4th Sunday of Matthew

Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

¹²But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear—not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”, so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.

¹³Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. ¹⁴Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; ¹⁵and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. ¹⁷Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

¹⁹Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, ²⁰let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him for help, ⁶saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”

⁷Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

⁸The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel. ¹¹I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, ¹²but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” His servant was healed in that hour.