CHAPTER 156.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
The scribes and Pharisees are angered. Jesus rebukes them for their hypocrisy. He laments over Jerusalem. The widow’s mite. Jesus delivers his farewell address to the people in the temple.
The scribes and Pharisees were wild with rage; and Jesus said,
2 Woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! you stand within the way; you block the door; you will not go into the kingdom and you turn aside the pure in heart who are about to enter in.
3 Woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he has been made he is a son of hell, just like yourselves.
4 Woe unto you who call yourselves the guides of men! and you are guides, blind guides;
5 For you pay tithes of cummin, mint and dill, and leave undone the weightier matters of the law; of judgment, justice, faith.
6 You filter out the gnats before you drink; but then you swallow camels and the like.
7 Woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! you clean and scour the outside of the cup, while it is full of filth, extortion and excess.
8 Go to and clean the inside of the cup, and then the poisonous fumes will not defile the outside of the cup.
9 Woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! you are yourselves like whitewashed sepulchres; your outer garbs are beautiful, but you are full of dead men’s bones.
10 You seem to men to be divine; but in your hearts you nourish lust, hypocrisies and vile iniquities.
11 Woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! you build and then adorn the tombs of holy men of old and say,
12 If we had lived when these men lived, we would have guarded them, would not have acted as our fathers did, when they maltreated them and put them to the sword.
13 But you are sons of them who slew the holy men, and you are not a whit more just than they.
14 Go forth and fill the measure of your fathers who were steeped in crime.
15 You are the offsprings of the vipers, and how can you be but serpents of the dust?
16 God now has sent again to you his prophets and his seers, his wise men and his holy men, and you will scourge them in your synagogues, and stone them in the streets, and nail them to the cross.
17 Woe unto you! for on your heads will come the blood of all the holy men who have been slain upon the earth,
18 From righteous Abel down to Zacharias, son of Barachias, who was slain within the Holy Place before the altar of the Lord.
19 Behold, I say that these things all shall come upon this nation and the people of Jerusalem.
20 And Jesus looked about and said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou cruel city of Jerusalem, that slays the prophets in the streets and kills the holy men whom God has sent to you!
21 Lo, I would oft have gathered you as children to the fold of God; but you would not.
22 You have rejected God, and now your house is desolate, and you shall see me not again till you can say,
23 Thrice blessed is the son of man who comes as son of God.
24 Then Jesus went and sat beside the treasury and watched the people as they paid their tithes.
25 The rich men came and gave of their abundance; and then he saw a poor but loyal widow come and put a farthing in the treasure box.
26 And then he said to his disciples who were standing by, Behold, for this poor widow who has put a farthing in the treasury has done more than they all;
27 For she has given all she had; the rich have given just a little share of what they have.
28 A company of Grecian Jews were at the feast, and they met Philip, who could talk with them, and said, Sir, we would see the Lord, this Jesus, who is called the Christ.
29 And Philip led the way, and brought them to the Christ.
30 And Jesus said, The hour has come; the son of man is ready to be glorified, and it cannot be otherwise.
31 Except a grain of wheat fall into earth and die it can be nothing but a grain of wheat; but if it die it lives again, and from its grave a hundred grains of wheat arise.
32 My soul is troubled now; What shall I say? And then he cast his eyes to heaven and said,
33 My Father-God, I would not ask to be relieved of all the burdens I must bear; I only ask for grace and strength to bear the burdens whatso’er they be,
34 This is the hour for which I came to earth. O Father, glorify thy name!
35 And then the place was lighted with a light more brilliant than the noonday sun; the people stood a-back; they were afraid.
36 And then a voice that seemed to come from heaven said,
37 I have both glorified my name and yours, and I will honor them again.
38 The people heard the voice, and some exclaimed, Behold, a distant thunder! Others said, An angel spoke to him.
39 But Jesus said, This voice was not for me; it was for you, that you might know that I am come from God.