Part 6 (1/2)

They never once thought that Jesus ht be the Messiah When they saw the kind of friends he had, they wondered if he was even a good man

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5 A Busy Time

The Pharisees may not have liked Jesus, but no one could deny that he kne to preach The crowds that caer Often Jesus stood at the foot of a hill and preached to the crowd that had gathered on the hillside

Now everyone who heard Jesus preach was likely to be surprised For he did not say the things that people expected to hear Often he said the very opposite of what they wanted hiood opinion of the with theood He said that it was ht He did not try to preach ser of hi of what God had to say to the people, and so he told theht to do

Jesus knew that his listeners found it easier to hate other people than to love them And so he stood one day at the foot of the hill and said:

”You have all heard the saying, Love your friend and hate your enemy

But that is not what I say I say, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who use you badly That is what God does He ood or bad He sends the rain to fall on everyone, no matter who he is

”If you love only those who love you, you don't deserve any credit for that That's what everybody does Be like God He is ive those who do you a wrong, or you cannot expect God to forgive you”

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All the people thought that they were at least doing the right thing in hating the Roh Ro and made Jews carry their packs for them? But Jesus said,

”If a Roman soldier makes you carry his pack for a mile, carry it anotherthat Jesus knew about his listeners was that many of them orried about money, and food and clothes It was hard to blame them for that; for some of the people were very poor, and were never sure that they were going to get enough to eat

Jesus was poor enough hiot no richer by following hi to the disciples, Jesus said to the you can call your own”

The disciples pricked up their ears ”Blessed”--thatnothing? Jesus went on:

”Blessed are you who have nothing, for yours is the kingdory, you shall be fed later on

”Blessed are you who are sad, the time will come when you will be joyful

”Blessed are you, when other people hate you, and will have nothing to do with you, because you are lad when that happens, because that is what has happened to all God's servants God will reward you for everything you suffer for my sake”

There was silence Jesus looked out over the crowd and spoke again,

”Woe to you who are rich!”