1 ^1-3 For those who love God, several other people have already written accounts of what God has been bringing to completion among us, using the reports of the original eyewitnesses, those who were there from the start to witness the fulfillment of prophecy. Like those other servants who have recorded the messages, I present to you my carefully researched, orderly account of these new teachings. ⁴ I want you to know that you can fully rely on the things you have been taught about Jesus, God’s Anointed One.

⁵ To understand the life of Jesus, I must first give you some background history, events that occurred when Herod ruled Judea for the Roman Empire. Zacharias was serving as a priest in the temple in Jerusalem those days as his fathers had before him. He was a member of the priestly division of Abijah (a grandson of Aaron who innovated temple practices), and his wife, Elizabeth, was of the priestly lineage of Aaron, Moses’ brother. ⁶ They were good and just people in God’s sight, walking with integrity in the Lord’s ways and laws. ⁷ Yet they had this sadness. Due to Elizabeth’s infertility, they were childless, and at this time, they were both quite old—well past normal childbearing years.

⁸ One day Zacharias was chosen to perform his priestly duties in God’s presence, according to the temple’s normal schedule and routine. ⁹ He had been selected from all the priests by the customary procedure of casting lots for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter the sacred precincts of the temple. There he burned sweet incense, ¹⁰ while outside a large crowd of people prayed. ¹¹ Suddenly Zacharias realized he was not alone: a messenger of the Lord was there with him. The messenger stood just to the right of the altar of incense. ¹² Zacharias was shocked and afraid, ¹³ but the messenger reassured him.

²¹ Meanwhile the crowd at the temple wondered why Zacharias hadn’t come out of the sanctuary yet. It wasn’t normal for the priest to be delayed so long. ²² When at last he came out, he was making signs with his hands to give the blessing, but he couldn’t speak. They realized he had seen some sort of vision. ²³ When his time on duty at the temple came to an end, he went back home to his wife. ²⁴ Shortly after his return, Elizabeth became pregnant. She avoided public contact for the next five months.

²⁶ Six months later in Nazareth, a city in the rural province of Galilee, the heavenly messenger Gabriel made another appearance. This time the messenger was sent by God ²⁷ to meet with a virgin named Mary, who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David himself. ²⁸ The messenger entered her home.

²⁹ The heavenly messenger’s words baffled Mary, and she wondered what type of greeting this was.

And the heavenly messenger was gone. ³⁹ Mary immediately got up and hurried to the hill country, in the province of Judah, ^40-41 where her cousins Zacharias and Elizabeth lived. When Mary entered their home and greeted Elizabeth, who felt her baby leap in her womb, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁵⁶ Mary stayed with Elizabeth in Judea for the next three months and then returned to her home in Galilee.

⁵⁷ When the time was right, Elizabeth gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸ News about the Lord’s special kindness to her had spread through her extended family and the community. Everyone shared her joy, for after all these years of infertility, she had a son! ⁵⁹ As was customary, eight days after the baby’s birth the time came for his circumcision and naming. Everyone assumed he would be named Zacharias, like his father.

⁶² They turned to Zacharias and asked him what he wanted the baby’s name to be.

⁶³ He motioned for a tablet, and he wrote, “His name is John.” Everyone was shocked by this breach of family custom. ⁶⁴ They were even more surprised when, at that moment, Zacharias was able to talk again, and he shouted out praises to God. ⁶⁵ A sense of reverence spread through the whole community. In fact, this story was spread throughout the hilly countryside of Judea. ⁶⁶ People were certain that God’s hand was on this child, and they wondered what sort of person John would turn out to be when he became a man.

⁶⁷ When Zacharias’s voice was restored to him, he sang from the fullness of the Spirit a prophetic blessing.

⁸⁰ And John grew up and became strong in spirit. He lived in the wilderness, outside the cities, until the day came for him to step into the public eye in Israel.

