Chapter 17

And he said to his disciples, It is impossible that hurt should never be done to men’s consciences; but woe betide the man who is the cause of it.

Better for him to have had a mill-stone tied about his neck, and to be cast into the sea, than to have hurt the conscience of one of these little ones.

Keep good watch over yourselves. As for thy brother, if he is in fault, tax him with it, and if he is sorry for it, forgive him;

nay, if he does thee wrong seven times in the day, and seven times in the day comes back to thee and says, I am sorry, thou shalt forgive him.

The apostles said to the Lord, Give us more faith.

And the Lord said, If you had faith, though it were like a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree, Uproot thyself and plant thyself in the sea, and it would obey you.

If any one of you had a servant following the plough, or herding the sheep, would he say to him, when he came back from the farm, Go and fall to at once?

Would he not say to him, Prepare my supper, and then gird thyself and wait upon me while I eat and drink; thou shalt eat and drink thyself afterwards?

Does he hold himself bound in gratitude to such a servant, for obeying his commands?

I do not think it of him; and you, in the same way, when you have done all that was commanded you, are to say, We are servants, and worthless; it was our duty to do what we have done.

A time came when he was on his way to Jerusalem, and was passing between Samaria and Galilee;

and as he was going into a village, ten men that were lepers came towards him; they stood far off,

crying aloud, Jesus, Master, have pity on us.

He met them with the words, Go and shew yourselves to the priests; and thereupon, as they went, they were made clean.

One of them, finding that he was cured, came back, praising God aloud,

and threw himself at Jesus’ feet with his face to the ground, to thank him; and this was a Samaritan.

Jesus answered, Were not all ten made clean? And the other nine, where are they?

Not one has come back to give God the praise, except this stranger.

And he said to him, Arise and go on thy way, thy faith has brought thee recovery.

Upon being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God was to come, he answered, The kingdom of God comes unwatched by men’s eyes;

there will be no saying, See, it is here, or See, it is there; the kingdom of God is here, within you.

And to his own disciples he said, The time will come when you will long to enjoy, but for a day, the Son of Man’s presence, and it will not be granted you.

Men will be saying to you, See, he is here, or See, he is there; do not turn aside and follow them;

the Son of Man, when his time comes, will be like the lightning which lightens from one border of heaven to the other.

But before that, he must undergo many sufferings, and be rejected by this generation.

In the days when the Son of Man comes, all will be as it was in the days of Noe;

they ate, they drank, they married and were given in marriage, until the day when Noe went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

So it was, too, in the days of Lot; they ate, they drank, they bought and sold, they planted and built;

but on the day when Lot went out of Sodom, a rain of fire and brimstone came from heaven and destroyed them all.

And so it will be, in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

In that day, if a man is on the house-top and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them with him; and if a man is in the fields, he too must beware of turning back.

Remember Lot’s wife.

The man who tries to save his own life will lose it; it is the man who loses it that will keep it safe.

I tell you, on that night, where two men are sleeping in one bed, one will be taken and the other left;

one woman taken, one left, as they grind together at the mill, one man taken, one left, as they work together in the fields.

Then they answered him, Where, Lord?

And he told them, It is where the body lies that the eagles will gather.