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.

Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.

Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?

“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

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!”

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

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.

Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

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.”

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.

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 took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” ).

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 Feeds the Five Thousand

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

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”