They were both upright in the sight of God, blamelessly observing all the Lord's commands and requirements.

And the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John.

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with the holy Spirit from his very birth,

Zechariah said to the angel, "How am I to know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in life."

Now you will keep silent and be unable to speak until the day when this happens, because you have not believed what I have said, for it will all be fulfilled in due time."

"This is what the Lord has done for me," she said, "now that he has deigned to remove the disgrace I have endured."

And the angel went into the town and said to her, "Good morning, favored woman! The Lord be with you!"

But she was startled at what he said, and wondered what this greeting meant.

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have gained God's approval.

Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, when I have no husband?"

And your relative, Elizabeth, although she is old, is going to give birth to a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was said to be barren.

And Mary said, "I am the Lord's slave. Let it be as you say." Then the angel left her.

In those days Mary set out and hurried to the hill-country, to a town in Judah,

and she gave a great cry, and said, "You are the most favored of women, And blessed is your child!

And Mary said, "My heart extols the Lord,

But his mother said, "No! He is to be named John."

They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who bears that name."

and everyone who heard them kept them in mind, and said, "What is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

To shine on men who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, And guide our feet into the way of peace."

The angel said to them, "Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of a great joy that is to be felt by all the people,

When the angels left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Come! Let us go over to Bethlehem, and see this thing that has happened, that the Lord has told us of!"

When they saw this, they told what had been said to them about this child.

but Mary treasured up all they had said, and pondered over it.

Symeon also took him in his arms and blessed God, and said,

Which you have set before all the nations,

The child's father and mother were astonished at what Symeon said.

And he gave them his blessing, and said to Mary, the child's mother, "This child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a portent that will be much debated??35 you yourself will be pierced to the heart??nd so the thoughts of many minds will be revealed."

And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual to the festival and made their customary stay.

When his parents saw him they were amazed, and his mother said to him. "My child, why did you treat us like this? Here your father and I have been looking for you, and have been very anxious."

He said to them, "How did you come to look for me? Did you not know that I must be at my Father's house?"

Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Master, what ought we to do?"

He said to them, "Do not collect any more than you are authorized to."

And soldiers would ask him, "And what ought we to do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money or make false charges against people, but be satisfied with your pay."

John said to them all, "I am only baptizing you in water, but someone is coming who is stronger than I am, whose shoes I am not fit to untie. He will baptize you in the holy Spirit and in fire.

And the devil said to him, "If you are God's son, tell this stone to turn into bread!"

And the devil said to him, "I will give you all this power and their splendor, for it has been turned over to me, and I can give it to anyone I please.

And he took him to Jerusalem, and made him stand on the summit of the Temple, and said to him, "If you are God's son, throw yourself down from here,

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, For he has consecrated me to preach the good news to the poor, He has sent me to announce to the prisoners their release and to the blind the recovery of their sight, To set the down-trodden at liberty,

And he rolled up the roll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed upon him.

And they all spoke well of him and were astonished at the winning words that fell from his lips, and they said, "Is he not Joseph's son?"

He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: 'Doctor, cure yourself! Do the things here in your own country that we hear you did at Capernaum.'

I tell you," said he, "no prophet is welcome in his own country.

Jesus reproved him and said, "Silence! Get out of him!" And the demon threw the man down in the midst of them, and came out of him, without doing him any harm.

And they were all amazed and said to one another, "What is the meaning of this teaching? For he gives orders authoritatively and effectually to the foul spirits, and they come out."

But he said to them, "I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, for that is what I was sent to do."

And he got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds of people from the boat.

When he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, "Push out into deep water, and then put down your nets for a haul."

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' feet and said, "Leave me, Master, for I am a sinful man."

and so were Zebedee's sons, James and John, who were Simon's partners. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid. From now on you are to catch men!"

Then he warned him to tell nobody, "But go," he said, "show yourself to the priest, and in proof of your cure make the offerings for your purification, just as Moses prescribed."

When he saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven!"

But Jesus saw what they were discussing, and said to them, "What are you pondering over in your minds?

