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Read the Gospels in 40 Days

Read through the four Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--in 40 days.

Duration: 40 days

Matthew 23-24

Chapter 23

Portrait of the Scribes and Pharisees.^[a] ¹Then Jesus addressed the crowds and his disciples: ²“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. ³Therefore, be careful to do whatever they tell you, but do not follow their example, for they do not practice what they preach. ⁴They tie up heavy burdens that are difficult to bear and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they will not lift a finger to be of assistance.

⁵“Everything they do is meant to attract the attention of others. They widen their phylacteries^[b] and lengthen their tassels. ⁶They love to have places of honor at banquets and the best seats in synagogues, ⁷and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be addressed as ‘Rabbi.’

Do Not Be Called Teacher.^[c] ⁸“But do not allow yourselves to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master, and you are all brethren. ⁹Call no one on earth your father, for you have but one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰You must not be called ‘teacher,’ for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. ¹¹The greatest among you must be your servant. ¹²All those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all those who humble themselves will be exalted.

¹³Woe to You, Teachers of the Law.^[d]“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the entrance to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor do you allow others to enter.

[¹⁴“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you devour the houses of widows, while for the sake of appearance you recite lengthy prayers. As a result, you will receive the severest possible condemnation.]^[e]

¹⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You journey over sea and land to make a single convert,^[f] and then you make that convert twice as worthy of Gehenna as you are.

¹⁶^[g]“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If someone swears by the temple, that is not binding, but if someone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ ¹⁷You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

¹⁸“And you say, ‘If someone swears by the altar, that is not binding, but if someone swears by the offering that lies on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ ¹⁹You blind fools! Which is of greater value—the offering, or the altar that makes the offering sacred?

²⁰“The one who swears by the altar swears both by it and by everything that lies upon it. ²¹The one who swears by the temple swears both by it and by the one who dwells within it. ²²And the one who swears by heaven swears both by the throne of God and by the One who is seated upon it.

²³^[h]“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, but you have neglected the more important aspects of the Law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced these without neglecting the others. ²⁴You blind guides! You strain out a gnat and then swallow a camel!

²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You cleanse the outside of a cup and dish, but you leave the inside full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and dish so that the outside may also be clean.

²⁷“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs^[i] that look beautiful on the outside, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of decay. ²⁸In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

²⁹The Judgment of God Has Already Come on This Generation.^[j]“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the tombs of the Prophets and adorn the graves of the righteous, ³⁰and you say, ‘If we had lived in the time of our ancestors, we never would have collaborated with them in shedding the blood of the Prophets.’ ³¹Thus, you acknowledge that you are the descendants of those who murdered the Prophets. ³²Go and complete the work that your ancestors began.

³³“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How can you escape being condemned to Gehenna? ³⁴Behold, therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. ³⁵As a result, upon you will fall the guilt of all the innocent blood that has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶Amen, I say to you, the guilt for all this will fall upon this generation.

³⁷The Lament over Jerusalem.^[k]“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you murder the Prophets and stone the messengers sent to you! How often have I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not allow it! ³⁸Behold, your house has been abandoned and left desolate. ³⁹I tell you, you will not see me again until you say: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

Instructions for the Coming of the Kingdom^[l]

Chapter 24

The Time of the End^[m]

Jesus Announces the Destruction of the Temple.^[n] ¹As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, his disciples came up to him to call his attention to the buildings of the temple. ²He thereupon said to them, “Do you see all these? Amen, I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another; every one will be thrown down.”

The End Has Not Yet Come.^[o] ³As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached and spoke to him when they were alone. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴Jesus answered them, “Take care that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Do not be alarmed, for those things are bound to happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are only the beginning of the labor pains.

⁹“Then you will be handed over to be tortured and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. ¹⁰At that time, many will fall away from the faith; they will betray and hate one another. ¹¹Many false prophets will appear and lead many astray, ¹²and with the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³But whoever endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴And the good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the entire world as a testimony offered to all the nations. And then the end will come.

