5th 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 to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way. ²⁹Behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” ³⁰Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them. ³¹The demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs.”

³²He said to them, “Go!” They came out and went into the herd of pigs; and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and died in the water. ³³Those who fed them fled and went away into the city and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons. ³⁴Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.

¹He entered into a boat and crossed over, and came into his own city.