While the people were filled with anticipation and they all wondered whether perhaps John could be the Christ,

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

Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

Now Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing around him to hear the word of God.

So he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

But the news about him spread even more, and large crowds were gathering together to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses.

When Jesus perceived their hostile thoughts, he said to them, “Why are you raising objections within yourselves?

Immediately he stood up before them, picked up the stretcher he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.

But the Pharisees and their experts in the law complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

So Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?

Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples picked some heads of wheat, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them.

The experts in the law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a reason to accuse him.

When morning came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:

“Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.

Soon afterward Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him.

Now one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.

Some time afterward he went on through towns and villages, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him,

and Joanna the wife of Cuza (Herod’s household manager), Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.

Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him.

When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew privately to a town called Bethsaida.