Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 358
346
IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
19:19–20:7
And Jesus replied: “‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father
and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What
else must I do?”
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions
and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then
come, follow me.”
But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many
possessions.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a
rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ll say it again—it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter
the Kingdom of God!”
The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?”
they asked.
Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What
will we get?”
Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son
of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will
also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone
who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in
return and will inherit eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will
be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be
the greatest then.
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early
one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal
daily wage and sent them out to work.
“At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace
and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them,
telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day.
So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock
he did the same thing.
“At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more
people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working
today?’
“They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’
“The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my
vineyard.’
