Jesus Shows How to Pray to the Father
Luke 11Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When y’all pray, say,
‘Father, may your name be honored. May your empire come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’”Then he said to them, “Suppose one of y’all has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to offer him.’ Then he will answer from inside, saying, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give anything to you.’ I tell y’all, although he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
“I tell y’all: Ask, and it will be given to y’all. Seek, and y’all will find. Knock, and it will be opened to y’all. For everyone who asks, receives. The one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of y’all fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If y’all then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to y’all’s children, how much more will y’all’s heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask ʜɪᴍ?”
A House Divided
Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon came out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons.” Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every empire divided against itself is destroyed. A house divided against itself falls. If Satan is divided against himself, how will his empire stand? I ask because y’all claim that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do y’all’s sons cast them out? Therefore they will be y’all’s judges. But if I cast out demons by God’s finger, then the Empire of God has come upon y’all.
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks him and conquers him, he takes all his armor on which relied and divides up his plunder.
“Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters.
When an unclean spirit comes out of a human, it passes through dry places seeking rest. When it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to my house that I left.’ When it returns, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that human becomes worse than the first.”
While Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which nursed you!”
But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
The Sign of Jonah
As the crowds were increasing, he said, “This is a wicked generation. It seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Humanity be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the people of this generation and will condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now something greater than Solomon is here! The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here!
The Lamp of the Body
“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a cellar or under a basket. Instead they put it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. Therefore when your eyes are singular, your whole body is also full of light. But when you have an evil eye, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp shines light on you.”
Religious Hypocrisy Denounced
As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee marveled when he noticed that Jesus did ceremonially wash first before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now Pharisees, y’all cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside y’all are full of extortion and wickedness. Fools! Did not the one who made the outside also make the inside? But as for what is inside, y’all should give to those in need, and then everything will be clean to y’all. But woe to y’all Pharisees! For y’all tithe mint and rue and every kind of herb, but y’all skip past justice and the love of God. Y’all should have done these things without neglecting the others. Woe to y’all Pharisees! For y’all love the best seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to y’all! For y’all are like hidden graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”
One of the legal experts answered him, “Teacher, when you say this, you insult us also.”
He said, “Woe to y’all legal experts as well! For y’all load humans down with burdens that are difficult to carry, but y’all won’t even lift a finger to touch the burdens. Woe to y’all! For y’all build the tombs of the prophets, and it was y’all’s ancestors who killed them. So y’all are witnesses who approve the deeds of your* ancestors, because they killed them, and y’all build their tombs.
“For this reason, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell y’all, this generation will be held responsible for all of it. Woe to y’all legal experts! For y’all have taken away the key of knowledge. Y’all have not entered in, and y’all hindered those who were going in.”
When he left that place, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and question him on many things, preparing to catch him in something he might say.