Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

He ¹  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.”

After listening to the king they left, and once again ¹  the star they saw when it rose ²  led them until it stopped above the place where the child was.

Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat ¹  with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Then ²  he called them.

So a report about him spread throughout Syria. People ¹  brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions, those who had seizures, ²  paralytics, and those possessed by demons, ³  and he healed them.

Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces. ¹ 

“Everyone ¹  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ²  a wise man ³  who built his house on rock.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

While he was still speaking, a ¹  bright cloud ²  overshadowed ³  them, and a voice from the cloud said, ⁴  “This is my one dear Son, ⁵  in whom I take great delight. Listen to him!” ⁶ 

They were all amazed so that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits and they obey him.”

After looking around ¹  at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, ²  he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ³ 

These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: Whenever they hear, immediately Satan ¹  comes and snatches the word ²  that was sown in them.

Then ¹  Jesus ²  began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer ³  many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, ⁴  and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Six days later ¹  Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them alone up a high mountain privately. And he was transfigured before them, ² 

Then ¹  Jesus ²  left that place and went to the region of Judea and ³  beyond the Jordan River. ⁴  Again crowds gathered to him, and again, as was his custom, he taught them.

Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them.

So ¹  Simeon, ²  directed by the Spirit, ³  came into the temple courts, ⁴  and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary according to the law, ⁵ 

Then ¹  Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “Listen carefully: ²  This child ³  is destined to be the cause of the falling and rising ⁴  of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be rejected. ⁵ 

Jesus ¹  said to them, “No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ ²  and say, ‘What we have heard that you did in Capernaum, ³  do here in your hometown too.’”

One ¹  day Jesus ²  got into a boat ³  with his disciples and said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” So ⁴  they set out,