2 Around the time of Elizabeth’s amazing pregnancy and John’s birth, the emperor in Rome, Caesar Augustus, required everyone in the Roman Empire to participate in a massive census— ² the first census since Quirinius had become governor of Syria. ³ Each person had to go to his or her ancestral city to be counted.

^4-5 Mary’s fiancé Joseph, from Nazareth in Galilee, had to participate in the census in the same way everyone else did. Because he was a descendant of King David, his ancestral city was Bethlehem, David’s birthplace. Mary, who was now late in her pregnancy that the messenger Gabriel had predicted, ⁶ accompanied Joseph. While in Bethlehem, she went into labor ⁷ and gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped the baby in a blanket and laid Him in a feeding trough because the inn had no room for them.

⁸ Nearby, in the fields outside of Bethlehem, a group of shepherds were guarding their flocks from predators in the darkness of night. ⁹ Suddenly a messenger of the Lord stood in front of them, and the darkness was replaced by a glorious light—the shining light of God’s glory. They were terrified!

¹³ At that moment, the first heavenly messenger was joined by thousands of other messengers—a vast heavenly choir. They praised God.

¹⁵ As soon as the heavenly messengers disappeared into heaven, the shepherds were buzzing with conversation.

¹⁶ So they ran into town, and eventually they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the feeding trough. After they saw the baby, ¹⁷ they spread the story of what they had experienced and what had been said to them about this child. ¹⁸ Everyone who heard their story couldn’t stop thinking about its meaning. ¹⁹ Mary, too, pondered all of these events, treasuring each memory in her heart.

²⁰ The shepherds returned to their flocks, praising God for all they had seen and heard, and they glorified God for the way the experience had unfolded just as the heavenly messenger had predicted.

²¹ Eight days after His birth, the baby was circumcised in keeping with Jewish religious requirements, and He was named Jesus, the name the messenger had given Him before His conception in Mary’s womb. ²² After Mary had observed the ceremonial days of postpartum purification required by Mosaic law, she and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. ²³ They were fulfilling the Lord’s requirement that “every firstborn Israelite male will be dedicated to the Eternal One as holy.”^{[h] 24} They also offered the sacrifice required by the law of the Lord, “two turtledoves or two young pigeons.”^[i]

²⁵ While fulfilling these sacred obligations at the temple, they encountered a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was a just and pious man, anticipating the liberation of Israel from her troubles. He was a man in touch with the Holy Spirit. ²⁶ The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. ²⁷ The Spirit had led him to the temple that day, and there he saw the child Jesus in the arms of His parents, who were fulfilling their sacred obligations. ²⁸ Simeon took Jesus into his arms and blessed God.

³³ His father and mother were stunned to hear Simeon say these things. ³⁴ Simeon went on to bless them both, and to Mary in particular he gave predictions.

³⁶ At that very moment, an elderly woman named Anna stepped forward. Anna was a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She had been married for seven years before her husband died ³⁷ and a widow to her current age of 84 years. She was deeply devoted to the Lord, constantly in the temple, fasting and praying. ³⁸ When she approached Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, she began speaking out thanks to God, and she continued spreading the word about Jesus to all those who shared her hope for the rescue of Jerusalem.

³⁹ After fulfilling their sacred duties according to the law of the Lord, Mary and Joseph returned with Jesus to their own city of Nazareth in the province of Galilee. ⁴⁰ There Jesus grew up, maturing in physical strength and increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God rested on Him.

⁴¹ Every year during Jesus’ childhood, His parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. ⁴² When Jesus was 12, He made the journey with them. ⁴³ They spent several days there, participating in the whole celebration. When His parents left for home, Jesus stayed in Jerusalem, but Joseph and Mary were not aware. ⁴⁴ They assumed Jesus was elsewhere in the caravan that was traveling together. After they had already traveled a full day’s journey toward home, they began searching for Him among their friends and relatives. ⁴⁵ When no one had seen the boy, Mary and Joseph rushed back to Jerusalem and searched for Him.

