Early in the morning, after forming a plan, the chief priests with the elders and the experts in the law and the whole Sanhedrin tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

So they hurried off and located Mary and Joseph, and found the baby lying in a manger.

Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth,

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?”

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

A spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions and causes him to foam at the mouth. It hardly ever leaves him alone, torturing him severely.

and they went on to another village.

For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’

Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

But he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Look, I am casting out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete my work.

It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.’”

So they replied that they did not know where it came from.

Finally the woman died too.

And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Then the women remembered his words,

and he took it and ate it in front of them.

Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there a few days.

And many believed in Jesus there.

If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary and our nation.”