'And you, Bethlehem in Judah's land, You are not at all the least among the leading places of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

So he sent them to Bethlehem with this order, "Go and carefully search for the child, and when you find Him, bring back word to me, and I too may come and do Him homage."

he stayed there until Herod's death, so as to fulfill what the Lord had said by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my Son."

I am baptizing you in water to picture your repentance. But He that is coming after me is stronger than I am, and I am not fit to carry His shoes. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire;

But John tried to prevent Him, by saying, "I have need to be baptized by you, and you come to me!"

and a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am delighted!"

and said to Him, "Every bit of this I will give to you, if you will fall on your knees and worship me."

He said to them, "Come! Follow me, and I will make you fishermen for catching men."

"Blessed are you when people abuse you, and persecute you, and keep on falsely telling all sorts of evil against you for my sake.

Let your light shine before people in such a way that they may see your good deeds, and praise your Father in heaven.

Be quick to come to terms with your opponent while you are on the road to court with him, so that he may not turn you over to the judge and the judge turn you over to the officer, and you be put in prison.

If anyone, whoever he may be, keeps on begging you, give to him; if anyone wants to borrow from you, do not turn him away.

So you, my followers, ought to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is."

so that your deed of charity may be secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

so that your fasting may be seen, not by men but by your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

"Stop criticizing others, so that you may not be criticized yourselves.

How can you say to your brother, 'Let me get that tiny speck out of your eye,' while all the time there is a girder in your own?

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will get into the kingdom of heaven, but only those who practice doing the will of my Father in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, was it not in your name that we prophesied, and in your name that we drove out demons, and in your name that we did many wonder-works?'

And then I will say to them openly, 'I never knew you at all. Go away from me, you who practiced doing wrong.'

"So everyone who listens to my words and practices their teaching, will be like a prudent man who built his house on a rocky foundation.

And anyone who listens to my words and does not practice their teaching, will be like an imprudent man who built his house on sand.

And a leper came up to Him, and prostrated himself before Him, and said, "Lord, if you choose to, you can cure me."

"Lord, my servant-boy is at home bedridden with paralysis and suffering terrible tortures!"

But the captain answered, "I am not fit for you to come under my roof, but simply speak the word, and my servant-boy will be cured.

For I, too, am under authority of others, and have soldiers under me, and I order this one to go, and he goes, another to come, and he comes, my slave-boy to do this, and he does it."

And a scribe came up and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you may go."

Another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go back and bury my father."

And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

And all at once some men were bringing to Him a paralyzed man, lying on a couch. And because He saw their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "Cheer up, my child, your sins are forgiven."

And as He was passing along from there, He saw a man named Matthew in his seat at the tax-collector's desk, and He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed Him.

And just as He was saying these things to them, an official came up and fell on his knees before Him, and said, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand upon her and she will come to life."

And Jesus, on turning and seeing her, said, "Cheer up, my daughter! Your faith has cured you." And from that moment the woman was well.

and if the house should prove deserving, may your good wish for peace upon it come true, but if not, may your good wish bring peace to yourselves.

and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness to them and the heathen.

And you will be hated by all men, because you bear my name, but whoever bears up to the end will be saved.

Therefore, everyone who will own me before men I will own before my Father in heaven,

but anyone who disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Anybody who loves father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me,

and nobody is worthy of me who does not take up his cross and follow me.

Anybody who gains his lower life will lose the higher life, and anybody who loses his lower life for my sake will gain the higher life.

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes Him who sent me.

And I solemnly say to you, no one who gives a cup of cold water to one of the least of my disciples, because he is a disciple, will ever fail to get his reward."

And happy is the man who finds no cause for stumbling over me."

This is the man of whom the Scripture says, "'Attention! I am sending my messenger on before you; He will prepare the road ahead of you.'

All things have been entrusted to me by my Father, and no one but the Father perfectly knows the Son, and no one but the Son perfectly knows the Father, and the one to whom the Son chooses to make Him known.

Come to me, all of you who toil and carry burdens, and I, yes, I, will lead you into rest.

Put on my yoke, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls,

"Here is my Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in whom my soul delights itself. I will endow Him with my Spirit, and He will announce a judgment to the heathen.

Whoever is not in partnership with me is against me, and whoever does not gather in partnership with me scatters.

Then it says, 'I will go back to my house which I left,' and it finds it unoccupied, swept, and ready for use.

