And he left everything and got up and followed him.

He used this figure also in speaking to them: "No one tears a piece from a new coat and sews it on an old one, or if he does, he will both tear the new one and the piece from the new one will not match the old one.

How he went into the house of God and took the Presentation Loaves, which it was against the Law for anyone but the priests to eat, and ate them with his companions?"

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?"

It was in those days that he went up on the mountain to pray, and passed the whole night in prayer to God.

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

To the man that strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from the man who takes away your coat, do not keep back your shirt either.

And if you lend only to people from whom you expect to get something, what merit is there in that? Even godless people lend to godless people, meaning to get it back again in full.

Give, and they will give to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will pour into your lap. For the measure you use with others they in turn will use with you."

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, just let me get that speck out of your eye,' when you cannot see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First get the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see to get out the speck in your brother's eye.

A good man, out of the good he has accumulated in his heart, produces good, and a bad man, out of what he has accumulated that is bad, produces what is bad. For his mouth says only what his heart is full of.

As he came up to the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out; he was his mother's only son, and she was a widow. A crowd of the townspeople was with her.

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 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.

"I tell you, among men born of women there is none greater than John; and yet those who are of little importance in the Kingdom of God are greater than he.

And all the people, even the tax-collectors, when they heard him, acknowledged the justice of God's demands, by accepting baptism from John,

but the Pharisees and experts in the Law thwarted God's purpose for themselves, by refusing to be baptized by him.

Now there was a woman in the town who was leading a sinful life, and when she learned that he was having dinner at the Pharisee's house, she got an alabaster flask of perfume,

Soon afterward he went about among the villages and towns preaching and telling the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve went with him,

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.

His mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him, on account of the crowd.

He answered, "My mother and my brothers are those who listen to God's message and obey it!"

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."

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!"

For he was commanding the foul spirit to get out of the man. For it had often seized him, and though he had been fastened with chains and fetters, and was closely watched, he would snap his bonds and the demon would drive him away to the desert.

Then all the people of the neighborhood of Gerasa asked him to go away from them, for they were terribly frightened. And he got into a boat and went back.

"Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you." And he went and told all over the town what Jesus had done for him.

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

When he got to the house, he let no one go in with him but Peter, John, and James, and the child's father and mother.

But he grasped her hand and called out, "Get up, my child!"

and he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to cure the sick.

And they set forth and went from village to village, telling the good news and curing people everywhere.

But the crowds learned of it and followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, and he cured those who needed to be cured.

And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God!"

What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose or forfeit himself?

I tell you, some of you who stand here will certainly live to see the Kingdom of God!"

Just as they were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, how good it is that we are here! Let us put up three huts, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah!" For he did not know what he was saying.

And they were all amazed at the power of God. While everybody was full of wonder at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples,

Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; you must go and spread the news of the Kingdom of God!"

Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough, and then looks back, is fitted for the Kingdom of God."

and cure the sick there, and say to them, 'The Kingdom of God is close upon you!'

'The very dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off in protest. But understand this: the Kingdom of God is at hand!'

Then an expert in the Law got up to test him and said, "Master, what must I do to make sure of eternal life?"

He answered, " 'You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, and your whole mind,' and 'your neighbor as you do yourself.' "

and he answers from inside, 'Do not bother me; the door is now fastened, and my children and I have gone to bed; I cannot get up and give you any.'

I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him some because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rouse himself and give him all he needs.

So if you, bad as you are, know enough to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him for it!"

But if it is with the finger of God that I am driving the demons out, then the Kingdom of God has overtaken you.

But he said, "You might better say, 'Blessed are those who hear God's message and observe it!' "

But alas for you Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint, rue, and every tiny herb, and disregard justice and the love of God. But you should have observed these, without neglecting the others.

This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute'??50 so that this age may be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the creation of the world,

Do not sparrows sell five for two cents? And yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight.

I tell you, everyone who will acknowledge me before men, the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God,

but anyone who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you. Then who will have all you have prepared?'

That is the way with the man who lays up money for himself, and is not rich with God."

Think of the crows! They do not sow or reap, and they have no storehouses or barns, and God feeds them. How much more you are worth than the birds!

So if you cannot do the least good, why should you worry about the rest?

But if God so dresses the wild grass, which is alive today, and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more surely will he clothe you, who have so little faith?

Sell what belongs to you, and give away the money! Get yourselves purses that will never wear out, inexhaustible riches in heaven, where thieves cannot get near nor moths destroy.

But if the slave says to himself, 'My master is not coming back for a long time,' and begins to beat the men and women slaves and to eat and drink and get drunk,

that slave's master will come back some day when he does not expect him, and at some time of which he does not know, and will cut him in two, and put him with the unbelievers.

The slave who knows his master's wishes, but does not get ready or act upon them, will be severely punished.

For when you are going before the magistrate with your opponent, do your best on the way to get rid of him, or he may hurry you off to the judge and the judge hand you over to the constable and the constable throw you into prison.

I tell you, you will never get out again until you have paid the last cent!"

And he said to the gardener, 'Here I have come three years to look for fruit on this fig tree, without finding any. Cut it down. Why should it waste the ground?'

perhaps it will bear fruit next year. But if it does not, you can have it cut down.' "

And he laid his hands on her, and she instantly became erect, and praised God.

He said, therefore, "What is the Kingdom of God like, and to what can I compare it?

And he went on, "To what can I compare the Kingdom of God?

"You must strain every nerve to get in through the narrow door, for I tell you many will try to get in, and will not succeed,

And he will say to you, 'I do not know where you come from. Get away from me, all you wrongdoers!'

There you will weep and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, while you are put outside.

People will come from the east and west and the north and south, and take their places in the Kingdom of God.

Just then some Pharisees came up and said to him, "Go! Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you!"

One of the other guests heard this, and said to him, "Blessed is the man who shall be at the banquet in the Kingdom of God!"

Salt is good; but if salt loses its strength, what can it be seasoned with?

In just that way, I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God over one sinful person who repents!"

I will get up, and go to my father, and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your eyes;

And he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and pitied him, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

But his father said to his slaves, 'Make haste and get out the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet;

and get the calf we are fattening, and kill it, and let us feast and celebrate,

And he said to his father, 'Here I have served you all these years, and have never disobeyed an order of yours, and you have never given me a kid, so that I could entertain my friends.

No servant can belong to two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will stand by one and make light of the other. You cannot serve God and money!"

And he said to them, "You are the men who parade your uprightness before people, but God knows your hearts. For what men consider great is detestable in the sight of God.

Until John came, it was the Law and the Prophets. From that time the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone has been crowding into it.

And a beggar named Lazarus was put down at his gate covered with sores

instead of saying to him, 'Get my supper ready, and dress yourself, and wait on me while I eat and drink, and you can eat and drink afterward'?

So you also, when you do all you have been ordered to do, must say, 'We are good-for-nothing slaves! We have done only what we ought to have done!' "

But one of them, when he saw that he was cured, came back, loudly praising God,

Was no one found to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?"

He was once asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, and he answered, "The Kingdom of God is not coming visibly,

and people will not say, 'Look! here it is!' or 'There it is!' for the Kingdom of God is within you."

People went on eating, drinking, marrying, and being married up to the very day that Noah got into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

A man who is on the roof of his house that day, with his goods in the house, must not go down to get them, and a man in the field, too, must not turn back.

and he said, "There was once in a city a judge who had no fear of God and no respect for men.