Jesus sends out the 12 apostles

9 Jesus asked his 12 apostles to come to him. He gave them power and authority. They could make sick people well. They could also send bad spirits out of people. ² Then he sent them out to tell people about the kingdom of God. He told them that they should also make sick people well again. ³ He said to them, ‘Do not take anything for your journey. Do not take a stick, or a bag, or food. Do not take any money. Do not take extra clothes.^{[a] 4} In each town, continue to stay at the first house that you go into. Stay there until you leave that town. ⁵ In some towns, the people will not accept you. You should leave that place. Clean that town's dirt from your feet. Then it will be clear that they have done something wrong.’

⁶ Then the apostles started out. They went to visit all the villages. In every place they told people the good news about Jesus and they made sick people well.

A ruler hears about Jesus

⁷ People told the ruler, Herod, about all the things that were happening.^[b] His mind was confused because people were saying lots of different things about Jesus. Some people were saying, ‘John the Baptist died but now he has become alive again.’ ⁸ Other people were saying, ‘It is Elijah that has come back.’ Some other people were saying, ‘This is one of God's prophets who lived a long time ago. Now he has become alive again.’^[c]

⁹ Herod said, ‘I sent a soldier to cut off John's head.^[d] So who is this man? I hear many things about him.’ After that, Herod was trying to meet Jesus.

Jesus feeds 5,000 men and their families

¹⁰ The 12 apostles that Jesus had sent out returned. They told him what they had done. Then he took them away from the crowd, so that he could be alone with them. They went to a town called Bethsaida. ¹¹ But the crowds found out about this. So they went to find Jesus. When he saw the crowds coming, he welcomed them. He taught them about the kingdom of God. Some sick people were there and he made them well again.

¹² When it was nearly evening, the 12 apostles came to Jesus. ‘There are no houses in this place,’ they said. ‘Send the crowd away now. Tell them to go to the villages and farms near here. Then they can get food to eat and they can find a place to sleep.’

¹³ Jesus said to them, ‘You should give them some food to eat.’

But the disciples said, ‘We have only five loaves of bread and two fish. Do you want us to go and buy food for all these people?’ ¹⁴ There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Tell the people that they should sit down on the ground in groups. There should be about 50 people in each group.’

¹⁵ So they did this. When the people had sat down, ¹⁶ Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish. Then he looked up towards heaven and he thanked God for the food. He broke the bread into pieces. He gave the pieces of bread to the disciples, and they gave the bread to the crowd. ¹⁷ Everybody ate and they all had enough food. They were not hungry any more. Then the disciples picked up the bits of food that people had not eaten. They filled 12 baskets with all the little bits of food.^[e]

Peter says who Jesus is

¹⁸ One day, Jesus was alone and he was praying. The disciples came to him. Jesus asked them, ‘When the crowds talk about me, who do they say that I am?’

¹⁹ They replied, ‘Some people say that you are John the Baptist. Other people say that you are Elijah. And some other people say that you are one of God's prophets from long ago. They think that this prophet has become alive again.’^[f]

²⁰ ‘But what do you think?’ Jesus then asked them. ‘Who do you say that I am?’

Peter replied, ‘You are the Messiah. God has sent you.’^[g]

²¹ Jesus spoke very strongly to them. He told them that they must not tell anyone about this.^[h]

²² Then he said, ‘The Son of Man will have to suffer in many ways. The important Jews, the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law will turn against him. People will kill him, but three days later God will cause him to become alive again.’^[i]

²³ Then Jesus said to all the people that were there, ‘A person who wants to be my disciple must not think about himself. He must decide that his own life is not important. Every day he must be like someone who carries his own cross to go and die. Then he may come with me as my disciple.

²⁴ Whoever wants to keep his own life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me will have true life. ²⁵ A person may get everything in the whole world for himself. But if he loses his life, it would not be any good for him. He will have destroyed himself in the end. ²⁶ You must not be ashamed of me and of my words. If you are, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you. One day he will return and everyone will see his power. He will come with God's holy angels and he will have the bright glory of his Father God. He will be ashamed of you on that day, if you are ashamed of him now.’

Three disciples see how great Jesus is

²⁷ Then Jesus said, ‘What I tell you is true. Some people who are standing here will see clearly God begin to rule in his kingdom. They will see that before they die.’

²⁸ About eight days after Jesus had said these things, he went up a mountain to pray. He took Peter, John and James with him. ²⁹ While Jesus was praying, his face became different to look at.^[j] His clothes also became very white. They were shining brightly.