⁴⁶ After three days of separation, they finally found Him—sitting among a group of religious teachers in the temple—asking them questions, listening to their answers. ⁴⁷ Everyone was surprised and impressed that a 12-year-old boy could have such deep understanding and could answer questions with such wisdom.

⁴⁸ His parents, of course, had a different reaction.

⁵⁰ Neither Mary nor Joseph really understood what He meant by this. ⁵¹ Jesus went back to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. His mother continued to store these memories like treasures in her heart. ⁵² And Jesus kept on growing—in wisdom, in physical stature, in favor with God, and in favor with others.

3 Our story continues 15 years after Tiberius Caesar had begun his reign over the empire. Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod ruled Galilee, his brother Philip ruled Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruled Abilene.

² In Jerusalem Annas and Caiaphas were high priests in the temple. And in those days, out in the wilderness, John (son of Zacharias) received a message from God.

³ John brought this divine message to all those who came to the Jordan River. He preached that people should be ritually cleansed through baptism as an expression of changed lives for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ As Isaiah the prophet had said,

⁷ In fulfillment of those words, crowds streamed out from the villages and towns to be baptized^[k] by John at the Jordan.

¹² Some tax collectors were among those in the crowd seeking baptism.^[l]

¹⁵ John’s bold message seized public attention, and many began wondering if John might himself be the Anointed One promised by God.

¹⁸ He preached with many other provocative figures of speech and so conveyed God’s message to the people—the time had come to rethink everything. ¹⁹ But John’s public preaching ended when he confronted Herod, the ruler of Galilee, for his many corrupt deeds, including taking Herodias, the ruler’s sister-in-law, as his own wife. ²⁰ Herod responded by throwing John into prison.

²¹ But before John’s imprisonment, when he was still preaching and ritually cleansing through baptism^[o] the people in the Jordan River, Jesus also came to him to be baptized. As Jesus prayed, the heavens opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit came upon Him in a physical manifestation that resembled a dove. A voice echoed out from heaven.

²³ At this, the launch of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus was about 30 years old.

He was assumed to be the son of Joseph, the son of Eli, ²⁴ the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, ²⁵ the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Hesli, the son of Naggai, ²⁶ the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, ²⁷ the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, ²⁸ the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, ²⁹ the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, ³⁰ the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, ³¹ the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, ³² the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, ³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, ³⁴ the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, ³⁵ the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, ³⁶ the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, ³⁷ the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, ³⁸ the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

4 When Jesus returned from the Jordan River, He was full of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit led Him away from the cities and towns and out into the desert.

² For 40 days, the Spirit led Him from place to place in the desert, and while there, the devil tempted Jesus. Jesus was fasting, eating nothing during this time, and at the end, He was terribly hungry. ³ At that point, the devil came to Him.

⁵ Then the devil gave Jesus a vision. It was as if He traveled around the world in an instant and saw all the kingdoms of the world at once.

⁹ Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem, and he transported Jesus to stand upon the pinnacle of the temple.

¹³ The devil had no more temptations to offer that day, so he left Jesus, preparing to return at some other opportune time.

¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit, and soon people across the region had heard news of Him. ¹⁵ He would regularly go into their synagogues and teach. His teaching earned Him the respect and admiration of everyone who heard Him.

¹⁶ He eventually came to His hometown, Nazareth, and did there what He had done elsewhere in Galilee—entered the synagogue and stood up to read from the Hebrew Scriptures.

¹⁷ The synagogue attendant gave Him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and Jesus unrolled it to the place where Isaiah had written these words:

²⁰ Jesus rolled up the scroll and returned it to the synagogue attendant. Then He sat down, as a teacher would do, and all in the synagogue focused their attention on Jesus, waiting for Him to speak. ²¹ He told them that these words from the Hebrew Scriptures were being fulfilled then and there, in their hearing.

²² At first everyone was deeply impressed with the gracious words that poured from Jesus’ lips. Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed that He could say these things.

²⁸ The people in the synagogue became furious when He said these things. ²⁹ They seized Jesus, took Him to the edge of town, and pushed Him right to the edge of the cliff on which the city was built. They would have pushed Him off and killed Him, ³⁰ but He passed through the crowd and went on His way.

