Luke 11:27-52

²⁷And then, as He was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!”

²⁸But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”

²⁹Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say: “This is a malignant generation. It keeps wanting a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

³⁰Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of the Man be to this generation.

³¹The queen of the South will be raised up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

³²The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and they will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

³³“No one, having lit a lamp, puts it in hiding or under a basket, but on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.

³⁴The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, whenever your ‘eye’ is good, your whole body is illuminated. But when it is malignant, your body also is darkened.

³⁵So see to it that the ‘light’ in you not be darkness.

³⁶If then your whole body is full of light, not having any part dark, the whole will be illuminated, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”

³⁷Now as He spoke, a certain Pharisee invited Him to eat with him. So He went in and reclined.

³⁸But the Pharisee, noticing that He did not first wash before the meal, was critical.

³⁹So the Lord said to him: “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but your inside is full of greed and malignancy.

⁴⁰Fools! Did not He who made the outside also make the inside?

⁴¹Nevertheless, give what is possible as alms; then indeed all things are clean to you.

⁴²“But woe to you Pharisees! You tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you ignore justice and the love of God. These it was necessary to do, without leaving those undone.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! You love the best seat in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like unperceived graves, that people walk on without knowing it.”

⁴⁵Then one of the lawyers reacted and said to him, “Teacher, by saying these things you insult us also!”

⁴⁶So He said: “Woe to you lawyers also! You load men down with burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

⁴⁷Woe to you! You restore the tombs of the prophets, it being your fathers who killed them.

⁴⁸Thereby you witness to and approve of the deeds of your fathers; because they indeed killed them, while you restore their tombs.

⁴⁹Also, because of this ‘the wisdom of God’ said: ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’

⁵⁰so that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation,

⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation!

⁵²Woe to you lawyers! You have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering!”