Study Desk

When they found him, they said, "Everyone is looking for you."

"Don't tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed."

"Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.

"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins."

Then he turned to his critics and asked, "Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?" But they wouldn't answer him.

Then Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them.

There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, "Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you."

He replied, "You are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables for everything I say to outsiders,

But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word.

but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.

For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light.

To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them."

And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come."

For Jesus had already said to the spirit, "Come out of the man, you evil spirit."

But Jesus said, "No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been."

So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.

A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.

For she thought to herself, "If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed."

He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick—no food, no traveler's bag, no money.

For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John as a favor to Herodias. She had been his brother Philip's wife, but Herod had married her.