Great and Holy Tuesday

Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly. ²He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. ³When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. ⁴When he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. ⁵Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him. ⁶The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.

⁷And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Stand up quickly!” His chains fell off his hands. ⁸The angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” He did so. He said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” ⁹And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision. ¹⁰When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

¹¹When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”

Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk. ¹⁶They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter whom you teach; for you aren’t partial to anyone. ¹⁷Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test me, you hypocrites?

¹⁹Show me the tax money.” They brought to him a denarius.

²⁰He asked them, “Whose is this image and inscription?”

²¹They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

²²When they heard it, they marveled, and left him and went away.

²³On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him, ²⁴saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ ²⁵Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. ²⁶In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. ²⁷After them all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”

²⁹But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven. ³¹But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ³²‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. ³⁵One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”

³⁷Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,

⁴²saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “Of David.”

⁴³He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, ⁴⁴‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’?

⁴⁵“If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

⁴⁶No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forward.

¹Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, ²saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. ³All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don’t do their works; for they say, and don’t do. ⁴For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them. ⁵But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the fringes of their garments, ⁶and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, ⁷the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by men. ⁸But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers. ⁹Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. ¹⁰Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ. ¹¹But he who is greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

¹⁴“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter. ¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.

¹⁶“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ ¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’ ¹⁹You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living in it. ²²He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.

²³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. ²⁴You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!

²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness. ²⁶You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.

²⁷“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. ²⁸Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous, ³⁰and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. ³²Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. ³³You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna? ³⁴Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! ³⁸Behold, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”