And blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled."

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

Demons also came out of many, crying out, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

The experts in the law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a reason to accuse him.

But they were filled with mindless rage and began debating with one another what they would do to Jesus.

Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner."

For Jesus had started commanding the evil spirit to come out of the man. (For it had seized him many times, so he would be bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard. But he would break the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places.)

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it!

"Which one of you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go look for the one that is lost until he finds it?

It would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

So the Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, 'Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, 'Come at once and sit down for a meal'?

The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!'

When harvest time came, he sent a slave to the tenants so that they would give him his portion of the crop. However, the tenants beat his slave and sent him away empty-handed.

So they began to question one another as to which of them it could possibly be who would do this.

But Jesus said to him, "Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come out to get him, "Have you come out with swords and clubs like you would against an outlaw?

and said to them, "Thus it stands written that the Christ would suffer and would rise from the dead on the third day,

and repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.