<t /><p class="bodytext">Two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and the experts in the law<n id="1" /> were trying to find a way<n id="2" /> to arrest Jesus<n id="3" /> by stealth and kill him.

Day after day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, yet<n id="1" /> you did not arrest me. But this has happened so that<n id="2" /> the scriptures would be fulfilled.&#8221;

Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, &#8220;Aha! You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

There were also women, watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses,<n id="1" /> and Salome.

When he was in Galilee, they had followed him and given him support.<n id="1" /> Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem<n id="2" /> were there too.p>

Then<n id="1" /> as they went into the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe<n id="2" /> sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.

they will pick up snakes with their hands, and whatever poison they drink will not harm them;<n id="1" /> they will place their hands on the sick and they will be well.&#8221;

For if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him<n id="1" /> when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.&#8221;

People<n id="1" /> from the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem<n id="2" /> were going out to him, and he was baptizing them<n id="3" /> in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.

As Jesus<n id="1" /> was having a meal<n id="2" /> in Levi&#8217;s<n id="3" /> home, many tax collectors<n id="4" /> and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

Jesus<n id="1" /> said to them, &#8220;The wedding guests<n id="2" /> cannot fast while the bridegroom<n id="3" /> is with them, can they?<n id="4" /> As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Again he began to teach by the lake. Such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there while<n id="1" /> the whole crowd was on the shore by the lake.

But<n id="1" /> he was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, &#8220;Teacher, don&#8217;t you care that we are about to die?&#8221;

Jesus<n id="1" /> gave them permission.<n id="2" /> So<n id="3" /> the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. Then the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake, and about two thousand were drowned in the lake.p>

Isn&#8217;t this the carpenter, the son<n id="1" /> of Mary<n id="2" /> and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren&#8217;t his sisters here with us?&#8221; And so they took offense at him.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now<n id="1" /> King Herod<n id="2" /> heard this, for Jesus&#8217;<n id="3" /> name had become known. Some<n id="4" /> were saying, &#8220;John the baptizer<n id="5" /> has been raised from the dead, and because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him.&#8221;

For Herod himself had sent men, arrested John, and bound him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip&#8217;s wife, because Herod<n id="1" /> had married her.

He brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

He<n id="1" /> saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. As the night was ending,<n id="2" /> he came to them walking on the sea,<n id="3" /> for<n id="4" /> he wanted to pass by them.<n id="5" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then Jesus and his disciples went to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.<n id="1" /> On the way he asked his disciples,<n id="2" /> &#8220;Who do people say that I am?&#8221;