Prophet

When Jesus was 30 years old he left Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and started to go round the different towns and villages teaching the people about God.  It was not long before news of him spread far and wide to parts of the country where he had never been.

Everywhere he went huge crowds used to follow him, not only to listen to him, but also to go and see him perform miracles, that is, to see him do marvellous things.  Most of these miracles consisted in making sick people well, though sometimes he brought the dead back to life again.  As he went from place to place he healed hundreds and hundreds of people.  Some were diseased or paralysed, others were blind or deaf and dumb or lame. 

As a result of his teaching and miracles the people said he was a prophet like one of the prophets in the Old Testament.  We read that when he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, “…the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’  The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee’ “ (NRSV, Matthew 21:10,11).