Chapter 17

   Jesus said to His disciples, 'It is inevitable that causes of stumbling should come; but alas for him through whom they come!  

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   It would be well for him if, with a millstone round his neck, he were lying at the bottom of the sea, rather than that he should cause even one of these little ones to fall.  

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   Be on your guard. 'If your brother acts wrongly, reprove him; and if he is sorry, forgive him;  

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   and if seven times in a day he acts wrongly towards you, and seven times turns again to you and says, 'I am sorry,' you must forgive him.'  

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   And the Apostles said to the Lord, 'Give us faith.'  

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   'If your faith,' replied the Lord, 'is like a mustard seed, you might command this black-mulberry-tree, 'Tear up your roots and plant yourself in the sea,' and instantly it would obey you.  

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   But which of you who has a servant ploughing, or tending sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the farm, 'Come at once and take your place at table,'  

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   and will not rather say to him, 'Get my dinner ready, make yourself tidy, and wait upon me till I have finished my dinner, and then you shall have yours'?  

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   Does he thank the servant for obeying his orders?  

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   So you also, when you have obeyed all the orders given you, must say, ''There is no merit in our service: what we have done is only what we were in duty bound to do.''  

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   As they pursued their journey to Jerusalem, He passed through Samaria and Galilee.  

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   And as He entered a certain village, ten men met Him who were lepers and stood at a distance.  

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   In loud voices they cried out, 'Jesus, Rabbi, take pity on us.'  

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   Perceiving this, He said to them, 'Go and show yourselves to the Priests.' And while on their way to do this they were made clean.  

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   One of them, seeing that he was cured, came back, adoring and praising God in a loud voice,  

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   and he threw himself at the feet of Jesus, thanking Him. He was a Samaritan.  

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   'Were not all ten made clean?' Jesus asked; 'but where are the nine?  

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   Have none been found to come back and give glory to God except this foreigner?'  

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   And He said to him, 'Rise and go: your faith has cured you.'  

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   Being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God was coming, He answered, 'The Kingdom of God does not so come that you can stealthily watch for it.  

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   Nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' --for the Kingdom of God is within you.'  

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   Then, turning to His disciples, He said, 'There will come a time when you will wish you could see a single one of the days of the Son of Man, but will not see one.  

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   And they will say to you, 'See there!' 'See here!' Do not start off and go in pursuit.  

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   For just as the lightning, when it flashes, shines from one part of the horizon to the opposite part, so will the Son of Man be on His day.  

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   But first He must endure much suffering, and be rejected by the present generation.  

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   'And as it was in the time of Noah, so will it also be in the time of the Son of Man.  

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   Men were eating and drinking, taking wives and giving wives, up to the very day on which Noah entered the Ark, and the Deluge came and destroyed them all.  

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   The same was true in the time of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building;  

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   but on the day that Lot left Sodom, God rained fire and brimstone from the sky and destroyed them all.  

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   Exactly so will it be on the day that the veil is lifted from the Son of Man.  

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   'On that day, if a man is on the roof and his property indoors, let him not go down to fetch it; and, in the same way, he who is in the field, let him not turn back.  

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   Remember Lot's wife.  

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   Any man who makes it his object to keep his own life safe, will lose it; but whoever loses his life will preserve it.  

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   On that night, I tell you, there will be two men in one bed: one will be taken away and the other left behind.  

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   There will be two women turning the mill together: one will be taken away and the other left behind.'  

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   'Where, Master?' they inquired. 'Where the dead body is,' He replied, 'there also will the vultures flock together.'  

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