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Matthew 12
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Chapter 12
Picking corn on the sabbath
1
At that time Jesus took a walk one sabbath day through the cornfields. His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and eat them.
2
The Pharisees noticed it and said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath’.
3
But he said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry –
4
how he went into the house of God and how they ate the loaves of offering which neither he nor his followers were allowed to eat, but which were for the priests alone?
5
Or again, have you not read in the Law that on the sabbath day the Temple priests break the sabbath without being blamed for it?
6
Now here, I tell you, is something greater than the Temple.
7
And if you had understood the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless.
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For the Son of Man is master of the sabbath.’
Cure of the man with a withered hand
9
He moved on from there and went to their synagogue,
10
and a man was there at the time who had a withered hand. They asked him, ‘Is it against the law to cure a man on the sabbath day?’ hoping for something to use against him.
11
But he said to them, ‘If any one of you here had only one sheep and it fell down a hole on the sabbath day, would he not get hold of it and lift it out?
12
Now a man is far more important than a sheep, so it follows that it is permitted to do good on the sabbath day.’
13
Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’. He stretched it out and his hand was better, as sound as the other one.
14
At this the Pharisees went out and began to plot against him, discussing how to destroy him.
Jesus the ‘servant of Yahweh’
15
Jesus knew this and withdrew from the district. Many followed him and he cured them all,
16
but warned them not to make him known.
17
This was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah:
18
Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, the favourite of my soul. I will endow him with my spirit, and he will proclaim the true faith to the nations.
19
He will not brawl or shout, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
20
He will not break the crushed reed, nor put out the smouldering wick till he has led the truth to victory:
21
in his name the nations will put their hope.[*a]
Jesus and Beelzebul
22
Then they brought to him a blind and dumb demoniac; and he cured him, so that the dumb man could speak and see.
23
All the people were astounded and said, ‘Can this be the Son of David?’
24
But when the Pharisees heard this they said, ‘The man casts out devils only through Beelzebul,[*b] the prince of devils’.
25
Knowing what was in their minds he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin; and no town, no household divided against itself can stand.
26
Now if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; so how can his kingdom stand?
27
And if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges, then.
28
But if it is through the Spirit of God that I cast devils out, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you.
29
‘Or again, how can anyone make his way into a strong man’s house and burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first? Only then can he burgle his house.
30
‘He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
31
And so I tell you, every one of men’s sins and blasphemies will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
32
And anyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but let anyone speak against the Holy Spirit and he will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next.
Words betray the heart
33
‘Make a tree sound and its fruit will be sound; make a tree rotten and its fruit will be rotten. For the tree can be told by its fruit.
34
Brood of vipers, how can your speech be good when you are evil? For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.
35
A good man draws good things from his store of goodness; a bad man draws bad things from his store of badness.
36
So I tell you this, that for every unfounded word men utter they will answer on Judgement day,
37
since it is by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words condemned.’
The sign of Jonah
38
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees spoke up. ‘Master,’ they said ‘we should like to see a sign[*c] from you.’
39
He replied, ‘It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! The only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40
For as Jonah was in the belly of the sea-monster for three days and three nights,[*d] so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
41
On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.
42
On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.
The return of the unclean spirit
43
‘When an unclean spirit goes out of a man it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and cannot find one.
44
Then it says, “I will return to the home I came from”. But on arrival, finding it unoccupied, swept and tidied,
45
it then goes off and collects seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and set up house there, so that the man ends up by being worse than he was before. That is what will happen to this evil generation.’
The true kinsmen of Jesus
46
He was still speaking to the crowds when his mother and his brothers[*e] appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him.
48
But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’
49
And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.
50
Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’
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