The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Those who heard this said, “Then who can be saved?”

So those who were sent ahead found it exactly as he had told them.

They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

So he sent still a third. They even wounded this one, and threw him out.

They said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare it?”

Now when the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table and the apostles joined him.

“You are the ones who have remained with me in my trials.

But they kept on shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!”

The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine,

(but their eyes were kept from recognizing him).

Then the experts in the law and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, “Who is this man who is uttering blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Those along the path are the ones who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Once when Jesus was praying by himself, and his disciples were nearby, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

Now one day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and the experts in the law with the elders came up

Then the experts in the law and the chief priests wanted to arrest him that very hour, because they realized he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

(Now all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s justice, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.

But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”

So he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them to tell no one what had happened.