Jesus Questioned About Fasting

They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”

Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,

Jesus and John the Baptist

John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them,

When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”

So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind?

I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John.

But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’

When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.

Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead,

But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

The Transfiguration

About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.

“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”

When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”

Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Additional Teachings

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it.

John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”

Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”)

John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.