"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!"

One day a leper came to Jesus and, falling on his knees, begged him for help. "If only you are willing," he said, "you are able to make me clean."

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man: "Child, your sins are forgiven."

Jesus, at once intuitively aware that they wee debating with themselves in this way, said to them: "Why are you debating in your minds about this?

Which is easier?--to say to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven'? or to say 'Get up, and take up your mat, and walk about'?

Hearing this, Jesus said: "It is not those who are in health that need a doctor, but those who are ill. I did not come to call the religious, but the outcast."

And no man ever puts new wine into old wine-skins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are lost. But new wine is put into fresh skins."

"Look!" the Pharisees said to him, "why are they doing what is not allowed on the Sabbath?"

How he went into the House of God, in the time of Abiathar the High Priest, and ate 'the consecrated bread,' which only the priests are allowed to eat, and gave some to his comrades as well?"

The foul spirits, too, whenever they caught sight of him, flung themselves down before him, and screamed out: "You are the Son of God"!

There was a crowd sitting round Jesus, and some of them said to him: "Look, your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you."

Then he looked around on the people sitting in a circle round him, and said: "Here are my mother and my brothers!

And he said: "To you the hidden truth of the Kingdom of God has been imparted; but to those who are outside it all teaching takes the form of parables, that--

The People meant by the seed that falls along the path are these--where the Message is sown, but, as soon as they have heard it, Satan immediately comes and carries away the Message that has been sown in them.

So, too, those meant by the seed sown on the rocky places are the people who, when they have heard the Message, at once accept it joyfully;

Those meant by the seed sown among the brambles are different; they are the people who hear the Message,

But the people meant by the seed sown on the good ground are those who hear the Message, and welcome it, and yield a return, thirty, sixty, and even a hundred fold."

Jesus was in the stern asleep upon the cushion; and the disciples roused him and cried: "Teacher! is it nothing to you that we are lost?"

"Why are you so timid?" he exclaimed. "Have you no faith yet?"

And he asked him: "What is your name?" "My name," he said, "is Legion, for there are many of us;"

Is not he the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters, too, living here among us?" This proved a hindrance to their believing in him;

Now King Herod heard of Jesus; for his name had become well known. People were saying--"John the Baptizer must have risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are active in him."

But Jesus answered: "It is for you to give them something to eat." "Are we to go and buy twenty pounds' worth of bread," they asked, "to give them to eat?"

When they come from market, they will not eat without first sprinkling themselves; and there are many other customs which they have inherited and hold to, such as the ceremonial washing of cups, and jugs, and copper pans).

His answer was: "It was well said by Isaiah when he prophesied about you hypocrites in the words--'This is a people that honor me with their lips, While their hearts are far removed from me;

There is nothing external to a man, which by going into him can 'defile' him; but the things that come out from a man are the things that defile him."

And, noticing this, Jesus said to them: "Why are you talking about your being short of bread? Do not you yet see or understand? Are your minds still so slow or comprehension?

"But you," he asked, "who do you say that I am?" To this Peter replied: "You are the Christ."

"I tell you," he added, "that some of those who are standing here will not know death till they have seen the Kingdom of God come in power."

"What are you arguing about with them?" Jesus asked.

And the man and his wife shall become one;' so that they are no longer two, but one.

But many who are first now will then be last, and the last will be first."

"Listen!" he said. "We are going up to Jerusalem; and there the Son of Man will be betrayed to the Chief Priests and the Teachers of the Law, and they will condemn him to death, and they will give him up to the Gentiles,

"You do not know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup that I am to drink? or receive the baptism that I am to receive?"

But Jesus called the ten to him, and said: "Those who are regarded as ruling among the Gentiles lord it over them, as you know, and their great men oppress them.

And, if any one says to you 'Why are you doing that?', say 'The Master wants it, and will be sure to send it back here at once.'"

Some of the by-standers said to them: "What are you doing, untying the foal?"

These men came to him and said: "Teacher, we know that you are an honest man, and are not afraid of any one, for you pay no regard to a man's position, but teach the Way of God honestly; are we right in paying taxes to the Emperor, or not?

Should we pay, or should we not pay?" Knowing their hypocrisy, Jesus said to them: "Why are you testing me? Bring me a florin to look at."

And, when they had brought it, he asked: "Whose head and title are these?" "The Emperor's," they said;

When men rise from the dead, there is no marrying or being married; but they are as angels in Heaven.

He is not God of dead men, but of living. You are greatly mistaken."

Seeing that he had answered with discernment, Jesus said to him: "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." After that no one ventured to question him further.

In the course of his teaching, Jesus said: "See that you are on your guard against the Teachers of the Law, who delight to walk about in long robes, and to be greeted in the streets with respect,

They are the men that rob widows of their homes, and make a pretense of saying long prayers. Their sentence will be all the heavier."

As Jesus was walking out of the Temple Courts, one of his disciples said to him: "Teacher, look what fine stones and buildings these are!"

As soon, however, as you see 'the Foul Desecration' standing where he ought not" (the reader must consider what this means) "then those of you who are in Judea must take refuge in the mountains;

And alas for the women that are with child, and for those that are nursing infants in those days!

But see that you are on your guard! I have told you all this beforehand.

The stars will be falling from the heavens,' and 'the forces that are in the heavens will be convulsed.'

Learn the lesson taught by the fig-tree. As soon as its branches are full of sap, and it is bursting into leaf, you know that summer is near.

See that you are on the watch; for you do not know when the time will be.

"Let her alone," said Jesus, as they began to find fault with her, "why are you troubling her? This is a beautiful deed that she has done for me.

"Abba, Father," he said, "all things are possible to thee; take away this cup from me; yet, not what I will, but what thou willest."

Then he came and found the three Apostles asleep. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could not you watch for one hour?

Then the High Priest stood forward, and questioned Jesus. "Have you no answer to make?" he asked. "What is this evidence which these men are giving against you?"

But Jesus remained silent, and made no answer. A second time the High Priest questioned him. "Are you," he asked, "the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

But Peter again denied it. Soon afterwards the bystanders again said to him: "You certainly are one of them; why you are a Galilean!"

But he began to swear with the most solemn imprecations: "I do not know the man you are speaking about."

"Are you the King of the Jews?" asked Pilate. "It is true," replied Jesus.

Upon which Pilate questioned Jesus again. "Have you no reply to make?" he asked. "Listen, how many charges they are bringing against you."

"Do not be dismayed; you are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified; he has risen, he is not here! Look! Here is the place where they laid him.