As it is written in the prophet Isaiah: "Here I send my messenger ahead of you; He will prepare your way.

He is a voice of one who shouts in the desert, 'Get the road ready for the Lord; make the paths straight for Him.'"

He kept preaching the following message, "After me there is coming One who is stronger than I am, whose shoes I am not fit to stoop down and untie.

And just as soon as He started to come up out of the water, He saw the heavens split open and the Spirit coming down like a dove to enter Him.

"The time is ripe and the kingdom of God is near; repent and believe in the good news."

As He was walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets in the sea, for they were fishermen.

They went into Capernaum, and as soon as the first Sabbath came, He went into the synagogue and began to teach.

"What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, God's Holy One!"

They were all so dumbfounded that they kept discussing it among themselves, and asking, "What does this mean? It is a new teaching. He gives orders with authority even to foul spirits, and they obey Him."

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went home with Simon and Andrew, in company with James and John.

and found Him, and said to Him, "Everybody is looking for you."

And He said to them, "Let us go somewhere else, to the neighboring towns, to preach in them, too, for that is why I came out here."

And as they could not get him near to Jesus, on account of the crowd, they dug through the roof over the spot where He was standing and let the pallet down that the paralyzed man was lying on.

"Why is He talking this way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say to him, 'Get up, pick up your pallet and start walking!"

And as He was passing by, He saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting in the tax-collector's office, and He said to him, "Follow me." Then he got up and followed Him.

Levi was at table in his house, and he had many tax-collectors and notorious sinners as guests, along with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many of them, and they began to follow Him.

Jesus heard it, and said to them, "Not well but sick people have to send for the doctor. It is not upright but sinful people that I have come to invite."

Jesus answered them, "The wedding guests cannot fast, can they, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

But a time is coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

No one puts new wine into old wine-bottles, or, if he does, the wine will break the bottles, and the wine is lost, and the bottles too. New wine is to be put up in new bottles."

So the Pharisees were saying to Him, "Just look! Why are they doing on the Sabbath what it is against the law to do?"

How is it that he went into the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the sacred loaves, which it is against the law for anyone except the priests to eat, and gave part of them to his soldiers, too?"

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Then He asked them, "Is it right to do people good on the Sabbath, or to do them evil, to save life or to take it?" But they had nothing to say.

and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from the other side of the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon -- yes, a vast throng of people, as they kept hearing of the great things that He was doing, came to Him.

And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem kept saying, "He is under the spell of Beelzebub and by the help of the prince of the demons He drives out the demons."

So He called them to Him, and continued speaking to them in short stories, as follows: "How can Satan drive out Satan?

If a kingdom is disunited, that kingdom cannot last.

And if a household is disunited, that household cannot last.

And if Satan has made an insurrection against himself and become disunited, he cannot last but is surely coming to an end.

But whoever speaks abusively against the Holy Spirit can never get forgiveness, but is guilty of a sin that has no end."

He said so, because they kept saying, "He is under the spell of a foul spirit."

Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

He continued teaching them by many stories. In His teaching He spoke to them as follows:

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

Then He said to them, "To you the secret of the kingdom of God has been entrusted, but to those who are on the outside everything is presented in stories, so that

The message is what the sower sows.

The ones along the path are those who have the message sown in their hearts, but as soon as it is sown there, Satan comes and carries off the message that has been sown in their hearts.

In like manner these are the ones sown on rocky ground; as soon as they hear the truth, they accept it with ecstasy,

Then He put a question to them: "A lamp is not brought to be put under a peck-measure or under a bed, is it? Is it not rather to be put on the lamp-stand?

For nothing is ever hidden by people except for the purpose of having it known, and people do not keep secrets except to tell them.

He also was saying: "The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground,

The ground of itself produces, first the stalk, then the head; at last there is the matured grain of wheat in the head.

But as soon as the crop Will permit it, he puts in the sickle, for the reaping time has come."

It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all seeds,

but when it is properly sown, it comes up and grows to be the largest of all the plants, and produces branches so large that the wild birds can roost under its shade."

With many stories like these He kept on telling them the message, as far as they could understand it.

That same day when it was evening, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other Side."

He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, "Teacher, is it no concern to you that we are going down?"

As soon as He got out of the boat, a man under the power of a foul spirit and from the tombs met Him.

He asked him, "What is your name?" He answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

And they begged Him, "Send us among the hogs, so that we can get into them."

And as He was getting into the boat, the once insane man kept begging Him to let him go with Him.

