Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”

Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured.

“Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.

“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.

“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say,

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

Not Peace but Division

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!