“‘An enemy did this!’ he told them.

“‘So, do you want us to go and gather them up?’ the slaves asked him.

Then He dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached Him and said, “Explain the parable of the weeds in the field to us.”

“Have you understood all these things?”

“Yes,” they told Him.

He went to His hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him?

And they were offended by Him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household.”

“This is John the Baptist!” he told his servants. “He has been raised from the dead, and that’s why supernatural powers are at work in him.”

For Herod had arrested John, chained him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,

since John had been telling him, “It’s not lawful for you to have her!”

Though he wanted to kill him, he feared the crowd, since they regarded him as a prophet.

When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed Him on foot from the towns.

When evening came, the disciples approached Him and said, “This place is a wilderness, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

“But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him.

Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds.

When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.

“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Then those in the boat worshiped Him and said, “Truly You are the Son of God!”

When the men of that place recognized Him, they alerted the whole vicinity and brought to Him all who were sick.

They were begging Him that they might only touch the tassel on His robe. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.

Then the disciples came up and told Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard this statement?”

Then Peter replied to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

Yet He did not say a word to her. So His disciples approached Him and urged Him, “Send her away because she cries out after us.”

But she came, knelt before Him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

and large crowds came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at His feet, and He healed them.

The disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to fill such a crowd?”

The Pharisees and Sadducees approached, and as a test, asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.

Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to You!”

Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said:

This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him.
Listen to Him!

When they looked up they saw no one except Him—Jesus alone.

So the disciples questioned Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

“But I tell you: Elijah has already come, and they didn’t recognize him. On the contrary, they did whatever they pleased to him. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”

When they reached the crowd, a man approached and knelt down before Him.

I brought him to Your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”

Jesus replied, “You unbelieving and rebellious generation! How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”

Then Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and from that moment the boy was healed.

They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.” And they were deeply distressed.

“Yes,” he said.

When he went into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, “What do you think, Simon? Who do earthly kings collect tariffs or taxes from? From their sons or from strangers?”

“From strangers,” he said.

“Then the sons are free,” Jesus told him.

Then He called a child to Him and had him stand among them.

“But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!

“If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.

If he pays no attention to them, tell the church. But if he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

“I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, “but 70 times seven.

When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him.

“At this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’

Then the master of that slave had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.

“But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’

“At this, his fellow slave fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’

But he wasn’t willing. On the contrary, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed.

“Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.

And his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed.

Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

Some Pharisees approached Him to test Him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”

“Why then,” they asked Him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?”

His disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry!”

Then children were brought to Him so He might put His hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them.

Just then someone came up and asked Him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”

“Why do you ask Me about what is good?” He said to him. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” he asked Him. Jesus answered:

Do not murder;
do not commit adultery;
do not steal;
do not bear false witness;

“I have kept all these,” the young man told Him. “What do I still lack?”

“If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

Then Peter responded to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You. So what will there be for us?”

“‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him.

“‘You also go to my vineyard,’ he told them.

“Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death.

Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified, and He will be resurrected on the third day.”

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons approached Him with her sons. She knelt down to ask Him for something.

“What do you want?” He asked her.

“Promise,” she said to Him, “that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right and the other on Your left, in Your kingdom.”

But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”

“We are able,” they said to Him.

As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

“Lord,” they said to Him, “open our eyes!”

Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they could see, and they followed Him.

Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting:

Hosanna to the Son of David!
He who comes in the name
of the Lord is the blessed One!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple complex, and He healed them.

and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” Jesus told them. “Have you never read:

You have prepared praise
from the mouths of children and nursing infants?”

When He entered the temple complex, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to Him as He was teaching and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority?”

Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from men?”

They began to argue among themselves, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him, but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.

“But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’

So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

“He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told Him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at the harvest.”

[Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whoever it falls, it will grind him to powder!]”

Although they were looking for a way to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, because they regarded Him as a prophet.

So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap Him by what He said.

They sent their disciples to Him, with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are truthful and teach truthfully the way of God. You defer to no one, for You don’t show partiality.

Show Me the coin used for the tax.” So they brought Him a denarius.

“Caesar’s,” they said to Him.

Then He said to them, “Therefore give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.

The same day some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up to Him and questioned Him:

And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test Him:

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?”

“David’s,” they told Him.

He asked them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord’:

“If David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how then can the Messiah be his Son?”

No one was able to answer Him at all, and from that day no one dared to question Him anymore.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as fit for hell as you are!

The one who takes an oath by the sanctuary takes an oath by it and by Him who dwells in it.