The Life of Jesus

“Listen very carefully to what I’m going to say. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.”

But they didn’t understand what he meant by this. It had been concealed from them so that they would not grasp its meaning, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

An argument arose among the talmidim as to which of them might be the greatest.

But Yeshua, knowing the thoughts of their hearts, took a child, stood him beside himself,

and said to them, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the One who sent me. In other words, the one who is least among you all — this is the one who is great.”

Yochanan responded, “Rabbi, we saw someone expelling demons in your name; and we stopped him because he doesn’t follow you along with us.”

Yeshua said to him, “Don’t stop such people, because whoever isn’t against you is for you.”

As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven, he made his decision to set out for Yerushalayim.

He sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village in Shomron to make preparations for him.

However, the people there would not let him stay, because his destination was Yerushalayim.

When the talmidim Ya‘akov and Yochanan saw this, they said, “Sir, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?”

But he turned and rebuked them.

And they went on to another village.

As they were traveling on the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Yeshua answered him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds flying about have nests, but the Son of Man has no home of his own.”

To another he said, “Follow me!” but the man replied, “Sir, first let me go away and bury my father.”

Yeshua said, “Let the dead bury their own dead; you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God!”

Yet another said, “I will follow you, sir, but first let me say good-by to the people at home.”

To him Yeshua said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is fit to serve in the Kingdom of God.”

After this, the Lord appointed seventy other talmidim and sent them on ahead in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go.

He said to them, “To be sure, there is a large harvest. But there are few workers. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the Harvest that he speed workers out to gather in his harvest.

Get going now, but pay attention! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

Don’t carry a money-belt or a pack, and don’t stop to shmoose with people on the road.

“Whenever you enter a house, first say, ‘Shalom!’ to the household.

If a seeker of shalom is there, your ‘Shalom!’ will find its rest with him; and if there isn’t, it will return to you.