Mark 3

International Children’s Bible

Jesus Heals a Man’s Crippled Hand

3 Another time when Jesus went into a synagogue, a man with a crippled hand was there. ² Some people there wanted to see Jesus do something wrong so they could accuse him. They watched him closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day.

³ Jesus said to the man with the crippled hand, “Stand up here in front of everyone.”

⁴ Then Jesus asked the people, “Which is right on the Sabbath day: to do good, or to do evil? Is it right to save a life or to destroy one?” But they said nothing to answer him.

⁵ Jesus was angry as he looked at the people. But he felt very sad because they were stubborn. Then he said to the man, “Let me see your hand.” The man put his hand out for Jesus, and it was healed. ⁶ Then the Pharisees left and began making plans with the Herodians^[a] about a way to kill Jesus.

Many People Follow Jesus

⁷ Jesus left with his followers for the lake. A large crowd from Galilee followed him. ⁸ Also many people came from Judea, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from the lands across the Jordan River, and from the area of Tyre and Sidon. They came because they had heard about all the things Jesus was doing. ⁹ Jesus saw the crowds. So he told his followers to get a boat ready for him. He wanted the boat so that the many people would not crowd themselves against him. ¹⁰ He had healed many people. So all the sick were pushing toward him to touch him. ¹¹ Some had evil spirits in them. When the evil spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” ¹² But Jesus strongly commanded the spirits not to tell who he was.

Jesus Chooses His 12 Apostles

¹³ Then Jesus went up on a hill and called some men to come to him. These were the men Jesus wanted, and they went up to him. ¹⁴ Jesus chose 12 men and called them apostles.^[b] He wanted these 12 to be with him, and he wanted to send them to other places to preach. ¹⁵ He also wanted them to have the power to force demons out of people. ¹⁶ These are the 12 men he chose: Simon (Jesus gave him the name Peter); ¹⁷ James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder”); ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot. Judas is the one who gave Jesus to his enemies.

People Say Jesus Has a Devil

²⁰ Then Jesus went back home. But again a crowd gathered. There were so many people that Jesus and his followers could not eat. ²¹ His family heard about all these things. They went to get him because people were saying that Jesus was out of his mind.

²² And the teachers of the law from Jerusalem were saying, “Beelzebul is living inside him! He uses power from the ruler of demons to force demons out.”

²³ So Jesus called the people together and used stories to teach them. He said, “Satan will not force his own demons out of people. ²⁴ A kingdom that fights against itself cannot continue. ²⁵ And a family that is divided cannot continue. ²⁶ And if Satan is against himself and fights against his own people, then he cannot continue. And that is the end of Satan. ²⁷ If a person wants to enter a strong man’s house and steal his things, first he must tie up the strong man. Then the thief can steal the things from the strong man’s house. ²⁸ I tell you the truth. All sins that people do can be forgiven. And all the bad things people say against God can be forgiven. ²⁹ But any person who says bad things against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of a sin that continues forever.”

³⁰ Jesus said this because the teachers of the law said that Jesus had an evil spirit inside him.

Jesus’ True Family

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside and sent someone in to tell him to come out. ³² Many people were sitting around Jesus. They said to him, “Your mother and brothers^[c] are waiting for you outside.”

³³ Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” ³⁴ Then Jesus looked at those sitting around him. He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ My true brother and sister and mother are those who do the things God wants.”