This Bible reading plan takes you through most of the Holy Scriptures each weekday of the year. Each day has three Bible readings:
You're welcome to read one, two, or all three of the readings every weekday. And if you fall behind, don't worry! You can either use the weekends to catch up or you can simply dive in to the reading for that day, even if you've missed a few days, weeks, or even months!
You can download a foldable bookmark here: 2026
20:1 One day, as Jesus1 was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
9 And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant2 to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” 17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?3
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality,4 but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius.5 Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.
27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man6 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons7 of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
43 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
[1] 20:1
[2] 20:10
[3] 20:17
[4] 20:21
[5] 20:24
[6] 20:28
[7] 20:36
(ESV)
One of my favorite scenes from James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic takes place shortly after the massive luxury liner hits an iceberg late on a Sunday night. After sounding the ship with her designer, Thomas Andrews, Captain E.J. Smith summons his officers to the bridge to announce the unthinkable: the Titanic is in grave peril. Andrews explains that the hull of the Titanic is divided into a series of sixteen compartments using fifteen transverse bulkheads, four of which can be flooded and the ship will remain safely afloat. However, the Titanic's collision with the iceberg has flooded the first five compartments. As a result, as the ship's hull is pulled down by the flooded compartments, the water from the first five compartments will spill over into the compartments farther aft until the whole ship will flood and sink. "Titanic will founder," Thomas Andrews somberly declares. "It is a mathematical certainty." In slack jawed disbelief, the chairman of the shipping company which built the Titanic, Bruce Ismay, responds to Andrews, "But this ship can't sink!" But Andrews knows better. He rebuts, "She's made of iron. I assure you, she can."
In our reading for today from Luke 20, Jesus tells a parable about a man who plants a vineyard and entrusts it to some tenants. While he is away, he sends some people to check on his vineyard, but the tenants respond to each of the master's envoys with increasing levels of violence. They beat the first two envoys and wound the third. The master finally decides that he will send his son to attend to his vineyard. "They will respect him," the master says (verse 13). But alas, they do not. Instead, they brutally murder him.
The meaning of this parable was all too apparent to Jesus' listeners. A vineyard is a common symbol for Israel in the Old Testament: "The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:7). The tenants, then, are the people of Israel and the envoys are the Old Testament prophets. The master's son? Well, that's Jesus. Jesus will die.
The people, understanding Jesus' parable, respond in slack jawed disbelief: "May this never be" (verse 16)! Like Bruce Ismay on the foundering Titanic, they can't believe their ears. "This can't happen!" they respond incredulously. But Jesus rebuts, "I assure you, it can." Jesus says, "What is the meaning of that which is written: 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone'" (verse 17)? Jesus, to explain the inevitability of his death, quotes Psalm 118:22 and says that he is the stone rejected by his own people. And if it's foretold in Scripture, it can happen. Indeed, it will happen. It is a prophetic certainty.
People often ask me why God doesn't reveal more of his plan for our lives. They want to know why they have had to endure a certain tragedy or what road they should take in their lives or when they should pursue a certain dream. So they cry out to God, asking for some unmistakable word or sign, but then become disillusioned and angry when a clear word is not heard or a clear sign is not seen. I sometimes wonder if the reason God does not always give us the words and signs we so desperately seek is because, even if he did, we wouldn't believe him anyway. Like the crowd who responds to Jesus' parable with words of disbelief - "May this never be!" - I sometimes wonder if we too wouldn't respond to a revelation from Jesus: "But this can't be right!"
In the end, we are called to trust in whatever is revealed to us in God's plan - whether that revelation be the death of his Son Jesus or a more incidental revelation like a certain path we should take in our lives. We are to never respond, "May this never be!" For when God declares it, it is a divine certainty. We are simply called to believe and respond, "May it always be."
15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick1 and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. 18 And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 19 say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah,2 and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings3 in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
24 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 25 They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land4 and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
38:1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech5 and Tubal, and prophesy against him 3 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech6 and Tubal. 4 And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. 5 Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes—many peoples are with you.
7 “Be ready and keep ready, you and all your hosts that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. 8 After many days you will be mustered. In the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them. 9 You will advance, coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.
[1] 37:16
[2] 37:19
[3] 37:23
[4] 37:26
[5] 38:2
[6] 38:3
(ESV)
God understands our need for multiple ways of communicating His promises to us. This is why He gave us both Word and Sacrament. In a similar way, God continued to communicate through His prophet in various ways, so that His people could understand and believe what God was going to do for them. God told Ezekiel to write the names Judah and Joseph on two sticks, and then to hold the two sticks in his hand so that they would appear to be joined at the ends, and become one stick. This was a sign that God would gather His people from the lands to which they had been exiled, and bring them back to Israel as one people and one nation. God promised to save them from their backsliding and cleanse them from everything that defiled them. Then they would truly be His people and He would be their God. God also promised to place over them one shepherd, the Messiah, the Son of David, who would reign over them forever. The covenant of peace that He would establish between God and men would be an eternal covenant, and God would dwell with His people in His sanctuary forevermore. This again depicted the coming of the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, and the establishment of His Church. Enemies would continue to rise up against the people of God, however, as they had in the past. God portrayed these future enemies as Gog of Magog from the distant north of Meshech and Tubal, along with many allies. These were not to be identified with any specific past or future nations in history, but as images representing all the enemies of God and His people. Gog and Magog are also mentioned as enemies of God's people in Revelation 20:8. Note, however, that God can turn these enemies in circles, using hooks in their jaws, and is completely in control of them, and the entire situation. This gave God's people great assurance that no matter how many enemies would come against them, or even if they advanced "like a storm," God's people needed to have no fear!
139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
(ESV)