But when he saw many Pharisees ¹  and Sadducees ²  coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

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!

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.

I ¹  tell you the truth, ²  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ³  will pass from the law until everything takes place.

When he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, ¹  two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. ¹  “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.

Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ¹  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ²  is with them, can they? But the days ³  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ⁴  and then they will fast.

At that time Jesus said, ¹  “I praise ²  you, Father, Lord ³  of heaven and earth, because ⁴  you have hidden these things from the wise ⁵  and intelligent, and revealed them to little children.

The queen of the South ¹  will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, ²  something greater than Solomon is here!

So the slaves ¹  of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead! And because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him.”

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 

After noticing a fig tree ¹  by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “Never again will there be fruit from you!” And the fig tree withered at once.

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ¹  This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ² 

“For this reason I ¹  am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, ²  some of whom you will kill and crucify, ³  and some you will flog ⁴  in your synagogues ⁵  and pursue from town to town,

so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ¹  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

“Immediately ¹  after the suffering ²  of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. ³ 

For the one who has will be given more, ¹  and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ² 

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

I ¹  tell you, from now on I will not drink of this fruit ²  of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”