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John the Baptist Prepares the Way
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,
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as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—
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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.
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Jesus Announces the Good News
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
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“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
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The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
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“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
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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.”
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and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
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and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
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Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
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Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
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They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.
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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.
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Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves,
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“Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
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Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?
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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!”
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While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
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On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
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Jesus Questioned About Fasting
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
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Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them.
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“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.
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And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
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Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.