^31-33 Next He went to Capernaum, another Galilean city. Again He was in the synagogue teaching on the Sabbath, and as before, the people were enthralled by His words. He had a way of saying things—a special authority, a unique power.

In attendance that day was a man with a demonic spirit.

Then the demonic spirit immediately threw the man into a fit, and he collapsed right there in the middle of the synagogue. It was clear the demon had come out, and the man was completely fine after that. ³⁶ Everyone was shocked to see this, and they couldn’t help but talk about it.

³⁷ The excitement about Jesus spread into every corner of the surrounding region.

³⁸ Picture this:

Jesus then leaves that synagogue and goes over to Simon’s place. Simon’s mother-in-law is there. She is sick with a high fever. Simon’s family asks Jesus to help her.

³⁹ Jesus stands over her, and just as He had rebuked the demon, He rebukes the fever, and the woman’s temperature returns to normal. She feels so much better that she gets right up and cooks them all a big meal.

⁴⁰ By this time, it’s just before nightfall, and as the sun sets, groups of families, friends, and bystanders come until a huge crowd has gathered. Each group has brought along family members or friends who are sick with any number of diseases. One by one, Jesus lays His hands on them and heals them. ⁴¹ On several occasions, demonic spirits are expelled from these people, after shouting at Jesus, “You are the Son of God!”

Jesus always rebukes them and tells them to be quiet. They know He is the Anointed One, but He doesn’t want to be acclaimed in this way.

⁴² The next morning, Jesus sneaks away. He finds a place away from the crowds, but soon they find Him. The crowd tries their best to keep Him from leaving.

⁴⁴ So He proceeds from synagogue to synagogue across Judea,^[y] preaching His message of the kingdom of God.

5 Picture these events:

On the banks of Gennesaret Lake, a huge crowd, Jesus in the center of it, presses in to hear His message from God. ² Off to the side, fishermen are washing their nets, leaving their boats unattended on the shore.

³ Jesus gets into one of the boats and asks its owner, Simon, to push off and anchor a short distance from the beach. Jesus sits down and teaches the people standing on the beach.

⁴ After speaking for a while, Jesus speaks to Simon.

⁶ Simon then gets his fellow fishermen to help him let down their nets, and to their surprise, the water is bubbling with thrashing fish—a huge school. The strands of their nets start snapping under the weight of the catch, ⁷ so the crew shouts to the other boat to come out and give them a hand. They start scooping fish out of the nets and into their boats, and before long, their boats are so full of fish they almost sink!

^8-10 Simon’s fishing partners, James and John (two of Zebedee’s sons), along with the rest of the fishermen, see this incredible haul of fish. They’re all stunned, especially Simon. He comes close to Jesus and kneels in front of His knees.

¹¹ The fishermen haul their fish-heavy boats to land, and they leave everything to follow Jesus.

¹² Another time in a city nearby, a man covered with skin lesions comes along. As soon as he sees Jesus, he prostrates himself.

¹³ Jesus reaches out His hand and touches the man, something no one would normally do for fear of being infected or of becoming ritually unclean.

Immediately the man is cured. ¹⁴ Jesus tells him firmly not to tell anyone about this.

¹⁵ Even though Jesus said not to talk about what happened, soon every conversation was consumed by these events. The crowds swelled even larger as people went to hear Jesus preach and to be healed of their many afflictions. ¹⁶ Jesus repeatedly left the crowds, though, stealing away into the wilderness to pray.

¹⁷ One day Jesus was teaching in a house, and the healing power of the Lord was with Him. Pharisees and religious scholars were sitting and listening, having come from villages all across the regions of Galilee and Judea and from the holy city of Jerusalem.

¹⁸ Some men came to the house, carrying a paralyzed man on his bed pallet. They wanted to bring him in and present him to Jesus, ¹⁹ but the house was so packed with people that they couldn’t get in. So they climbed up on the roof and pulled off some roof tiles. Then they lowered the man by ropes so he came to rest right in front of Jesus.