¹⁵The Great Trial.^[p]“Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, about which the prophet Daniel spoke, standing in the Holy Place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, ¹⁷the one who is standing on the roof must not come down to collect what is in his house, ¹⁸and someone who is in the field must not turn back to retrieve his coat.

¹⁹“Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! ²⁰Pray that you will not have to take flight in the winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹For at that time there will be great suffering that has not been equaled since the beginning of the world until now, and will never again be duplicated. ²²And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect they will be shortened.

²³False Messiahs and False Prophets.“Therefore, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There he is,’ do not believe it. ²⁴For false christs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform great signs and wonders that are impressive enough to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.

²⁵“Remember, I have forewarned you about this. ²⁶So if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out there. If they say, ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷For just as lightning comes from the east and is visible even in the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. ²⁸Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.^[q]

²⁹The Coming of the Son of Man.^[r]“Immediately after the distress of those days,

‘the sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give forth its light;
the stars will fall from the sky
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

³⁰“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹And he will send forth his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Be Vigilant in Expectation of the End^[s]

³²The Parable of the Fig Tree.^[t]“Learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs become tender and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. ³³In the same way, when you see all these things take place, know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁴Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. ³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁶The Day and Hour Unknown.^[u]“As for the exact day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷For as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. ³⁹They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and swept them all away.

“That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other will be left. ⁴²Therefore, keep watch, for you do not know the day when your Lord is coming.

⁴³The Parable of the Owner of the House.^[v]“But keep this in mind: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁴Therefore, you must also be prepared, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

⁴⁵The Parable of the Faithful Servant.^[w]“Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has put in charge of his household to give its members their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶Blessed is that servant if his master finds him doing so when he returns home. ⁴⁷Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

⁴⁸“But if that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is detained,’ ⁴⁹and he proceeds to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, ⁵⁰the master of that servant will return on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know. ⁵¹He will punish him and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Footnotes

