Luke 17 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Jesus said to his students, "It's unavoidable that things will come along that trip people up, but it's going to be terrible for whoever causes it."

It would be better for them to have a massive millstone hung around their neck and be thrown into the sea than to trip up one of these little ones.

Watch yourselves. If your brother or sister wrongs you, call them out on it, and if they change direction, forgive them.

Even if they wrong you seven times in a single day, and seven times come back to you saying, 'I'm changing direction,' forgive them."

The close followers said to the Lord, "Give us more trust!"

The Lord replied, "If you had trust even the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Uproot yourself and plant yourself in the sea,' and it would do it."

"Suppose one of you has a servant out plowing or watching the flock. When that servant comes in from the field, would you say, 'Come right in and sit down for dinner'?

Wouldn't you instead say, 'Get my dinner ready, change clothes, and serve me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink'?

Does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do?

It's the same with you. When you've done everything you were told to do, say, 'We're just servants doing our job. We only did what we were supposed to.'"

As Jesus was heading toward Jerusalem, he traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

As he was going into a village, ten men with a skin disease met him. They stood at a distance

and called out loudly, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

When he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." And as they were on their way, they were healed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God at the top of his lungs.

He threw himself facedown at Jesus' feet, thanking him — and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus responded, "Weren't all ten healed? Where are the other nine?

Was no one found to come back and give praise to God except this outsider?"

Then he said to him, "Get up and go. Your trust has made you well."

When some of the religious leaders asked Jesus when God's kingdom would come, he answered, "God's kingdom doesn't come in a way you can track with your eyes.

People won't say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'It's over there!' because God's kingdom is already among you."

Then he said to his students, "The time will come when you'll long to see even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you won't see it.

People will tell you, 'Look, there he is!' or 'Here he is!' Don't go chasing after them.

Because when the Son of Man comes, it will be like lightning that flashes and lights up the entire sky from one horizon to the other.

But first he has to go through a lot of suffering and be rejected by this generation.

"And just as it was in the time of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man.

People were eating, drinking, getting married, and being given in marriage right up until the day Noah entered the ark — and then the flood came and destroyed them all.

"It will be the same as it was in the time of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building.

But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from the sky and destroyed them all.

That's exactly how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

"On that day, if someone is on the roof, don't go back inside to grab your stuff. And if someone is in the field, don't turn back for anything.

Remember Lot's wife.

Whoever tries to hold on to their life will lose it, and whoever lets go of their life will preserve it.

"I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed — one will be taken and the other left.

Two women will be grinding grain together — one will be taken and the other left."

Two men will be in the field — one will be taken and the other left.

"Where, Lord?" they asked him. He replied, "Where the body is, that's where the vultures will gather."