Jesus Frees a Boy From an Evil Spirit^(A)

¹⁴ Jesus and the followers went back to the people. A man came to Jesus and bowed before him. ¹⁵ The man said, “Lord, be kind to my son. He suffers so much from the seizures he has. He often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to your followers, but they could not heal him.”

¹⁷ Jesus answered, “You people today have no faith. Your lives are so wrong! How long must I stay with you? How long must I continue to be patient with you? Bring the boy here.” ¹⁸ Jesus gave a strong command to the demon inside the boy. The demon came out of the boy, and the boy was healed.

¹⁹ Then the followers came to Jesus alone. They said, “We tried to force the demon out of the boy, but we could not. Why were we not able to make the demon go out?”

²⁰ Jesus answered, “You were not able to make the demon go out, because your faith is too small. Believe me when I tell you, if your faith is only as big as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. You will be able to do anything.”

Jesus Frees a Boy From an Evil Spirit^(A)

³⁷ The next day, Jesus, Peter, John, and James came down from the mountain. A large group of people met Jesus. ³⁸ A man in the group shouted to him, “Teacher, please come and look at my son. He is the only child I have. ³⁹ An evil spirit comes into him, and then he shouts. He loses control of himself and foams at the mouth. The evil spirit continues to hurt him and almost never leaves him. ⁴⁰ I begged your followers to make the evil spirit leave my son, but they could not do it.”

⁴¹ Jesus answered, “You people today have no faith. Your lives are all wrong. How long must I be with you and be patient with you?” Then Jesus said to the man, “Bring your son here.”

⁴² While the boy was coming, the demon threw the boy to the ground. The boy lost control of himself. But Jesus gave a strong command to the evil spirit. Then the boy was healed, and Jesus gave him back to his father. ⁴³ All the people were amazed at the great power of God.

Jesus Talks About His Death^(B)

The people were still amazed about all the things Jesus did. He said to his followers,