Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us,

so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.

But the angel said to him:

Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
because your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,
and you will name him John.

Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?”

since we have been rescued
from our enemies’ clutches,
to serve Him without fear

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard, just as they had been told.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.

When His parents saw Him, they were astonished, and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.”

He told them, “Don’t collect any more than what you have been authorized.”

The Devil said to Him, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want.

He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

Immediately he got up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.

When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

(And when all the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they acknowledged God’s way of righteousness, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.

But since the Pharisees and experts in the law had not been baptized by him, they rejected the plan of God for themselves.)

Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.”

and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary, called Magdalene (seven demons had come out of her);

So He said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that

Looking they may not see,
and hearing they may not understand.

Herod the tetrarch heard about everything that was going on. He was perplexed, because some said that John had been raised from the dead,

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes!

All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.”

Now He was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon came out, the man who had been mute, spoke, and the crowds were amazed.

But the one who did not know and did things deserving of blows will be beaten lightly. Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more.

a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don’t recline at the best place, because a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by your host.

“‘Master,’ the slave said, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there’s still room.’

But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

So if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous money, who will trust you with what is genuine?

And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own?

“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is strongly urged to enter it.

Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to pass over from here to you cannot; neither can those from there cross over to us.’

“‘Well done, good slave!’ he told him. ‘Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, have authority over 10 towns.’

For the Son of Man will go away as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”

That very day Herod and Pilate became friends. Previously, they had been hostile toward each other.

(He had been thrown into prison for a rebellion that had taken place in the city, and for murder.)

and released the one they were asking for, who had been thrown into prison for rebellion and murder. But he handed Jesus over to their will.

Taking it down, he wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever been placed.

“He is not here, but He has been resurrected! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,

who said, “The Lord has certainly been raised, and has appeared to Simon!”