Daily Gospel Plan

¹Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a shriveled hand.

²In order to accuse him, they were watching him closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath.

³He told the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand before us.”

⁴Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

⁵After looking around at them with anger, he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

⁶Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him.

⁷Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a large crowd followed from Galilee, and a large crowd followed from Judea,

⁸Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to him because they heard about everything he was doing.

⁹Then he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, so that the crowd wouldn’t crush him.

¹⁰Since he had healed many, all who had diseases were pressing toward him to touch him.

¹¹Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!”

¹²And he would strongly warn them not to make him known.

¹³Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those he wanted, and they came to him.

¹⁴He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, to send them out to preach,

¹⁵and to have authority to drive out demons.

¹⁶He appointed the Twelve: To Simon, he gave the name Peter;

¹⁷and to James the son of Zebedee, and to his brother John, he gave the name “Boanerges” (that is, “Sons of Thunder” );

¹⁸Andrew; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot,

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

²⁰Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat.

²¹When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him, because they said, “He’s out of his mind.”

²²The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,”  and, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

²³So he summoned them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?

²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

²⁵If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

²⁶And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is finished.

²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.

²⁸“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.

²⁹But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”  —

³⁰because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to him and called him.

³²A crowd was sitting around him and told him, “Look, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside asking for you.”

³³He replied to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

³⁴Looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

¹Again he began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore.

²He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:

³“Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow.

⁴As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep.

⁶When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

⁷Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit.

⁸Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”

⁹Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

¹⁰When he was alone, those around him with the Twelve, asked him about the parables.

¹¹He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables

¹²so that they may indeed look, and yet not perceive; they may indeed listen, and yet not understand; otherwise, they might turn back and be forgiven.”

¹³Then he said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables?

¹⁴The sower sows the word.

¹⁵Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.

¹⁶And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.

¹⁷But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.

¹⁸Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word,

¹⁹but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²⁰And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”

²¹He also said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it to be put on a lampstand?

²²For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light.

²³If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen.”

²⁴And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear. By the measure you use, it will be measured to you — and more will be added to you.

²⁵For whoever has, more will be given to him, and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

²⁶“The kingdom of God is like this,” he said. “A man scatters seed on the ground.

²⁷He sleeps and rises night and day; the seed sprouts and grows, although he doesn’t know how.

²⁸The soil produces a crop by itself — first the blade, then the head, and then the full grain on the head.

²⁹As soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it?

³¹It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown upon the soil, is the smallest of all the seeds on the ground.

³²And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”

³³He was speaking the word to them with many parables like these, as they were able to understand.

³⁴He did not speak to them without a parable. Privately, however, he explained everything to his own disciples.

³⁵On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.”

³⁶So they left the crowd and took him along since he was in the boat. And other boats were with him.

³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.

³⁸He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?”

³⁹He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

⁴⁰Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”