Luke 17

1 Jesus said to his followers, “You know, there will always be somebody that will try to make you go wrong and do bad things, but God will punish the person that does that.

2 If anyone gets a little one to do something bad, God will properly punish that person. Suppose somebody will get a big rock and tie it to that person’s neck and throw him into the sea and drown him, that will be bad for him, but not as bad as the trouble God will give him for getting that little one to go wrong.

3 So be careful.” Then Jesus said, “If another Christian does something bad to you, and then they say, ‘I’m sorry, I will not do that again,’ then you have to let it go. Don’t think about any payback.

4 Maybe they do that a lot, like 7 times in one day, and each time they turn around and say they are sorry. If they do that, you have to let it go every time.”

5 The 12 close followers of Jesus said to him, “Show us how to trust you properly.”

6 Jesus said, “You know that plant called mustard? It has very little seeds, but they grow into a big plant. Well, if you really trust me, even if it is just a little bit, you will get stronger and trust me more. Then if you say to that tree, ‘Get up out of the ground and go over there and throw yourself into the sea,’ that tree will do what you tell it to do.”

7 And Jesus said to his followers, “You know about bosses and their workers. Maybe a worker is digging the ground to plant seeds, or maybe he is looking after sheep. When the sun starts to go down the worker comes back to the house of his boss. That boss doesn’t say, ‘Sit down with me and we will have dinner together.’

8 No. The boss says, ‘Get my dinner ready for me. Then put on clean clothes and bring me my dinner. After I finish eating you can get yourself a feed.’

9 That boss never says thank you to his worker. You see, his worker just did what the boss told him to do. He didn’t do anything more.

10 Well, it is the same with you. You are my workers. When you do what I tell you to do, just say to yourselves, ‘We are not special people. We are workers that only did what our boss told us to do.’”

11 After that Jesus kept going along the road to the city called Jerusalem, going from Galilee country into Samaria country.

12 He came to a community, and he started to go into it, but 10 men met him there. They all had a bad skin sickness, so they didn’t come close to Jesus, but they stood a little way from him and shouted to him.

13 They said, “Jesus, Sir, please be sorry for us.”

14 Jesus looked at them and said, “All right. Go to the leaders of our Jewish ceremonies and let them look at you skin.” So they started to go to those ceremony leaders, and while they were walking along they got better. Their skin was good again.

15 One of them looked at his skin and saw that it was good again, so he turned around and came back to Jesus. He shouted, “God is really good and really great.”

16 And he got down on his knees in front of Jesus, to show him respect, and said, “Thank you, Sir.” This man was not a Jew, like Jesus and his followers, but he came from the Samaria tribe.

17 Jesus asked the man, “I made 10 men better, didn’t I? Where are the other 9 men?”

18 Then he said, “None of the Jewish men came back to say thank you to God. Only this man from another country did that.”

19 Then Jesus said to the man, “You can stand up now and go home. You believed in me, so now you are better.”

20 At one time some of the law men called Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will God come and start his family here on the earth, and be the boss of his people?” Jesus said, “You will not see anything different when God starts his family here. People can’t see it happen.

21 Nobody will say, ‘Look, everyone, God is the boss here,’ or, ‘Look over there and you will see that God is the boss there.’ No, it is not like that. You see, God is already getting people into his family right now. His family is right here among you mob.”

22 Then Jesus said to his followers, “The time will come when you will really want to see me, God’s special man from heaven. You will want to see me again, but you will not see me at that time.

23 People will say to you, ‘Look, there he is, over there,’ or they might say, ‘Here he is, over here.’ But don’t take any notice of them. Don’t try to find me.

24 You see, I am God’s special man from heaven, and when I come back I will be like the lightning. You know the way it flashes really bright, and everyone can see it. Well, I will be like that. Everyone will see me.

25 But first, before that happens, the people that are alive today will reckon they don’t want me to be their boss, and they will hurt me a lot.

26 Do you remember the story about the good man called Noah? At that time, long ago, he was making a big boat. The bad people there were living the way they always lived. They ate and drank, and they promised wives to each other, and they got married. They kept on living that way right up till the time Noah and his family went up on to that big boat. Then a big flood of water came and finished all those bad people. You see, people will be the same as that just before I, God’s special man, will come back from heaven.

27 And remember the story about the good man called Lot. He lived in a city called Sodom. A lot of bad people lived there. Those people were living the way they always lived. They ate and drank, and they bought things and sold things, and they planted seeds in their gardens, and they built houses for themselves. They kept on living that way right up till the day that Lot and his family ran out of that city. Then God sent fire and burning rocks down from the sky, and it burned all of those bad people, and finished them.

28 The people will be like that. They will be living the same way as they always live, right up till the day that I come back here to show myself to everybody. I am God’s special man from heaven.

29 On that day, you will have to run away. If you are outside your house, don’t go in and pack up your things to take with you. No. Just run away. If you are out in the bush, don’t go back to your house to get anything. No. Just run away.

30 Think again about that story about Lot and his family. Do you remember what his wife did? While they were running away she stopped and looked back at the city, like she wanted to go back there, and she died right there.

31 You see, it’s like this. If you try to keep on living here on this earth, you will die. But if you follow me and don’t worry about your life here on this earth, you will live in heaven for ever.

32 Listen, I’ll tell you more about the time when I will come back. God will take his people away from the other people. There will be 2 people asleep in one bed. God will take one of them and leave the other one.

33 There will be 2 people working together getting food ready to cook. God will take one of them and leave the other one.”

34 His followers asked Jesus, “Where will all this happen, Sir?” Jesus said, “You know what people say, ‘If you see a lot of crows in one place you know that there is dead body there at that place.’ Well, it will be like that.”