Study Desk

Some teachers of the Law, who were Pharisees, saw that Jesus was eating with these outcasts and tax collectors, so they asked his disciples, "Why does he eat with such people?"

But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

And Jesus concluded, "The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath.

Jesus was angry as he looked around at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and it became well again.

So the Pharisees left the synagogue and met at once with some members of Herod's party, and they made plans to kill Jesus.

Jesus and his disciples went away to Lake Galilee, and a large crowd followed him. They had come from Galilee, from Judea,

from Jerusalem, from the territory of Idumea, from the territory on the east side of the Jordan, and from the region around the cities of Tyre and Sidon. All these people came to Jesus because they had heard of the things he was doing.

And whenever the people who had evil spirits in them saw him, they would fall down before him and scream, "You are the Son of God!"

Then Jesus went up a hill and called to himself the men he wanted. They came to him,

"I assure you that people can be forgiven all their sins and all the evil things they may say.

Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside the house and sent in a message, asking for him.

A crowd was sitting around Jesus, and they said to him, "Look, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, and they want you."

Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants, and they didn't bear grain.

so that, ‘They may look and look, yet not see; they may listen and listen, yet not understand. For if they did, they would turn to God, and he would forgive them.'"

Some people are like the seeds that fall along the path; as soon as they hear the message, Satan comes and takes it away.

But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once.

but the worries about this life, the love for riches, and all other kinds of desires crowd in and choke the message, and they don't bear fruit.

But other people are like seeds sown in good soil. They hear the message, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred."

Those who have something will be given more, and those who have nothing will have taken away from them even the little they have."

So they left the crowd; the disciples got into the boat in which Jesus was already sitting, and they took him with them. Other boats were there too.