²⁰ In this way, their faith was visible to Jesus.

²¹ The Pharisees and religious scholars were offended at this. They turned to one another and asked questions.

²⁵ Then, right in front of their eyes, the man stood up, picked up his bed, and left to go home—full of praises for God! ²⁶ Everyone was stunned. They couldn’t help but feel awestruck, and they praised God too.

²⁷ Some time later, Jesus walked along the street and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in his tax office.

²⁸ And Levi did. He got up from his desk, left everything (just as the fishermen had), and followed Jesus.

²⁹ Shortly after this, Levi invited his many friends and associates, including many tax collectors, to his home for a large feast in Jesus’ honor. Everyone sat at a table together.

³⁰ The Pharisees and their associates, the religious scholars, got the attention of some of Jesus’ disciples.

6 ^1-2 One Sabbath Day,^[z] some Pharisees confronted Jesus again. This time, they saw the disciples picking some grain as they walked through the fields. The disciples would dehusk the grain by rubbing the kernels in their hands, and then they would eat it raw.

⁶ On another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught there. In the congregation was a man who had a deformed right hand. ⁷ The religious scholars and Pharisees watched Jesus; they suspected that He might try to perform a healing on that day, which they would use as evidence to convict Him of Sabbath-breaking.

⁸ Jesus knew about their plan, and He told the man with the deformed hand to come and stand in front of everyone. The man did so. ⁹ Then Jesus spoke directly to the religious scholars and Pharisees.

¹⁰ He turned His gaze to each of them, one at a time. Then He spoke to the man.

As the man did, his deformed hand was made normal again. ¹¹ This made the Pharisees and religious scholars furious. They began discussing together what they would do to Jesus.

¹² Around this time, Jesus went outside the city to a nearby mountain, along with a large crowd of His disciples. He prayed through the night to God. ¹³ The next morning, He chose 12 of them and gave each a new title of “emissary.”

¹⁴ They included Simon (Jesus called him Peter) and Andrew (Simon’s brother); James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; ¹⁵ Matthew and Thomas; James (son of Alphaeus) and Simon (known as the Zealot); ¹⁶ Judas (son of James) and the other Judas (Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed Jesus).

¹⁷ The whole crowd of disciples (including the 12 now designated as His emissaries) came down together, and they stood on a level area nearby. They were joined by an even greater crowd of people who had come from across the whole region—from all of Judea, from Jerusalem, from the coastal areas of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ These people came to hear Jesus teach and to be healed by Jesus of their diseases. Those who were troubled by demonic spirits were liberated.

¹⁹ Everyone wanted to touch Jesus because when they did, power emanated from Him and they were healed. ²⁰ He looked across the faces of His disciples.

³⁹ Jesus told them this parable:

7 Jesus shared all these sayings with the crowd that day on the plain. When He was finished, He went into the town of Capernaum. ² There, a Centurion had a slave he loved dearly. The slave was sick—about to die— ³ so when the Centurion heard about Jesus, he contacted some Jewish elders. He sent them to ask Jesus to come and heal his dear slave. ⁴ With great emotion and respect, the elders presented their request to Jesus.

⁶ So Jesus accompanied them. When they approached the Centurion’s home, the Centurion sent out some friends to bring a message to Jesus.

⁹ Jesus was deeply impressed when He heard this. He turned to the crowd that followed Him.

¹⁰ The friends of the Centurion returned home, and they found the slave was completely healed.

¹¹ It wasn’t long after this when Jesus entered a city called Nain. Again all of His disciples accompanied Him, along with a huge crowd. ¹² He was coming near the gate of the city as a corpse was being carried out. This man was the only child and support of his widowed mother, and she was accompanied by a large funeral crowd.

¹³ As soon as the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her.

¹⁴ Then He came to the stretcher, and those carrying it stood still.

¹⁵ The dead man immediately sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother, ¹⁶ and everyone was both shocked and jubilant. They praised God.

