He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find Him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship Him.”

After they were gone, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy Him.”

For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said:

A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way for the Lord;
make His paths straight!

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the place of his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

He will give His angels orders concerning you,
and they will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”

And he said to Him, “I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.”

When He saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.

“You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery.

“It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.

“You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

“Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward!

Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, “I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith!

When Jesus saw large crowds around Him, He gave the order to go to the other side of the sea.

A scribe approached Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go!”

“Lord,” another of His disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.”

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, you of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.

When He had come to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met Him as they came out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.

At this, some of the scribes said among themselves, “He’s blaspheming!”

But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts?

As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So he got up and followed Him.

But when He heard this, He said, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do.

Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

for she said to herself, “If I can just touch His robe, I’ll be made well!”

But Jesus turned and saw her. “Have courage, daughter,” He said. “Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment.

“Leave,” He said, “because the girl isn’t dead, but sleeping.” And they started laughing at Him.

When He entered the house, the blind men approached Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?”

“Yes, Lord,” they answered Him.

But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons!”

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.

“When you enter any town or village, find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave.

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants.

But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”

He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry—

But He said to them, “What man among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out?

And all the crowds were astounded and said, “Perhaps this is the Son of David!”

When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “The man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!

Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the shore.

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

The landowner’s slaves came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

“‘No,’ he said. ‘When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them.

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

Then He dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached Him and said, “Explain the parable of the weeds in the field to us.”

He replied: “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;

the field is the world; and the good seed—these are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones.

“Therefore,” He said to them, “every student of Scripture instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who brings out of his storeroom what is new and what is old.”

He went to His hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him?

And they were offended by Him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household.”

When evening came, the disciples approached Him and said, “This place is a wilderness, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

“But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him.

“Bring them here to Me,” He said.

Then He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds.

When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.

“Come!” He said.

And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Then those in the boat worshiped Him and said, “Truly You are the Son of God!”

For God said:

Honor your father and your mother; and,
The one who speaks evil of father or mother
must be put to death.

Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:

But she came, knelt before Him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table!”

Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there,

Now Jesus summoned His disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry; otherwise they might collapse on the way.”

The disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to fill such a crowd?”

“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them.

“Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”

After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground,

Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith! Why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread?

And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here! If You want, I will make three tabernacles here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said:

This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him.
Listen to Him!

Then Jesus came up, touched them, and said, “Get up; don’t be afraid.”

“Lord,” he said, “have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers severely. He often falls into the fire and often into the water.

Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

“Because of your little faith,” He told them. “For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the double-drachma tax approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your Teacher pay the double-drachma tax?”

“Yes,” he said.

When he went into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, “What do you think, Simon? Who do earthly kings collect tariffs or taxes from? From their sons or from strangers?”

“From strangers,” he said.

“Then the sons are free,” Jesus told him.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

“I assure you,” He said, “unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

“I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, “but 70 times seven.

“At this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’

“But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’

“Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.

and He also said:

“For this reason a man will leave
his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh?

His disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry!”

Then Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this.”

“Why do you ask Me about what is good?” He said to him. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

“If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “I assure you: It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven!

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jesus said to them, “I assure you: In the Messianic Age, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

To those men he said, ‘You also go to my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went.

Then about five he went and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?’