Matthew 23:1 It was considered a fine thing to show off Jewish piety even in the way one dressed: men wore phylacteries (see note on v. 5, below), and made extra long the tassels with which, according to the Law, their prayer shawls should be adorned.
Matthew 23:5 Phylacteries: little boxes containing tiny parchment scrolls that had texts of Scripture on them (Ex 13:1-10; 13:11-16; Deut 6:4-9; 11:13-21) and were placed in little tubes; the boxes were attached to the forehead and the left forearm, in keeping with a literal interpretation of Deut 6:8; 11:18. The tassels had a blue thread running through them as a symbol of heaven; they were to remind the wearer of the commandments of God (Num 15:38).
Matthew 23:8 Here Jesus obviously does not abolish the words “Rabbi,” “father,” and “teacher.” He condemns ambition and despotism on the one hand and blind servility on the other. The true Father of Christians is God, and the true Master is Christ, the Son of God. In others, paternal and magistral authority is never absolute, but relative and subordinate to the divine authority.
Matthew 23:13 At that period, Jews tried to win Gentiles over to their religion; those who came were called proselytes. There were also Gentiles who sympathized with Jewish ways and were called “God-fearers.” There must have been rivalries between Jews and Christians in this area.
Matthew 23:14 This verse is identical with Mk 12:40 and seems to have been interpolated from that text.
Matthew 23:15 Convert: a proselyte, that is, a Gentile who had accepted the faith of Israel. Worthy of Gehenna: worthy of damnation.
Matthew 23:16 Jesus shows that the Pharisees were wrong in saying that swearing by the gold of the temple and by the offering that lies on the altar is more binding than swearing by the temple or by the altar.
Matthew 23:23 The Law prescribed a tithe on the most important products. However, the Pharisees had extended it to even the most insignificant herbs, and yet they neglected the duties toward one’s neighbor, such as justice, compassion, and fidelity. Thus, they strained their liquids so as not to involuntarily swallow an insect and render themselves unclean yet gave no thought to observing the more grave commandments of the moral law.
Matthew 23:27 You are like whitewashed tombs: an allusion to the custom of whitewashing tombs so that no one might inadvertently touch them and contract a legal uncleanness (see Num 19:16).
Matthew 23:29 The final curse becomes a prophecy of judgment. It sketches the long history of the opposition between the Israel of human beings and the Israel of God, from the first murder of which the Bible speaks to the last (in the order in which the books of the Bible were placed at that period), that is, from Abel (Gen 4:8) to Zechariah (2 Chr 24:20-22).
Matthew 23:37 Jesus offers a lament over Jerusalem, which by failing to accept him opened herself to catastrophe. However, at the end time the Israelites will be converted and acclaim Jesus in his Second Coming (Ps 118:26; see Rom 11:25-33).
Matthew 24:1 Five discourses give the Gospel of Matthew its characteristic structure. Here is the last discourse, which brings together prophecies and parables that speak of the last times of humanity and distinguish its phases. At the center of the scenario is the return of Christ. This great passage is known as the “eschatological discourse,” because it deals with the end, the last times (Greek: eschaton).
Matthew 24:1 The prophetic sayings about the last “days” abound in descriptions of panic, wars, earthquakes, and cosmic upheavals; these descriptions are called “apocalypses,” that is, “revelations.” They defy the imagination in order better to bring out the greatness of God’s manifestation in the history of humanity (see Isa 13:10-13; Jer 21:9; Ezek 5:12; Am 8:8-9; Joel 2:10; 3:3; 4:17-21). Jesus makes use of this entire scenario in order to warn believers about the trials and conflicts in which their fidelity will be tested, and in order to encourage the missionaries of the Gospel.
Matthew 24:1 Jesus announces the destruction of the temple, which is the sign of God’s presence among his people. Hence, one must envisage a radical change in the religious life.
Matthew 24:3 There are many indications of Christ’s coming at the end of the world. However, no one should be mistaken. Neither the explosion of religious movements, nor the confusion of human societies, nor the catastrophes that pervade human history are signs of the end. The believer must stand fast under trials, which may appear to be excessive at times.
Matthew 24:15 The abomination of desolation: was a pagan idol placed in the midst of the Jerusalem temple (see Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; 1 Mac 1:54). The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 is described here in order to convey a lesson about the future.
Matthew 24:28 A popular proverb cited also in Lk 17:37. In this context it signifies both the uncertain time of the Lord’s coming and his universal presence.
Matthew 24:29 The coming of the Son of Man is described in the words of the Old Testament (see Isa 13:9-10; 34:4; Am 5:18; Zec 12:10) in order to express the glory and power of God and the confusion of humanity. Christ dead and risen: this is the sign that converts human beings.
Matthew 24:32 The perspective of the end of the world must keep the community on its guard. But it also concerns each disciple, for it has an effect on the end of each individual too. Let everyone be vigilant and active so as not to find oneself barred from the kingdom.
Matthew 24:32 This parable is intended to revive the hope of the first Christians, who are under persecution, with the perspective of the proximity of the glorious kingdom, in accord with the schema of the apocalyptic tradition. Indeed, every Christian lives in this expectation, for with Christ the last period of history has begun.
Matthew 24:36 The early Church is exhorted not to fall into indifference because judgment comes less quickly than expected. The life of humans cannot be exhausted in the gloomy flow of hours and days; it has another horizon: the coming of God, which is unforeseeable but completely certain. It hovers like a threat over the uncaring who seclude themselves in their securities. But it is a power and a source of strength for believers.
Matthew 24:43 This very brief parable of the owner of the house and the thief reinforces the theme of vigilance, for one does not know when the Son of Man will come.
Matthew 24:45 Jesus addresses the religious leaders of his time to place them on guard: the time to render accounts has arrived. But the coming of God is still to take place, and the disciples will be tempted to no longer believe in it. The parable of the faithful servant remains a wake-up call for them. The religious leaders and Christians must not neglect to work for the kingdom as if the Master were always present—God is in their midst.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)