When Jesus again had crossed in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about Him, as He was standing on the seashore.

and kept earnestly begging Him, saying, "My dear little daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may get well and live."

So the woman, as she knew what had taken place for her, though frightened and trembling, came forward and fell on her knees before His feet, and told Him the whole truth.

Even while He was saying this, people came from the house of the leader of the synagogue and said, "Your daughter is dead; why trouble the Teacher any longer?"

And He went into the house and said to them, "Why do you continue all this confusion and crying? The little girl is not dead but is sleeping."

When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue. And the people were dumbfounded when they heard Him, and said, "Where did He get all these things? What sort of wisdom is it that has been given Him? And such mighty deeds are done by Him!

Is He not the carpenter, Mary's son, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And do not His sisters live here among us?" And so they found a cause for stumbling over him.

And if any place refuses to welcome you or to listen to you, when you leave there shake off the very dust from the soles of your feet as a warning to them."

For John kept saying to Herod, "It is not right for you to be living with your brother's wife."

When it grew late, His disciples came to Him and said, "This is a destitute place and it is already late.

for they all saw Him and were terrified. But He at once spoke to them and said, "Keep up courage! It is I; stop being afraid."

As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized Him

and will never eat until they have carefully washed their hands, and they never eat anything brought from the market until they wash it; and they have many other religious practices which they got from their forefathers, as the washing of cups, pitchers, and pans.

And so the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why is it that your disciples do not practice the customs handed down from our forefathers, but eat their meals without purifying their hands?"

But He answered them, "Isaiah beautifully prophesied about you hypocrites; as the Scripture says: "'This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far, far away from me;

Their worship of me is but an empty show; the things they teach are but men's precepts.'

but you say if a man tells his father or mother, 'Everything I have that may be of use to you is Corban,' that is, consecrated to God,

He kept on saying, "The thing that comes from the inside of a man is the thing that makes him foul,

for from the inside, that is, from the hearts of men, designs for doing evil come, sexual immorality, stealing, murder,

On the contrary, a woman, whose little daughter had a foul spirit, at once heard about Him and came and flung herself at His feet.

But He was saying to her, "Let the children first eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it out to the house dogs."

Then He looked up to heaven and sighed, as He said, "Ephphatha," which means, "Be opened."

Now they had forgotten to bring any bread; that is, they had only one loaf with them in the boat.

And as He noticed it He said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet know nor understand? Are your minds so dull?

He said to them, "How is it that you do not understand?"

But He turned and glanced at His disciples and reproved Peter by saying, "Get out of my way, Satan, for this view of yours is not from God but from men!"

For whoever is ashamed of me and my teaching in this unfaithful, sinful age, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when He comes back in His Father's splendor with the holy angels."

and His clothes were shining as white as white could be, yea, whiter than any earthly bleacher could bleach them.

Then Peter interrupted and said to Jesus, "Teacher, it is good for us to be here. So let us put up three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."

Then a cloud came and was circling over them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my Son, my Beloved; keep on listening to Him!"

And as quick as a flash, on looking around, they saw no one with them but Jesus by Himself.

And they held that caution fast in their minds, as they continued to discuss among themselves what rising from the dead meant.

He answered them, "Elijah does come first and gets everything ready, but how is it that the Scripture says about the Son of Man that He will suffer much and be rejected?

But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and people treated him just as they pleased, as the Scripture says about him."

Wherever it seizes him, it convulses him, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth; and he is wasting away. So I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they could not do it."

And they brought the boy to Him. As soon as the spirit saw Him, it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and kept rolling over and foaming at the mouth.

and many a time it has thrown him into the fire or into the water, to destroy him. But if there is anything you can do for him, do pity us and help us!"

Jesus said to him, "If there is anything I can do! Everything is possible for him who has faith!"

for He was now teaching His disciples, and saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be turned over into men's hands, and they will kill Him, but three days after that He will rise again."

"Whoever, as a disciple of mine, welcomes one little child like this, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not merely me but Him who sent me."

Jesus said, "Do not try to stop him, for there is no one who will use my name to do a mighty deed, and then be able soon to abuse me.

For whoever is not against us is for us.

If your hand makes you do wrong, cut it off. You might better go into life maimed than keep both your hands and go down to the pit, to the fire that is never put out.

where the worm that feeds upon them never dies and the fire is never put out.

Everyone must be seasoned with fire. Salt is a good thing, but if salt loses its strength, how can you season it again?

Then He left there and went through the district of Judea and crossed the Jordan, and crowds of people again met around Him, and again He began to teach them, as His custom was.