The Rich Man

¹⁷ As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’¹⁸Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.¹⁹You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’²⁰He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. ²³ Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’²⁴And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’²⁶They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

The Year of Jubilee

⁸ You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years.⁹Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land.¹⁰And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines.¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces. ¹³ In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.