"Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!

"Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised!

"Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!

"Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children!

"Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers.

Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people, who do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God.

Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the LORD, and they study it day and night.

Happy are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned.

Happy is the one whom the LORD does not accuse of doing wrong and who is free from all deceit.

Happy are those whose lives are faultless, who live according to the law of the LORD.

When Jesus had said this, a woman spoke up from the crowd and said to him, "How happy is the woman who bore you and nursed you!"

But Jesus answered, "Rather, how happy are those who hear the word of God and obey it!"

Isn't he the carpenter's son? Isn't Mary his mother, and aren't James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers?

And so they rejected him. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is respected everywhere except in his hometown and by his own family."

Then the disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees had their feelings hurt by what you said?"

"Don't worry about them! They are blind leaders of the blind; and when one blind man leads another, both fall into a ditch."

How terrible for the world that there are things that make people lose their faith! Such things will always happen---but how terrible for the one who causes them!

Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another.

Then Jesus said to them, "This very night all of you will run away and leave me, for the scripture says, 'God will kill the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'

Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem.

Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap."

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God which many people will speak against

He said to them, "I am sure that you will quote this proverb to me, 'Doctor, heal yourself.' You will also tell me to do here in my hometown the same things you heard were done in Capernaum.

Listen to me: it is true that there were many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three and a half years and a severe famine spread throughout the whole land.

And there were many people suffering from a dreaded skin disease who lived in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha; yet not one of them was healed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

They rose up, dragged Jesus out of town, and took him to the top of the hill on which their town was built. They meant to throw him over the cliff,

Many of his followers heard this and said, "This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?"

Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, "Does this make you want to give up?

Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more.

Others said, "He is the Messiah!" But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee!

The scripture says that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David and will be born in Bethlehem, the town where David lived."

And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"

that the scripture speaks of: "Look, I place in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall. But whoever believes in him will not be disappointed."

Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.

As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles;

Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Such a person really does not understand them, and they seem to be nonsense, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis.

But as for me, my friends, if I continue to preach that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were true, then my preaching about the cross of Christ would cause no trouble.

And another scripture says, "This is the stone that will make people stumble, the rock that will make them fall." They stumbled because they did not believe in the word; such was God's will for them.