He spent forty days in this desert where He was put to the test by Satan. He was with wild animals, and angels ministered to His needs [while there].

Jerusalem, Idumaea, the east side of the Jordan River, and from around Tyre and Sidon [i.e., cities on the northwest coast of Palestine] came to Him, having heard about the great things [i.e., miracles] He had been performing.

And He called them to Him and began speaking to them in parables [i.e., brief stories to illustrate His teaching], saying, "How can Satan drive out Satan?

And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided [i.e., in aim and purpose] he cannot survive, and his end has come.

Some of the seed that fell along the roadside represents where 'the word' was sown [i.e., preached]. When these people have heard, immediately Satan comes and takes away 'the word' which had been sown in them.

And from there Jesus got up and went away into the region of Tyre and Sidon. He entered a house but did not want anyone to know it. However, He could not keep it secret.

Again He left the region of Tyre and traveled [north] through Sidon, [then back south] to Lake Galilee, and through the middle of Decapolis.

But He turned around, and looking at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying to him, "Get away from me, Satan; for you are not thinking about God's things but about men's."

And immediately, upon seeing Jesus, the entire crowd ran to greet Him in great amazement [i.e., possibly over His sudden appearance].

And whoever causes one of these little ones [i.e., humble followers of the Lord. See Matt. 18:6] who believes in me to be led astray [from God], he would have been better off to have had a huge millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the ocean [Note: This was a heavy, circular stone rolled over grain to crush it, and moved by an animal walking in a circle].

For the Son of man did not come to be served [by others] but to be the servant [of others], and to sacrifice His life as a ransom price for many people [i.e., to purchase them back from Satan]."

Have you never read this Scripture [Psa. 118:22-23], 'The building block rejected by the builders is the same [one] that was made the principal stone by which the entire building was aligned.

And Jesus responded to him, "Do you see these huge buildings? There will not be one stone left on another here that will not be thrown down."

And while Jesus was in Bethany [Note: This was a small village fewer than two miles east of Jerusalem], sitting at the dinner table in the house of Simon, the man with an infectious skin disease [Note: This man had probably been healed by now], a woman with an alabaster [i.e., stone] jar of very expensive perfume came to Him, broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head.

[Joseph then] brought a linen cloth, and after taking Jesus down from the cross, wrapped the linen cloth around His body and placed it in a grave site that had been cut out of [a ledge of] rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the cave.

They were questioning among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the cave for us?"

And when they looked up, they saw that the stone had [already been] rolled away, and it was very large.