People were completely astounded and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

He also asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to present it?

Now ¹  a leper ²  came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If ³  you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said.

For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.” ¹  (This means all foods are clean.) ² 

When they had finished mocking ¹  him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes back on him. Then ²  they led him away to crucify him. ³ 

Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

After looking around ¹  at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, ²  he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ³ 

Now ¹  King Herod ²  heard this, for Jesus’ ³  name had become known. Some ⁴  were saying, “John the baptizer ⁵  has been raised from the dead, and because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him.”

for he was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men. ¹  They ²  will kill him, ³  and after three days he will rise.” ⁴ 

Now as for the dead being raised, ¹  have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, ²  how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the ³  God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ⁴