But to let you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"??urning to the man who was paralyzed he said to him??"I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!"

They were all seized with astonishment, and praised God, and filled with awe they said, "We have seen something wonderful today!"

After this he went out, and he saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting at the tollhouse, and he said to him, "Follow me!"

And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled about it to his disciples, and said, "Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and irreligious people?"

They said to him, "John's disciples observe frequent fasts and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples eat and drink."

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

And some of the Pharisees said, "Why do you do what it is against the Law to do on the Sabbath?"

And he said to them, "The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath."

But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and stand in front." And he got up and stood there.

Jesus said to them, "I want to ask you, Is it allowable on the Sabbath to do people good or to do them harm? to save life or to destroy it?"

And he looked around at them all and said to the man, "Hold out your hand!" And he did so, and his hand was restored.

Then he fixed his eyes on his disciples, and said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours!

And they went to Jesus and urged him strongly to do it, and said, "He deserves to have you do this for him,

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished at him, and turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such faith as this even in Israel!"

And when the Master saw her, he pitied her, and said to her, "Do not weep."

And he went up and touched the bier, and the bearers stopped. And he said, "Young man, I tell you, wake up!"

And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him back to his mother.

And they were all overcome with awe, and they praised God, and said, "A great prophet has appeared among us!" and "God has not forgotten his people!"

And the men went to him and said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?' "

Just then he cured many of diseases and ailments and evil spirits, and he gave sight to many who were blind.

And he answered them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind are regaining their sight, the lame can walk, the lepers are being cured and the deaf can hear, the dead are being raised and good news is being preached to the poor.

"For when John the Baptist came, he did not eat any bread or drink any wine, and you said, 'He has a demon!'

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were really a prophet, he would know who and what the woman is who is touching him, for she leads a wicked life."

Jesus answered him, and said to him, "Simon, there is something I want to say to you." He said, "Proceed, Master."

Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled most." "You are right," he said.

And turning to the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came to your house; you did not give me any water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair.

And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven!"

But he said to the woman, "It is your faith that has saved you. Go in peace."

When a great throng was gathering and people were coming to him from one town after another, he said in his figurative way,

"A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the path and was trodden on, and the wild birds ate it up.

And some fell on good soil, and grew up and yielded a hundred fold!" As he said this he called out, "Let him who has ears to hear with, listen!"

And he said, "You are permitted to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but they are given to others in the form of figures, so that they may look and yet not see, and hear and yet not understand.

This is what the figure means. The seed is God's message.

But the seed in the good soil means those who listen to the message and keep it in good, true hearts, and yield unfailingly.

It happened one day that he got into a boat with his disciples, and said to them, "Let us cross to the other side of the lake."

So they set sail. As they sailed along, he fell asleep. And a squall of wind came down upon the lake, and they were being swamped and were in peril.

And they went to him and woke him up, and said to him, "Master! Master! We are lost!" Then he awoke and reproved the wind and the rough water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.

And he said to them, "Where is your faith?" But they were frightened and amazed, and said to one another, "Who can he be? For he gives orders even to the winds and the water, and they obey him!"

When he saw Jesus he cried out and threw himself down before him, and said in a loud voice, "What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you not to torture me!"

And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion!" For many demons had gone into him.

The man out of whom the demons had gone begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, and said,

Jesus said, "Who was it who touched me?" And as everyone denied having done so, Peter said, "Master, the people are all around you and they are crowding you."

But Jesus said, "Somebody touched me, for I know that power passed from me."

And he said to her, "My daughter, it is your faith that has cured you. Go in peace."

Even as he spoke someone came from the house of the leader of the synagogue and said, "Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Master any more."

But Jesus heard it and said to him, "Do not be afraid; just have faith, and she will get well."

And they were all wailing and beating their breasts for her. But he said, "Stop wailing! For she is not dead, she is asleep."

He said to them, "Do not take anything for your journey, no staff nor bag nor bread nor money, nor an extra shirt.