and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

When evening arrived, his disciples came to him saying, “This is an isolated place ¹  and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

Then ¹  large crowds came to him bringing with them the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. They ²  laid them at his feet, and he healed them.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, ¹  he must deny ²  himself, take up his cross, ³  and follow me.

Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from people?” ¹  They discussed this among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’

Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

Then ¹  Jesus ²  called the crowd, along with his disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to become my follower, ³  he must deny ⁴  himself, take up his cross, ⁵  and follow me.

For whoever wants to save his life ¹  will lose it, ²  but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will save it.

And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength ¹  and to love your neighbor as yourself ²  is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Therefore produce ¹  fruit ²  that proves your repentance, and don’t begin to say ³  to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ ⁴  For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁵ 

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, ¹  he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, ²  he would know who and what kind of woman ³  this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”

Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so ¹  the last state of that person ²  is worse than the first.” ³ 

Meanwhile, ¹  when many thousands of the crowd had gathered so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus ²  began to speak first to his disciples, “Be on your guard against ³  the yeast of the Pharisees, ⁴  which is hypocrisy. ⁵ 

Sell your possessions ¹  and give to the poor. ²  Provide yourselves purses that do not wear out – a treasure in heaven ³  that never decreases, ⁴  where no thief approaches and no moth ⁵  destroys.

It is like a mustard seed ¹  that a man took and sowed ²  in his garden. It ³  grew and became a tree, ⁴  and the wild birds ⁵  nested in its branches.” ⁶ 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ¹  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ²  How often I have longed ³  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ⁴  you would have none of it! ⁵ 

So ¹  he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home ²  his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; ³  he ran and hugged ⁴  his son ⁵  and kissed him.

Then ¹  the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position ²  away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, ³  and I’m too ashamed ⁴  to beg.

The ¹  master commended the dishonest ²  manager because he acted shrewdly. ³  For the people ⁴  of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries ⁵  than the people ⁶  of light.