³⁰ Then two men appeared and they were talking with him. They were Moses and Elijah.^{[k] 31} They were very bright to look at. They talked with Jesus about how he would soon die in Jerusalem. This was how God wanted him to leave this world.

³² While this was happening, Peter and his friends were sleeping. Then they really woke up and they saw that Jesus was very great and beautiful. They also saw the two men that were standing near to him. ³³ Then the two men began to leave. So Peter said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, it is good that we are here. Please, let us build three huts. One hut will be for you. One hut will be for Moses and one hut will be for Elijah.’ But Peter did not really know what he was saying.^[l]

³⁴ While Peter was speaking, a cloud appeared. It covered them all. When the cloud came over them, the three disciples were afraid. ³⁵ Then a voice spoke from the cloud and it said, ‘This is my Son. He is the one that I have chosen. Listen to him.’

³⁶ The voice stopped speaking. Then the three disciples saw that only Jesus was there with them now.

They did not tell anyone at this time about what they had seen.

Jesus makes a boy well

³⁷ The next day Jesus came down from the mountain with the three disciples. A large crowd met him. ³⁸ A man from the crowd shouted to him. ‘Teacher, please, I ask you to help my son. He is my only child. ³⁹ Sometimes a bad spirit takes hold of him and then he screams. The spirit throws his body first one way then another and water comes out of his mouth. The spirit gives him a lot of pain and it does not leave him alone very much. ⁴⁰ I asked your disciples to send the bad spirit out of him. But they could not do it.’

⁴¹ Jesus said, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. You have turned away from him. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you.’ Then Jesus said to the man, ‘Bring your son here.’

⁴² While the boy was coming, the bad spirit threw him to the ground. It threw the boy first one way and then the other. ‘Stop!’ Jesus said to it. He then made the boy well and he gave him back to his father.

⁴³ Everybody was very surprised at what they saw. They knew that God was very powerful.

Jesus speaks again about his death

The people were still thinking with surprise about everything that Jesus was doing. Then he began to talk to his disciples. ⁴⁴ He said to them, ‘Do not forget what I am telling you now. Soon they will deliver the Son of Man to powerful people to kill him.’ ⁴⁵ But they did not understand what Jesus had said. Its meaning was a secret to them, so they could not understand. But they were afraid to ask Jesus, ‘What do you mean?’

Who will be the most important?

⁴⁶ Then the disciples began to argue with each other. They argued about which of them was the most important. ⁴⁷ Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he took a child and he made him stand there at his side. ⁴⁸ Jesus said, ‘If someone accepts this child because of me, then he also accepts me. And anyone who accepts me also accepts my Father God, who sent me. The person who makes himself the least important among you is really the greatest.’^[m]

⁴⁹ John then said, ‘Teacher, we saw a man who was speaking to people that had bad spirits in them. He was saying, “Jesus says that you must come out.” We told the man that he must not do this. We said that because he is not in our group.’

⁵⁰ ‘Do not try to stop him,’ Jesus said, ‘If someone is not against you, he is working to help you.’

People in a village in Samaria do not accept Jesus

⁵¹ The time came when God would soon take Jesus up to heaven. Jesus knew this, so he began to go towards Jerusalem. ⁵² He arrived near a village in the country of Samaria. He sent some people into the village with a message. They went to ask for a place to stay for the night. ⁵³ But the people in the village would not let him stay there. This was because he was going to Jerusalem.^[n]

⁵⁴ Then James and John heard about what had happened. They asked Jesus, ‘Master, do you want us to ask God to send fire down from the sky? Do you want us to kill these people?’

⁵⁵ Jesus turned round. ‘No!’ he said, ‘Do not do that. That would be wrong.’ ⁵⁶ Then they all went on to another village.

What it costs to obey Jesus

⁵⁷ They continued on their journey. A man came and spoke to Jesus. He said, ‘I will go with you. And I will go with you everywhere that you go.’

⁵⁸ Jesus replied, ‘Wild animals and birds have their own places to live. But I, the Son of Man, have no place of my own to lie down and rest.’

⁵⁹ Then Jesus said to another man, ‘Come with me!’ The man replied, ‘First let me go home and bury my father. Then I will come with you.’

⁶⁰ ‘No!’ Jesus said, ‘Let people who are dead themselves bury their own dead people. You should go and tell people about the kingdom of God.’^[o]

⁶¹ Another man said, ‘Sir, I will come with you. But please let me first go home to say “Goodbye” to my family.’

⁶² Jesus replied, ‘A man that ploughs a field must continue to look straight in front of him. If he looks behind him, he cannot plough well. People that look back behind them cannot work well for the kingdom of God.’