¹⁷ News of Jesus spread across the whole province of Judea and beyond to the surrounding regions. ¹⁸ When these reports reached John’s disciples, they brought news to John himself, who was known for his preaching and ritual cleansing.^{[ac] 19} John sent two of his disciples to ask the Lord, “Are You the Promised One, or shall we keep looking for someone else?”

²⁰ They came to Jesus and asked their question exactly as directed by John the Baptist.

²¹ Before He answered John’s messengers, Jesus cured many from various diseases, health conditions, and evil spirits. He even caused many blind people to regain their sight.

²⁴ When John’s messengers left, Jesus talked to the crowds about John.

²⁹ The common people and tax collectors heard God’s own wisdom in Jesus’ assessment of John because they had been ritually cleansed through baptism by John. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and religious scholars hardened their hearts and turned their backs on God’s purposes for them because they had refused John’s baptism.^[af]

^36-40 Once a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to be a guest for a meal.

Picture this:

Just as Jesus enters the man’s home and takes His place at the table, a woman from the city—notorious as a woman of ill repute—follows Him in. She has heard that Jesus will be at the Pharisee’s home, so she comes in and approaches Him, carrying an alabaster flask of perfumed oil. Then she begins to cry, she kneels down so her tears fall on Jesus’ feet, and she starts wiping His feet with her own hair. Then she actually kisses His feet, and she pours the perfumed oil on them.

^44-46 Now Jesus turns around so He’s facing the woman, although He’s still speaking to Simon.

8 Soon after this incident, Jesus preached from city to city, village to village, carrying the good news of the kingdom of God. He was accompanied by a group called “the twelve,” ² and also by a larger group including some women who had been rescued from evil spirits and healed of diseases. There was Mary, called Magdalene, who had been released from seven demons. ³ There were others like Susanna and Joanna, who was married to Chuza, a steward of King Herod. And there were many others too. These women played an important role in Jesus’ ministry, using their wealth to provide for Him and His other companions.

⁴ While a huge crowd gathered with people from many surrounding towns streaming to hear Jesus, He told them a parable.

⁹ His disciples heard the words, but the deeper meaning eluded them.

¹⁹ Around this time, Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people gathered in a house. His mother and brothers arrived to see Him, but the crowd around Him was so huge that they couldn’t even get through the door. ²⁰ Word spread through the crowd.

²² Picture this:

One day Jesus and His disciples get into a boat.

So they push off from shore and begin sailing to the far side. ²³ As they progress across the lake, Jesus falls sound asleep. Soon a raging storm blows in. The waves wash over the sides of the boat, and the boat starts filling up with water. Every second the situation becomes more dangerous.

²⁴ The disciples shake Jesus and wake Him.

Jesus wakes up and tells the wind to stop whipping them around, and He tells the furious waves to calm down. They do just that. ²⁵ Then Jesus turns to the disciples.

The disciples had been terrified during the storm, but now they’re afraid in another way. They turn to each other and start whispering, chattering, and wondering.

²⁶ When they get to the other side of the lake, in the Gerasene country opposite Galilee, ²⁷ a man from the city is waiting for Jesus when He steps out of the boat. The man is full of demonic spirits. He’s been running around for a long time stark naked, and he’s homeless, sleeping among the dead in a cemetery. ^28-29 This man has on many occasions been tied up and chained and kept under guard, but each time he has broken free and the demonic power has driven him back into remote places away from human contact. Jesus commands the demonic force to leave him. The man looks at Jesus and starts screaming. He falls down in front of Jesus.

He says this because an army of demons is inside of him. ³¹ The demons start begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit. ³² They plead instead to enter into a herd of pigs feeding on a steep hillside near the shore. Jesus gives them permission to do so. ³³ Suddenly the man is liberated from the demons, but the pigs—they stampede, squealing down the hill and into the lake where they drown themselves.