But He answered the man who told Him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"

And with a gesture toward His disciples He said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my mother and sister and brother."

For this people's soul has grown dull, and with their ears they can scarcely hear, and they have shut tight their eyes, so that they will never see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn to me, so that I may cure them!'

Let them both grow together until harvest time, and at the harvest time I will order the reapers, "Gather first the wild wheat plants and tie them into bundles to be burned up, but get the wheat into my barn."'"

He told them this story, as follows: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field.

He told another story: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to yeast which a woman took and worked into a bushel of flour until it all had risen."

to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: "I will open my mouth in stories, I will utter truths concealed since creation."

And she, prompted by her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist's head right here on a platter."

He said, "Bring them here to me."

Peter answered Him, "Lord, if it is you, let me come to you on the water."

But when he felt the wind, he was frightened, and as he began to go down, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"

"'This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far, far away from me;

Their worship of me is an empty show; the things they teach are only men's precepts.'"

He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant must be rooted up.

And a Canaanite woman of that district came out and pleaded, saying, "Do pity me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is suffering horrors from a demon."

But she came and bowed to Him, and kept praying, "Lord, help me!"

Then Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for it is now three days they have been staying with me, and they have nothing at all left to eat, and I fear they might give out on the way home."

Then Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for it is not man that made this known to you, but my Father in heaven.

And I, yes I, tell you, your name from now on is to be Peter, Rock, and on a massive rock like this I will build my church, and the powers of the underworld shall never overthrow it.

And Peter took Him aside and began to chide Him, as he said, "Heaven shield you, my Lord! This must never be your lot!"

But He turned and said to Peter, "Get out of my way, you Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for this view of yours is not from God but from men."

Then Jesus said to His disciples: "If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must say 'No' to self, put his cross on his shoulders, and keep on following me.

For whoever wants to save his higher life will have to give up the lower life, and whoever gives up his lower life for my sake will find the higher life.

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud cast its shadow over them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am delighted. Keep on listening to Him!"

"Lord, do pity my son, for he has epilepsy and suffers excruciating pain, and often falls into the fire or into the water.

And Jesus answered, "O you unbelieving and perverted people of the times! How long can I put up with you? Bring him here to me!"

but still, that we may not influence them to do anything wrong, go down to the sea and throw over a hook. Pull in the first fish that bites, open its mouth and you will find in it a dollar. Take it and pay the tax for both of us."

and whoever welcomes one little child like this for my sake welcomes me.

But whoever leads one of these little ones, who believe in me, to do wrong, had better have a great millstone hung around his neck to sink him to the bottom of the sea.

"Be careful not to look with scorn on a single one of these little children, for I tell you that in heaven their angels have uninterrupted access to my Father in heaven.

Just so it is not the will of my Father in heaven that a single one of these little ones be lost.

"Again, I tell you, if only two of you on earth agree on what they pray for, they will get it from my Father in heaven.

For wherever two or three have met as my disciples, I am right there with them."

Then Peter came up to Him and asked, "Lord, how many times may my brother wrong me and I have to forgive him? As many as seven?"

So the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle up his accounts with his slaves,

So the slave fell down at his feet and pleaded, 'Give me time, and I will pay you every cent of it.'

"But that slave went out and found one of his fellow-slaves who owed him twenty dollars, and he caught him by the throat and began to choke him, demanding, 'Pay me what you owe me!'

"And his fellow-slave fell down before him and pleaded, 'Give me time, and I will pay you.'

Then his master called to him, and said, 'I cancelled all that huge debt of yours, because you pleaded with me to do so.

This is the way my heavenly Father too will deal with you, if you do not, each one, heartily forgive your brother."

But Jesus said, "Let the little children alone, and stop preventing them from coming to me, for to such as these the kingdom of heaven belongs."

And He answered him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is perfectly good. But if you want to get into that life, you must practice keeping the commandments."

Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come back here and follow me."

Jesus said to them: "I solemnly say to you, in the new order of life, when the Son of Man shall take His seat on His glorious throne, you too, who have followed me, will sit on twelve thrones, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has given up home or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms, for my sake, will receive many times as much, and in addition will be in possession of eternal life.

So he said to them, 'You too go out to my vineyard, and I will pay you what is right.' And they went.

They answered him, 'Because nobody has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go out to my vineyard.'

But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did you not contract with me at twenty cents?