“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ¹  do not take ²  the place of honor, because a person more distinguished than you may have been invited by your host. ³ 

For just like the lightning flashes ¹  and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. ² 

and all who heard it were astonished ¹  at what the shepherds said.

He ¹  began to teach ²  in their synagogues ³  and was praised ⁴  by all.

You will be hated by everyone because of my name. ¹ 

For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. ¹  I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, ²  and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ³ 

However, the Pharisees ¹  and the experts in religious law ²  rejected God’s purpose ³  for themselves, because they had not been baptized ⁴  by John. ⁵ ) ⁶ 

while others were saying that Elijah ¹  had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had risen. ² 

You will be betrayed even by parents, ¹  brothers, relatives, ²  and friends, and they will have some of you put to death.

“But when you see Jerusalem ¹  surrounded ²  by armies, then know that its ³  desolation ⁴  has come near.

It ¹  had been revealed ²  to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die ³  before ⁴  he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ⁵ 

So John ¹  said to the crowds ²  that came out to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers! ³  Who warned you to flee ⁴  from the coming wrath?

But when John rebuked Herod ¹  the tetrarch ²  because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, ³  and because of all the evil deeds ⁴  that he had done,

where for forty days he endured temptations ¹  from the devil. He ²  ate nothing ³  during those days, and when they were completed, ⁴  he was famished.

When ¹  John’s messengers had gone, Jesus ²  began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness ³  to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁴ 

Now Herod ¹  the tetrarch ²  heard about everything that was happening, and he was thoroughly perplexed, ³  because some people were saying that John ⁴  had been raised from the dead,

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a hidden place ¹  or under a basket, ²  but on a lampstand, so that those who come in can see the light.

“Now ¹  the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. ²  The ³  rich man also died and was buried. ⁴ 

At ¹  the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel ²  before he was conceived in the womb.

As for the seed that ¹  fell among thorns, these are the ones who hear, but ²  as they go on their way they are choked ³  by the worries and riches and pleasures of life, ⁴  and their fruit does not mature. ⁵