³⁴ The pig owners see all this. They run back to their town and tell everyone in the region about it. ³⁵ Soon a crowd rushes from the town to see what’s going on out by the lake. There they find Jesus seated to teach with the newly liberated man sitting at His feet learning in the posture of a disciple. This former madman is now properly dressed and completely sane. This frightens the people. ³⁶ The pig owners tell them the whole story—the healing, the pigs’ mass suicide, everything.

³⁷ The people are scared to death, and they don’t want this scary abnormality happening in their territory. They ask Jesus to leave immediately. Jesus doesn’t argue. He prepares to leave, ³⁸ but before they embark, the newly liberated man begs to come along and join the band of disciples.

The man does so. In fact, he tells everyone in the whole city how much Jesus did for him that day on the shore.

⁴⁰ When Jesus and His disciples crossed the lake, another crowd was waiting to welcome Him. ⁴¹ A man made his way through the crowd. His name was Jairus, and he was a synagogue official. Like the man on the other side of the lake, this dignified man also fell at Jesus’ feet, begging Jesus to visit his home ⁴² where his only daughter, a girl of 12, lay dying. Jesus set out with Jairus. The crowd came along, too, pressing hard against Him.

⁴³ In the crowd was a woman. She had suffered from an incurable menstrual disorder for 12 years [and had spent her livelihood on doctors with no effect].^[ah] It had kept her miserable and ritually unclean, unable to participate fully in Jewish life. ⁴⁴ She followed Jesus, until she could reach Him. She touched the fringe of the robe Jesus wore, and at that moment the bleeding stopped.

⁴⁷ The woman now realized her secret was going to come out sooner or later, so she stepped out of the crowd, shaking with fear, and she fell down in front of Jesus. Then she told her story in front of everyone—why she touched Him, what happened as a result.

⁴⁹ Right at that instant, one of Jairus’s household servants arrived.

^51-52 As they approached the house, the whole neighborhood was full of the sound of mourning—weeping, wailing, loud crying. Jesus told everyone to stay outside—everyone except Peter, John, James, and, of course, the girl’s father and mother.

⁵³ They knew for certain that she was dead, so their bitter tears now mixed with mocking laughter.

⁵⁴ Meanwhile, inside, Jesus took the girl’s hand.

⁵⁵ She started breathing again, and she sat right up.

⁵⁶ Her parents were amazed, but Jesus sternly told them to keep what had happened a secret.

9 Jesus convened a gathering of the twelve. He gave them power and authority to free people from all demonic spirits and to heal them of diseases. ² He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. ^3-5 These were His instructions:

1. Travel light on your journey: don’t take a staff, backpack, bread, money, or even an extra change of clothes.
2. When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that city.
3. If a town rejects you, shake the dust from your feet as you leave as a witness against them.

⁶ The disciples left on their journeys from village to village. They preached the good news, and they healed the sick everywhere they went.

^7-8 Their mission didn’t go unnoticed. The local official installed by Rome, Herod, was especially anxious about the news because rumors were flying. Some people said that Elijah or one of the other ancient prophets had been resurrected, while others said that John, famous for his ritual cleansing, was alive and preaching again.

Herod was curious about Jesus and wanted to see Him.

¹⁰ The emissaries^[aj] whom Jesus had sent out returned, and Jesus took them away from the crowds for a time of retreat in a city called Bethsaida. They gave Jesus a full report of their accomplishments and experiences. ¹¹ But soon the crowds discovered where they were and pursued Him. Jesus didn’t turn them away; He welcomed them, spoke of the kingdom of God to them, and brought health to those who needed healing.

¹² Picture what happened while in Bethsaida, where Jesus and His disciples were spending time with the crowds:

The sun is low in the sky, and soon it will be dusk. The twelve come to Jesus with advice.

¹⁵ They do what Jesus says, and soon groups of 50 are scattered across the landscape.

¹⁶ Then Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish, and He looks up to heaven. He praises God for the food, takes each item, and breaks it into fragments. Then He gives fragments to the twelve disciples and tells them to distribute the food to the crowd.

