Beginning
Discussions of clean and unclean
15 At that time some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus. They had a question for him.
2 “Why,” they said, “do your disciples go against the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands when they eat their food!”
3 “Why,” Jesus replied, “do you go against the command of God because of your tradition? 4 What God said was ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘If anyone speaks evil of father or mother, they must certainly die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone says to father or mother, “What you might have gained from me is given to God,” 6 they don’t need to honor their father anymore.’ As a result, you make God’s word null and void because of your tradition.
7 “You play-actors! Isaiah had the right words for you in his prophecy:
8 This people gives me honor with their lips,
their heart, however, holds me at arm’s length.
9 The worship which they offer me is vain,
because they teach, as law, mere human precepts.”
The parable of clean and unclean
10 Then Jesus called the crowd, and said to them, “Listen and understand. 11 What makes someone unclean isn’t what goes into the mouth. It’s what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.”
12 Then the disciples came to Jesus.
“Do you know,” they said, “that the Pharisees were horrified when they heard what you said?”
13 “Every plant that my heavenly father hasn’t planted,” replied Jesus, “will be plucked up by the roots. 14 Let them be. They are blind guides. But if one blind person guides another, both of them will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter spoke up. “Explain the riddle to us,” he said.
16 “Are you still slow on the uptake as well?” replied Jesus. 17 “Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth travels on into the stomach and goes out into the drain? 18 But what comes out of the mouth begins in the heart, and that’s what makes someone unclean. 19 Out of the heart, you see, come evil plots, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. 20 These are the things that make someone unclean. But eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean.”
The Canaanite woman
21 Jesus left that place and went off to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from those parts came out and shouted, “Have pity on me, Lord, son of David! My daughter is demon-possessed! She’s in a bad way!” 23 Jesus, however, said nothing at all to her.
His disciples came up.
“Please send her away,” they asked. “She’s shouting after us.”
24 “I was only sent,” replied Jesus, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 The woman, however, came and threw herself down at his feet.
“Master,” she said, “please help me!”
26 “It isn’t right,” replied Jesus, “to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
27 “I know, Master,” she said. “But even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.”
28 “You’ve got great faith, haven’t you, my friend!” replied Jesus. “All right; let it be as you wish.”
And her daughter was healed from that moment.
The feeding of the four thousand
29 Jesus went away from there, and arrived beside the sea of Galilee. He went up the mountain and sat down. 30 Large crowds came to him, with their lame, blind, crippled, mute and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them. 31 When the crowd saw the mute speaking, the crippled made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, they were astonished, and they gave praise to the God of Israel.
32 Jesus called his disciples, and said, “I am really sorry for the crowd. They’ve been around me now for three days and they haven’t got anything to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry; they might faint on the way home.”
33 The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread to feed a crowd this size, out here in the country?”
34 “How many loaves have you got?” asked Jesus.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few fish.”
35 Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up seven baskets full of what was left of the broken pieces. 38 There were four thousand men who had eaten, besides the women and children.
39 Jesus sent the crowds away. Then he got into the boat and went over to the Magadan coast.
The leaven of the Pharisees
16 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tried to catch him out by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 This was his reply to them: “When it’s evening you say, ‘Sky looks like wine, it’s going to be fine.’ 3 And in the morning you say, ‘Red in the sky, rain by and by.’ Well then: you know how to work out the look of the sky, so why can’t you work out the signs of the times? 4 The generation that wants a sign is wicked and corrupt! No sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah.”
With that, he left them and went away.
5 When the disciples crossed over the lake, they forgot to bring any bread. 6 “Watch out,” said Jesus to them, “and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They discussed it with each other. “It’s because we didn’t bring any bread,” they said.
8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking. “You really are a little-faith lot!” he said. “Why are you discussing with each other that you haven’t got any bread? 9 Don’t you understand, even now? Don’t you remember the five loaves and the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you picked up afterwards? 10 Or the seven loaves and the four thousand, and how many baskets you picked up? 11 Why can’t you see that I wasn’t talking about bread? Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”
12 Then they understood that he wasn’t telling them to beware of the leaven you get in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Peter’s declaration of Jesus’ messiahship
13 Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi. There he put this question to his disciples: “Who do people say that the son of man is?”
14 “John the Baptist,” they replied. “Others say Elijah. Others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
15 “What about you?” he asked them. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered.
“You’re the Messiah,” he said. “You’re the son of the living God!”
17 “God’s blessing on you, Simon, son of John!” answered Jesus. “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you; it was my father in heaven. 18 And I’ve got something to tell you, too: you are Peter, the rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell won’t overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you tie up on earth will have been tied up in heaven, and whatever you untie on earth will have been untied in heaven.”
20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Jesus predicts his death
21 From then on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he would have to go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day.
22 Peter took him and began to tell him off. “Certainly not, Master!” he said. “That’s never, ever going to happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned on Peter. “Get behind me, satan!” he said. “You’re trying to trip me up! You’re coming at this from a human point of view, not from God’s point of view!”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, they must give themselves up, and pick up their cross, and follow me. 25 Yes: if someone wants to save their life, they must lose it; and if anyone loses their life for my sake they will find it. 26 What use will it be, otherwise, if you win the whole world but forfeit your true life? What will you give to get your life back? 27 You see, the son of man is going to ‘come in the glory of his father with his angels,’ and then ‘he will reward everyone for the work they have done.’ 28 I’m telling you the truth: some of those standing here will not taste death until they see ‘the son of man coming in his kingdom.’ ”
The transfiguration
17 After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and James’s brother John, and led them off up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. 3 Then, astonishingly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them. They were talking with Jesus.
4 Peter just had to say something. “Master,” he said to Jesus, “it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters here—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah!”
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Then there came a voice out of the cloud. “This is my dear son,” said the voice, “and I’m delighted with him. Pay attention to him.”
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were scared out of their wits. 7 Jesus came up and touched them.
“Get up,” he said, “and don’t be afraid.”
8 When they raised their eyes, they saw nobody except Jesus, all by himself.
The question about Elijah
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them strict instructions. “Don’t tell anyone about the vision,” he said, “until the son of man has been raised from the dead.”
10 “So why,” asked the disciples, “do the scribes say that ‘Elijah must come first’?”
11 “Elijah does indeed come,” replied Jesus, “and ‘he will restore everything.’ 12 But let me tell you this: Elijah has already come, and they didn’t recognize him! They did to him whatever they wanted. That’s how the son of man, too, will suffer at their hands.”
13 Then the disciples realized that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
Faith that moves mountains
14 When they came near the crowd, a man approached and knelt in front of him.
15 “Master,” he said, “take pity on my son! He suffers from awful fits which are frightful for him. He often falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t cure him.”
17 “You unbelieving and twisted generation!” responded Jesus. “How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.”
18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him. The boy was cured from that moment.
19 The disciples came to Jesus in private. “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” they asked.
20 “Because of your lack of faith,” Jesus replied. “I’m telling you the truth: if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
The Temple tax
22 As they regathered in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The son of man is going to be given over into human hands. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.” And they were very sad.
24 They came to Capernaum, where the officials who collected the Temple tax approached Peter.
“Your teacher pays the Temple tax, doesn’t he?” they asked.
25 “Yes,” he replied.
When he came into the house, Jesus spoke first, “What d’you think, Simon? When the kings of the world collect taxes or duties, who do they collect them from? From their own families, or from outsiders?”
26 “From outsiders,” he replied.
“Well then,” said Jesus, “that means the families are free. 27 But we don’t want to give them offense, do we? So why don’t you go down to the sea and cast out a hook? The first fish you catch, open its mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take that and give it to them for the two of us.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.