As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See! I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.

He is a voice calling out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight!'"

Now John was dressed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. He ate grasshoppers and wild honey.

I baptized you with water, but it is he who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens split open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

At once the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.

Then they went to Capernaum. As soon as it was the Sabbaths, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

The people were utterly amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them like one with authority, and not like their scribes.

"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God!"

But Jesus rebuked him. "Be quiet," he ordered, "and come out of him!"

At this, the unclean spirit shook the man, cried out with a loud voice, and came out of him.

All the people were so stunned that they kept saying to each other, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He tells even the unclean spirits what to do, and they obey him!"

At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

In fact, the whole city gathered at the door.

He healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. However, he wouldn't allow the demons to speak because they knew who he was.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went to a deserted place and prayed there.

So he went throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and told him, "I do want to. Be made clean!"

Then Jesus sternly warned him and encouraged him to go at once.

He told the man, "Be sure that you don't tell anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and then offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as proof to the authorities."

But when the man left, he began to proclaim it freely. He spread the news so widely that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but had to stay out in deserted places. Still, people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Several days later, Jesus returned to Capernaum and it was reported that he was at home.

Since they couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof over the place where he was. They dug through it and let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.

At once, Jesus knew in his spirit what they were saying to themselves. "Why are you arguing about such things among yourselves?" he asked them.

So the man got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of all of them. As a result, all of the people were amazed and began to glorify God as they kept on saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd kept coming to him, and he kept teaching them.

As he was walking along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector's desk. Jesus told him, "Follow me!" So Levi got up and followed him.

Later, he was having dinner at Levi's house. Many tax collectors and sinners were also eating with Jesus and his disciples, because there were many who were following him.

When the scribes and the Pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, "Why does he eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

"No one patches an old garment with a piece of unshrunk cloth. If he does, the patch pulls away from it the new from the old and a worse tear is made.

The Pharisees asked him, "Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful on Sabbath days?"

He asked them, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

How was it that he went into the House of God during the lifetime of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat, and gave some of it to his companions?"

Then he asked them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on Sabbath days, to save a life or to destroy it?" But they remained silent.

Jesus looked around at them in anger, deeply hurt because of their hard hearts. Then he told the man, "Hold out your hand." The man held it out, and his hand was restored to health.

Immediately the Pharisees and Herodians went out and began to plot how to kill him.

He appointed the Twelve, whom he called apostles, to accompany him, to be sent out to preach,

and to have the authority to drive out demons.

Then he went home. Such a large crowd gathered again that Jesus and his disciples couldn't even eat.

When his family heard about it, they went to restrain him, because they kept saying, "He's out of his mind!"

The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem kept repeating, "He has Beelzebul," and, "He drives out demons by the ruler of demons."

So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables. "How can Satan drive out Satan?

Then looking at the people sitting around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!

Then Jesus began to teach again beside the sea. Such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while the entire crowd remained beside the sea on the shore.

"Listen! A farmer went out to sow.

As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, and birds came and ate them up.

Others fell on stony ground, where they didn't have a lot of soil. They sprouted at once, because the soil wasn't deep.

Others fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes came up and choked them out, and they didn't produce anything.

But others fell on good soil and produced a crop. They grew up, increased in size, and produced 30, 60, or 100 times what was sown."

Some people are like the seeds along the path, where the word is sown. When they hear it, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

Others are like the seeds sown on the stony ground. When they hear the word, at once they joyfully accept it,

but the worries of life, the deceitful pleasures of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word so that it can't produce a crop.

Others are like the seeds sown on good soil. They hear the word, accept it, and produce crops 30, 60, or 100 times what was sown."

Then Jesus told them, "A lamp isn't brought indoors to be put under a basket or under a bed, is it? It's to be put on a lamp stand, isn't it?

Nothing is hidden except for the purpose of having it revealed, and nothing is secret except for the purpose of having it come to light.

He went on to say to them, "Pay attention to what you're hearing! You will be evaluated by the same standard with which you do your evaluating, and still more will be given to you,

because whoever has something, will have more given to him. But whoever has nothing, even what he has will be taken away."

He was also saying, "How can we show what the kingdom of God is like, or what parable can we use to describe it?

It's like a mustard seed planted in the ground. Although it's the smallest of all the seeds on earth,

when it's planted it comes up and becomes larger than all the garden plants. It grows such large branches that the birds in the sky can nest in its shade."

He asked them, "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith yet?"

They arrived at the other side of the sea in the territory of the Gerasenes.

Just as Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met him.

screaming in a loud voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you in the name of God never to torment me!"

Jesus had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"

Then Jesus asked him, "What's your name?"

He told him, "My name is Legion, because there are many of us." He kept pleading with Jesus not to send them out of that region.

So he let them do this. The unclean spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the herd of about 2,000 rushed down a steep slope into the sea and drowned there.

Now when those who had been taking care of the pigs ran away, they reported what had happened in the city and countryside. So the people went to see what had happened.

The people who had seen it told them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs.

Then a synagogue leader named Jairus arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet

Although she had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all of her money, she had not been helped at all, but rather grew worse.

Her bleeding stopped at once, and she felt in her body that she was healed from her illness.

Immediately Jesus became aware that power had gone out of him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

His disciples asked him, "You see the crowd jostling you, and yet you ask, "Who touched me?'"

But he kept looking around to look at the woman who had done this.

So the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came forward fearfully, fell down trembling in front of him, and told him the whole truth.

But when Jesus heard what they said, he told the synagogue leader, "Stop being afraid! Just keep on believing."

They laughed and laughed at him. But when he had driven all of them outside, he took the child's father and mother, along with the men who were with him, and went into the room where the child was.

The young lady got up at once and started to walk. She was twelve years old. Instantly they were overcome with astonishment.

But Jesus strictly ordered them not to let anyone know about this. He also told them to give her something to eat.

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were utterly amazed. "Where did this man get all these things?" they asked. "What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What great miracles are being done by his hands!

This is the builder, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, isn't it? His sisters are here with us, aren't they?" And they were offended by him.

He was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went around to the villages and continued teaching.

He called the Twelve and began to send them out two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits.

They also kept driving out many demons and anointing with oil many who were sick, and healing them.

But when Herod heard about it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised,"

John had been telling Herod, "It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."

So Herodias bore a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she couldn't do it

because Herod was afraid of John. He knew that John was a righteous and holy man, and so he protected him. Whenever he listened to John, he did much of what he said. In fact, he liked listening to him.

When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. So the king told the girl, "Ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you."

So she went out and asked her mother, "What should I ask for?" Her mother replied, "The head of John the Baptist."

The king was deeply saddened, yet because of his oaths and his guests he was reluctant to refuse her.

Then he brought John's head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

When John's disciples heard about this, they came and carried off his body and laid it in a tomb.

He told them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while," because so many people were coming and going that they didn't even have time to eat.

When he got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

When it was quite late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and it's already late.

Send the crowds away so that they can go to the neighboring farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat."

But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They asked him, "Should we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?"