Now when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

There was also a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old, having been married to her husband for seven years until his death.

At that moment, she came up to them and began to give thanks to God and to speak about the child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

But when the feast was over, as they were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it,

but (because they assumed that he was in their group of travelers) they went a day’s journey. Then they began to look for him among their relatives and acquaintances.

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.