that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And in his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.]

A third time he said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done? I have found him guilty of no crime deserving death. I will therefore flog him and release him.”

For this is certain: The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’

But the other rebuked him, saying, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut out of the rock, where no one had yet been buried.

Now that very day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

When he had taken his place at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us?”

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came to him who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

But the president of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the crowd, “There are six days on which work should be done! So come and be healed on those days, and not on the Sabbath day.”

During the reign of Herod king of Judea, there lived a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and he had a wife named Elizabeth, who was a descendant of Aaron.

Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is old as well.”

When he came out, he was not able to speak to them. They realized that he had seen a vision in the holy place, because he was making signs to them and remained unable to speak.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

All who heard these things kept them in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the Lord’s hand was indeed with him.

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

Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon who was righteous and devout, looking for the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “Listen carefully: This child is destined to be the cause of the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be rejected.

Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart.