And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”

Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.”

So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.”

Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed,

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them,

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

“We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with,

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,

Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’

So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.

Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

The Widow’s Offering

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.