Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise (the Messiah) from on high will dawn and visit us,

Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover Feast.

and as they were returning [to Nazareth], after spending the required number of days [at the Feast], the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. Now His parents did not know this,

Jesus said to them, “Can you make the wedding guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?

But days [for mourning] will come when the bridegroom is [forcefully] taken away from them. They will fast in those days.”

Then Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a vast multitude of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon,

But as for that seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word with a good and noble heart, and hold on to it tightly, and bear fruit with patience.

Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them out ahead of Him, two by two, into every city and place where He was about to go.

Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and knocks they may immediately open the door for him.

And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and they will sit down [and feast at the table] in the kingdom of God.

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down [to eat] at the place of honor, since a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by the host,

And bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let us [invite everyone and] feast and celebrate;

for this son of mine was [as good as] dead and is alive again; he was lost and has been found.’ So they began to celebrate.

But he said to his father, ‘Look! These many years I have served you, and I have never neglected or disobeyed your command. Yet you have never given me [so much as] a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;

But it was fitting to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was [as good as] dead and has begun to live. He was lost and has been found.’”

I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

[Now he was obligated to release to them one prisoner at the Feast.]