Chapter

Once again the Lord went out beside the lake. A large crowd followed and came to Him, so the Lord Jesus began to teach them.

As He walked along, the Lord Jesus saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth.

Then the Lord went to Levi and said to him “Follow me,” Levi got up and followed the Lord.

And so they arrived at Levi’s house where they were having dinner.

While the Lord Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were eating with the Lord and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw the Lord eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they went to His disciples and asked them a question : “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

...……..…...

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked the Lord, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

The Lord answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?” He continued to speak “They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

The Lord Jesus then told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

One Sabbath’s day, the Lord Jesus was going through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees saw them and were outraged. They asked them, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

The Lord Jesus answered to the Pharisees, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?“ the Lord continued “He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

And the Lord Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

And on another Sabbath’s day, the Lord Jesus went as usual into the synagogue and was teaching. There was also a man in the synagogue, his right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were also there and were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, for they slowly started to feel hate in their hearts.

As they watched Him closely, they wanted to see if the Lord would heal on the Sabbath. But the Lord Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So the man got up and stood in front of everyone.

Then the Lord Jesus asked to Pharisees, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

But the Pharisees and the people in the synagogue remained silent.

So the Lord Jesus looked around Him with anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, He told to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” the man did so and stretched it out, the Lord healed the man’s hand and his hand was completely restored. And the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

The Twelve Apostles

One of those days the Lord Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, the Lord called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles so that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons : Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

***Téléchargez NovelToon pour profiter d'une meilleure expérience de lecture !***