Luke 13:9-28

⁹in case it produces fruit—but if not, then cut it down.’ ”

¹⁰Now as Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath,

¹¹He saw a woman there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years—she was bent over and could not straighten up.

¹²So He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity!”

¹³He placed His hands on her and immediately she was made straight and started glorifying God.

¹⁴But the ruler of the synagogue reacted with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, and he said to the crowd, “There are six days in which one should work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath.”

¹⁵So the Lord answered him and said: “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water?

¹⁶So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan kept bound during eighteen long years, be freed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

¹⁷When He said these things all His adversaries were put to shame, while all the crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things that were being done by Him.

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.