FIRST READING: Isaiah 38: 1 - 6, 21 - 22, 7 - 8
1 In those days Hezeki'ah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover."
2 Then Hezeki'ah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD,
3 and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight." And Hezeki'ah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
5 "Go and say to Hezeki'ah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city.
21 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it to the boil, that he may recover."
22 Hezeki'ah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"
7 "This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:
8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.
PSALM: Isaiah 38: 10 - 12, 16
10 I said, In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.
11 I said, I shall not see the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look upon man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night thou dost bring me to an end;
16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh, restore me to health and make me live!
GOSPEL: Matthew 12: 1 - 8
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath."
3 He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him:
4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
5 Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless?
6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
7 And if you had known what this means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath."
