Luke 11:28-54 But he said, "You might better say, 'Blessed are those who hear God's message and observe it!' "

Goodspeed⁽ⁱ⁾ ²⁸ But he said, "You might better say, 'Blessed are those who hear God's message and observe it!' " ²⁹ As the crowds pressed a round him, he went on to say, "This is a wicked age! It demands a sign, and no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this age. ³¹ The queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation at the Judgment and will condemn them, for she came from the very ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and there is more than Solomon here! ³² Men of Nineveh will rise with this generation at the Judgment and will condemn it, for they repented at Jonah's preaching, and there is more than Jonah here. ³³ No one lights a lamp and puts it in the cellar or under a peck measure; he puts it on its stand, so that people who come in can see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is sound, your whole body is light, but when it is unsound, your body is dark. ³⁵ So take care! Your very light may be darkness! ³⁶ If, therefore, your whole body is light with no darkness in it at all, it will all be as light as a lamp makes things for you by its light." ³⁷ When he said this, a Pharisee asked him to lunch with him, and he went to his house and took his place at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee noticed that he did not wash before the meal, and he was surprised. ³⁹ But the Master said to him, "You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You fools! Did not the Creator of the outside make the inside too? ⁴¹ But give your inmost life as charity, and you will immediately find everything clean. ⁴² But alas for you Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint, rue, and every tiny herb, and disregard justice and the love of God. But you should have observed these, without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Alas for you Pharisees! For you love to have the front seat in the synagogues and to be saluted with respect in public places. ⁴⁴ Alas for you! For you are like unmarked graves which men tread upon without knowing it." ⁴⁵ At this, one of the experts in the Law said to him, "Master, when you say that, you affront us too." ⁴⁶ But he said, "Yes, alas for you experts in the Law too! For you load men with burdens they can hardly carry, and you will not touch them yourselves with a single finger. ⁴⁷ Alas for you! For you build monuments for the prophets, whom your forefathers killed. ⁴⁸ So you testify to what your fathers did and approve it, for they killed them and you build their monuments. ⁴⁹ This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute'— ⁵⁰ so that this age may be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the creation of the world, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you! This age will be charged with it all! ⁵² Alas for you experts in the Law! For you have taken the key to the door of knowledge, but you have not entered it yourselves, and you have kept out those who tried to enter." ⁵³ After he left the house, the scribes and the Pharisees began to watch him closely and to try to draw him out on many subjects, ⁵⁴ plotting to entrap him in something he might say.