The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

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.”

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.

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!”

When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.

Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter,

The Parable of the Sower

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.

He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables

Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth.

Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

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.

She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.

He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”

But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.

He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

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?

For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.

When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.”

And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.