¹⁷ Everyone eats. Everyone is satisfied. Nobody goes away hungry. In fact, when the disciples recover the leftovers, they have 12 baskets full of broken pieces.

¹⁸ Once Jesus was praying in solitude. The disciples were nearby, and He came to them with a question.

²⁸ Those words had about eight days to settle in with the disciples. Then, once again, Jesus went away to pray. This time He took along only Peter, John, and James. They climbed a mountainside and came to a place of solitude.

^29-32 Jesus began to pray and the disciples tried to stay awake, but their eyes grew heavier and heavier and finally they all fell asleep. When they awakened, they looked over at Jesus and saw something inexplicable happening. Jesus was changing before their eyes, beginning with His face. It seemed to glow. The glow spread, and even His clothing took on a blinding whiteness. Then, two figures appeared in the glorious radiance emanating from Jesus. The three disciples somehow knew that these figures were Moses and Elijah. Peter, James, and John overheard the conversation that took place among Jesus, Moses, and Elijah—a conversation that centered on Jesus’ “departure”^[ak] and how He would accomplish this departure from the capital city, Jerusalem.

³³ The glow began to fade, and it was clear that Moses and Elijah were about to disappear.

Peter had no idea what he was saying.

³⁴ While he spoke a cloud descended, and they were enveloped in it, and fear fell on them. ³⁵ Then a voice came out of everywhere and nowhere at once.

³⁶ Then the voice was silent, the cloud disappeared, and Moses and Elijah were gone. Peter, James, and John were left speechless, stunned, staring at Jesus who now stood before them alone. For a long time, they did not say a word about this whole experience.

³⁷ They came down the mountain, and the next day yet another huge crowd gathered around Jesus. There was a man in the crowd who shouted out.

⁴² The boy had taken a few steps toward Jesus when suddenly the demon seemed to rip into the boy, throwing him into convulsions. Jesus spoke sternly to the demonic spirit, and the boy was healed. Jesus presented the boy to his father.

⁴³ The crowd began cheering and discussing this amazing healing and the power of God, but Jesus turned to His disciples.

⁴⁵ They had no idea what He meant by this; they heard the words but missed the meaning, and they felt too afraid to ask Him to explain further.

⁴⁶ Later the close followers of Jesus began to argue over the stupid and vain question, “Which one of us is the greatest disciple?”

⁴⁷ Jesus saw what was going on—not just the argument, but the deeper heart issues—so He found a child and had the child stand beside Him.

⁵¹ The time approached for Him to be taken back up to the Father; so strong with resolve, Jesus made Jerusalem His destination.

⁵² He sent some people ahead of Him into the territory of the Samaritans, a minority group at odds with the Jewish majority. He wanted His messengers to find a place for them to stay in a village along the road to Jerusalem. ⁵³ But because the Samaritans realized Jesus was going to Jerusalem, they refused to welcome them.

He led them on toward another village. ⁵⁷ Farther along on the road, a man volunteered to become a disciple.

10 The Lord then recruited and deployed 70^[aq] more disciples. He sent them ahead, in teams of two, to visit all the towns and settlements between them and Jerusalem. ² This is what He ordered.

¹⁷ When the 70^[ar] completed their mission and returned to report on their experiences, they were elated.

²¹ Then Jesus Himself became elated. The Holy Spirit was on Him, and He began to pray with joy.

²⁵ Just then a scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures tried to trap Jesus.

²⁹ The scholar was frustrated by this response because he was hoping to make himself appear smarter than Jesus.

³⁸ Jesus continued from there toward Jerusalem and came to another village. Martha, a resident of that village, welcomed Jesus into her home. ³⁹ Her sister, Mary, went and sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him teach. ⁴⁰ Meanwhile Martha was anxious about all the hospitality arrangements.

11 Another time Jesus was praying, and when He finished, one of His disciples approached Him.

¹⁴ Picture this:

Jesus is exorcising a demon that has long kept a man from speaking. When the demon is expelled, the man starts talking and the people are amazed.