New Testament · Gospels and Acts

Matthew chapter 12

Around that time, Jesus walked through the grain fields on the . His were hungry, so they started picking heads of grain and eating them.When the saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your students are doing what’s on the Sabbath!”He said to them, “Haven’t you read what did when he and his companions were hungry?He went into and ate the —bread that neither he nor his companions were allowed to eat, only the .Or haven’t you read in that on the Sabbath, the priests in the do work that would normally break the Sabbath—and they’re not guilty?But I’m telling you— is here.If you really understood what this means—‘I want , not ’—you wouldn’t be condemning people who’ve done nothing wrong.Because the has the Sabbath itself.Moving on from there, he went into their .A man was there with a hand. They asked Jesus, “Is it allowed to heal someone on the Sabbath?”—looking for a way to him.He said to them, “If any of you had a that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you grab it and pull it out? is a person than a sheep! So yes, it is allowed to on the Sabbath.”Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was —as healthy as the other one.But the Pharisees went out and about how to him.Jesus knew what they were planning, so he withdrew from that area. Large crowds followed him, and he healed all of them.But he warned them not to make him widely known.This what was spoken through the prophet :“Here is my , the one I’ve chosen, the one I love, who brings me great joy. I will put on him, and he will announce to the .He won’t argue or shout—no one will hear his voice in the streets.He won’t snap a or snuff out a —until he has brought .And in his , the nations will place their .”Then people brought him a man , who was blind and unable to speak. Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see.All the crowds were amazed and said, “Could this actually be the ?”But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man only demons by , the ruler of demons.”Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every divided against itself falls apart, and no city or household divided against itself can stand.If drives out Satan, he’s fighting against himself. So how could his kingdom survive?And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, then who gives the power to drive them out? So they’ll be your judges on this.But if I’m driving out demons by , then has .“How can anyone break into a ’s house and take his stuff unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can clean out the whole house.“Anyone who isn’t with me is against me, and anyone who isn’t with me is scattering.So I’m telling you: every kind of and will be forgiven people, but will not be forgiven.Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven. But anyone who speaks against the Breath of God will not be forgiven—not now, and not in .“Either make the tree good and its good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten. You can tell what a tree is by its fruit.You ! How can you say anything good when you yourselves are corrupt? Because the mouth speaks from whatever fills the .A good person brings good things out of the good them, and a corrupt person brings corrupt things out of the corruption stored up inside them.But I’m telling you, on the , people will have to answer for every word they’ve spoken.Because your own words will either you or you.”Then some of the and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a from you.”He answered them, “A generation demands a sign, but the only sign it will get is the sign of the prophet .Just as Jonah was in the for three days and three nights, the Son of Man will be in the for three days and three nights.The people of will stand up at the judgment alongside this generation and condemn it, because they when Jonah spoke to them—and is here now.The will stand up at the judgment alongside this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear ’s wisdom—and something greater than Solomon is here now.“When a leaves a person, it wanders through looking for rest but doesn’t find any.Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to the I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house empty, swept clean, and all put in order.So it goes and brings other spirits more corrupt than itself, and they all move in and settle down there. And that person ends up worse off than before. That’s exactly what will happen to .”While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and showed up and stood outside, wanting to talk to him.Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak with you.”But he replied to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?”Then he his students and said, “Here—these are my mother and my brothers.Because anyone who —that person is my brother, my sister, and my mother.”