Tuesday, August 25

²³Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat as they made their way. ²⁴So the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?” ²⁵He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry— ²⁶how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread, which is against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?” ²⁷Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. ²⁸For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

¹Then Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ²They watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him. ³So he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up among all these people.” ⁴Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” But they were silent. ⁵After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶So the Pharisees went out immediately and began plotting with the Herodians, as to how they could assassinate him.

⁷Then Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him. And from Judea, ⁸Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan River, and around Tyre and Sidon a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done. ⁹Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him so the crowd would not press toward him. ¹⁰For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him. ¹¹And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” ¹²But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

¹³Now Jesus went up the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴He appointed 12 so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach ¹⁵and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶To Simon he gave the name Peter; ¹⁷to James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, he gave the name Boanerges (that is, “sons of thunder”); ¹⁸and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.