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

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

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.

While Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the sea because they were fishermen.

So immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat repairing their nets.

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!"

Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed, sick with a fever, so they promptly told Jesus about her.

When they found him, they told him, "Everyone's looking for you."

"Let's go to the neighboring town," he replied, "so I can preach there, too, because that's why I came."

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

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.

When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

"Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven,' or "Get up, pick up your mat, and walk'?

"I say to you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!"

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?"

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees would fast regularly. Some people came and asked Jesus, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples fast, but your disciples don't fast?"

The people watched Jesus closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, intending to accuse him of doing something wrong.

So Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. A large crowd from Galilee, Judea,

Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him so that the crowd wouldn't crush him,

because he had healed so many people that everyone who had diseases kept crowding up against him in order to touch him.

Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and scream, "You are the Son of God!"

Zebedee's sons James and his brother John (whom he named Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder),

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

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

So if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. Indeed, his end has come.

No one can go into a strong man's house and carry off his possessions without first tying up the strong man. Then he can ransack his house.

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.

so that "they may see clearly but not perceive, and they may hear clearly but not understand, otherwise they might turn around and be forgiven.'"

Then he told them, "You don't understand this parable, so how can you understand any of the parables?

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.

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?

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,

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."

That day, when evening had come, he told them, "Let's cross to the other side."

So they left the crowd and took him away in a boat without making any special preparations. Other boats were with him.

A violent windstorm came up, and the waves began breaking into the boat, so that the boat was rapidly becoming swamped.

But Jesus was in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. So they woke him up and asked him, "Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die?"

Then he got up, rebuked the wind, and told the sea, "Calm down! Be still!" Then the wind stopped blowing, and there was a great calm.

Overcome with fear, they kept saying to one another, "Who is this man? Even the wind and the sea obey him!"

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

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell down in front of him,

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

So the demons begged him, "Send us among the pigs, so that we can go into them!"

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.

When they came to Jesus and saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there dressed and in his right mind, they were frightened.

So they began to beg Jesus to leave their territory.

So the man left and began proclaiming in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone was utterly amazed.

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

and begged him urgently, saying, "My little daughter is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live."

So Jesus went with him. A huge crowd kept following him and jostling him.

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?'"

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.

While he was still speaking, some people came from the synagogue leader's home and said, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher anymore?"

When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw mass confusion. People were crying and sobbing loudly.

He entered the house and asked them, "Why all this confusion and crying? The child isn't dead. She's sleeping."

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.

So they went and preached that people should repent.

King Herod heard about this, because Jesus' name had become well-known. He was saying, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead! That's why he is able to do these miracles."

because Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him with chains, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom Herod had married.

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.

An opportunity came during Herod's birthday celebration, when he gave a banquet for his top officials, military officers, and the most important people of Galilee.

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."

So without delay the king sent a soldier and ordered him to bring John's head. The soldier went and beheaded him in prison.

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.

So they went away in a boat to a deserted place by themselves.

But when many people saw them leave and recognized them, they hurried on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

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."

He asked them, "How many loaves of bread do you have? Go and see." They found out and told him, "Five loaves and two fish."

So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.

When evening had come, the boat was in the middle of the sea, while he was alone on the land.

He saw that his disciples were straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he came to them, walking on the sea. He intended to go up right beside them,

but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and began to scream.

All of them saw him and were terrified. Immediately he told them, "Have courage! It's me. Stop being afraid!"

So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with unclean hands."

But you say, "If anyone tells his father or mother, "Whatever support you might have received from me is Corban,"' (that is, an offering to God)

Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It's what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean.

He asked them, "Are you so ignorant? Don't you know that nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean?

Then he continued, "It's what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean,

because it's from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder,

But he kept telling her, "First let the children be filled. It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the puppies."

But she answered him, "Yes, Lord. Yet even the puppies under the table eat some of the children's crumbs."

So she went home and found her child lying in bed, and the demon was gone.

Then Jesus left the territory of Tyre and passed through Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the territory of the Decapolis.

Jesus took him away from the crowd to be alone with him. Putting his fingers into the man's ears, he touched the man's tongue with saliva.