Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing. Be clean!"

The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean.

He told him, "See that you do not say anything to anyone, but go, show yourself to a priest, and bring the offering that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."

But as the man went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still they kept coming to him from everywhere.

Some people came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.

When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Jesus. Then, after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on.

Jesus went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them.

As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. "Follow me," he said to him. And he got up and followed him.

As Jesus was having a meal in Levi's home, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

So the Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?"

They watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him.

So the Pharisees went out immediately and began plotting with the Herodians, as to how they could assassinate him.

Then Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him. And from Judea,

Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan River, and around Tyre and Sidon a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done.

Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him so the crowd would not press toward him.

For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him.

And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God."

But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

Now Jesus went up the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him.

He appointed twelve (whom he named apostles), so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach

and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

When his family heard this they went out to restrain him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

Then Jesus' mother and his brothers came. Standing outside, they sent word to him, to summon him.

A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you."

And looking at those who were sitting around him in a circle, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!

Again he began to teach by the lake. Such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there while the whole crowd was on the shore by the lake.

When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

For whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him.

But he was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care that we are about to die?"

They were overwhelmed by fear and said to one another, "Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him!"

Just as Jesus was getting out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came from the tombs and met him.

He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.

For his hands and feet had often been bound with chains and shackles, but he had torn the chains apart and broken the shackles in pieces. No one was strong enough to subdue him.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him.

(For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of that man, you unclean spirit!")

Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

And the demonic spirits begged him, "Send us into the pigs. Let us enter them."

As he was getting into the boat the man who had been demon-possessed asked if he could go with him.

But Jesus did not permit him to do so. Instead, he said to him, "Go to your home and to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you, that he had mercy on you."

So he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him, and all were amazed.

When Jesus had crossed again in a boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the sea.

He asked him urgently, "My little daughter is near death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be healed and live."

Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed and pressed around him.

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,

Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"

His disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing against you and you say, 'Who touched me?'"

Then the woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

And they began making fun of him. But he put them all outside and he took the child's father and mother and his own companions and went into the room where the child was.

Now Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did he get these ideas? And what is this wisdom that has been given to him? What are these miracles that are done through his hands?

Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren't his sisters here with us?" And so they took offense at him.

Now King Herod heard this, for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, "John the baptizer has been raised from the dead, and because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him."

For Herod himself had sent men, arrested John, and bound him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her.

So Herodias nursed a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not

because Herod stood in awe of John and protected him, since he knew that John was a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard him, he was thoroughly baffled, and yet he liked to listen to John.

Then the apostles gathered around Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught.

When it was already late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is an isolated place and it is already very late.

When they saw him walking on the water they thought he was a ghost. They cried out,

for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them: "Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid."

And wherever he would go -- into villages, towns, or countryside -- they would place the sick in the marketplaces, and would ask him if they could just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Now the Pharisees and some of the experts in the law who came from Jerusalem gathered around him.

The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?"

then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother.

There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him."

Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.

He said to them, "Are you so foolish? Don't you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?

He said, "What comes out of a person defiles him.

Instead, a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him and came and fell at his feet.

The woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician origin. She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him.

After Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man's ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.

His disciples answered him, "Where can someone get enough bread in this desolate place to satisfy these people?"

Then the Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, asking for a sign from heaven to test him.

Then they came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to Jesus and asked him to touch him.

He took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then he spit on his eyes, placed his hands on his eyes and asked, "Do you see anything?"

Jesus sent him home, saying, "Do not even go into the village."

He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ."

Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He spoke openly about this. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

For if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Six days later Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them alone up a high mountain privately. And he was transfigured before them,

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, "This is my one dear Son. Listen to him!"

Then they asked him, "Why do the experts in the law say that Elijah must come first?"

But I tell you that Elijah has certainly come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it is written about him."

When the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran at once and greeted him.

A member of the crowd said to him, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that makes him mute.

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they were not able to do so."

He answered them, "You unbelieving generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I endure you? Bring him to me."

So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood.

It has often thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you are able to do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

Then Jesus said to him, "'If you are able?' All things are possible for the one who believes."

Now when Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "Mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."

It shrieked, threw him into terrible convulsions, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He is dead!"

But Jesus gently took his hand and raised him to his feet, and he stood up.

Then, after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we cast it out?"

for he was teaching his disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."

But they did not understand this statement and were afraid to ask him.