Jesus heard this he said, ‘There is still one thing you lack. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’

²³ But when he heard this he was filled with sadness, for he was very rich.

²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to make their way into the kingdom of God!

²⁵ Yes, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’

²⁶ ‘In that case’ said the listeners ‘who can be saved?’

²⁷ ‘Things that are impossible for men’ he replied ‘are possible for God.’

²⁸ Then Peter said, ‘What about us? We left all we had to follow you.’

²⁹ He said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God

³⁰ who will not be given repayment many times over in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life’.

³¹ Then taking the Twelve aside he said to them, ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man is to come true.

³² For he will be handed over to the pagans and will be mocked, maltreated and spat on,

³³ and when they have scourged him they will put him to death; and on the third day he will rise again.’

³⁴ But they could make nothing of this; what he said was quite obscure to them, they had no idea what it meant.

³⁵ Now as he drew near to Jericho there was a blind man sitting at the side of the road begging.

³⁶ When he heard the crowd going past he asked what it was all about,

³⁷ and they told him that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by.

³⁸ So he called out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me’.

³⁹ The people in front scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me’.

⁴⁰ Jesus stopped and ordered them to bring the man to him, and when he came up, asked him,

⁴¹ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Sir,’ he replied ‘let me see again.’

⁴² Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.’

⁴³ And instantly his sight returned and he followed him praising God, and all the people who saw it gave praise to God for what had happened.