Luke 13:18-34

¹⁸Then He said: “What is the Kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?

¹⁹It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden; and it grew and became a sizable tree, and the birds of the air perched on its branches.”

²⁰Again He said: “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?

²¹It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

²²He was traveling through various towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

²³Then someone said to Him, “Lord, are the ones being saved few?” So He said to them:

²⁴“Exert yourselves to enter through the narrow gate, because many, I say to you, will try to enter and not manage it.

²⁵When once the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ and in answer he will say to you, ‘I do not know you; where are you from?’

²⁶then you will begin by saying, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷But he will say: ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’

²⁸“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you yourselves being thrown out.

²⁹They will even come from the east, the west, the north and the south, and recline in the Kingdom of God.

³⁰Yes indeed, there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”

³¹On that same day some Pharisees approached saying to Him, “Get out of here and go away, because Herod wants to kill you.”

³²He said to them: “Go tell that ‘fox’, ‘Take note, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third I will be perfected.’

³³Nevertheless I must keep going today and tomorrow and the day following, because it is not credible that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem!

³⁴“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, she who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!