Read the Gospels in 40 Days
A Roman centurion’s extraordinary faith in Jesus
7 1-5 When Jesus had finished these talks to the people, he came to Capernaum, where it happened that there was a man very seriously ill and in fact at the point of death. He was the slave of a centurion who thought very highly of him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him with the request that he would come and save his servant’s life. When they came to Jesus, they urged him strongly to grant this request, saying that the centurion deserved to have this done for him. “He loves our nation and has built us a synagogue out of his own pocket,” they said.
6-8 So Jesus went with them, but as he approached the house, the centurion sent some of his personal friends with the message, “Don’t trouble yourself, sir! I’m not important enough for you to come into my house—I didn’t think I was fit to come to you in person. Just give the order, please, and my servant will recover. I am used to working under orders, and I have soldiers under me. I can say to one, ‘Go’, and he goes, or I can say to another, ‘Come here’, and he comes; or I can say to my slave, ‘Do this job’, and he does it.”
9 These words amazed Jesus and he turned to the crowd who were following behind him, and said, “I have never found faith like this anywhere, even in Israel!”
10 Then those who had been sent by the centurion returned to the house and found the slave perfectly well.
Jesus brings a dead youth back to life
11-13 Not long afterwards, Jesus went into a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd. As they approached the city gate, it happened that some people were carrying out a dead man, the only son of his widowed mother. The usual crowd of fellow-townsmen was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
14 Then he walked up and put his hand on the bier while the bearers stood still. Then he said, “Young man, wake up!”
15-16 And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus handed him to his mother. Everybody present was awe-struck and they praised God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us and God has turned his face towards his people.”
17 And this report of him spread through the whole of Judea and the surrounding countryside.
Jesus sends John a personal message
18-19 John’s disciples reported all these happenings to him. Then he summoned two of them and sent them to the Lord with this message, “Are you the one who was to come, or are we to look for someone else?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you with this message, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or are we to look for someone else?’”
21-23 At that very time Jesus was healing many people of their diseases and ailments and evil spirits, and he restored sight to many who were blind. Then he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind are recovering their sight, cripples are walking again, lepers being healed, the deaf hearing, dead men are being brought to life again, and the good news is being given to those in need. And happy is the man who never loses his faith in me.”
Jesus emphasises the greatness of John—and the greater importance of the kingdom of God
24-27 When these messengers had gone back, Jesus began to talk to the crowd about John. “What did you go out into the desert to look at? Was it a reed waving in the breeze? Well, what was it you went out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? But the men who wear fine clothes live luxuriously in palaces. But what did you really go to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, a prophet and far more than a prophet! This is the man of whom the scripture says, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you’.
28 Believe me, no one greater than John has ever been born, and yet a humble member of the kingdom of God is greater than he.
29-30 “All the people, yes, even the tax-collectors, when they heard John, acknowledged God and were baptised by his baptism. But the Pharisees and the experts in the Law frustrated God’s purpose for them, for they refused John’s baptism.
31-35 “What can I say that the men of this generation are like—what sort of men are they? They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling out to each other, ‘We played at weddings for you, but you wouldn’t dance, and we played at funerals for you, and you wouldn’t cry!’ For John the Baptist came in the strictest austerity and you say he is crazy. Then the Son of Man came, enjoying life, and you say, ‘Look, a drunkard and a glutton, a bosom-friend of the tax-collector and the outsider!’ Ah, well, wisdom’s reputation is entirely in the hands of her children!”
Jesus contrasts unloving righteousness with loving penitence
36-39 Then one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to a meal with him. When Jesus came into the house, he took his place at the table and a woman, known in the town as a bad woman, found out that Jesus was there and brought an alabaster flask of perfume and stood behind him crying, letting her tears fall on his feet and then drying them with her hair. Then she kissed them and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were really a prophet, he would know who this woman is and what sort of a person is touching him. He would have realised that she is a bad woman.”
40 Then Jesus spoke to him, “Simon, there is something I want to say to you.” “Very well, Master,” he returned, “say it.”
41-42 “Once upon a time, there were two men in debt to the same money-lender. One owed him fifty pounds and the other five. And since they were unable to pay, he generously cancelled both of their debts. Now, which one of them do you suppose will love him more?”
43 “Well,” returned Simon, “I suppose it will be the one who has been more generously treated,”
44-47 “Exactly,” replied Jesus, and then turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “You can see this woman? I came into your house but you provided no water to wash my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. There was no warmth in your greeting, but she, from the moment I came in, has not stopped covering my feet with kisses. You gave me no oil for my head, but she has put perfume on my feet. That is why I tell you, Simon, that her sins, many as they are, are forgiven; for she has shown me so much love. But the man who has little to be forgiven has only a little love to give.”
48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And the men at table with him began to say to themselves, “And who is this man, who even forgives sins?”
50 But Jesus said to the woman, “It is your faith that has saved you. Go in peace.”
8 1-3 Not long after this incident, Jesus went through every town and village preaching and telling the people the good news of the kingdom of God. He was accompanied by the twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and illnesses—Mary, known as “the woman from Magdala” (who had once been possessed by seven evil spirits) Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s agent Susanna, and many others who used to look after his comfort from their own resources.
Jesus’ parable of the mixed reception given to the truth
4-8 When a large crowd had collected and people were coming to him from one town after another, he spoke to them and gave them this parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed, and while he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the roadside and was trodden down and birds gobbled it up. Some fell on the rock, and when it sprouted it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorn-bushes which grew up with the seeds and choked the life out of them. But some seed fell on good soil and grew and produced a crop—a hundred times what had been sown.” And when he had said this, he called out, “Let the man who has ears to hear use them!”
9-10 Then his disciples asked him the meaning of the parable. To which Jesus replied, “You have been given the chance to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God, but the others are given parables so that they may go through life with their eyes open and ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand’”.
11-15 “This is what the parable means. The seed is the message of God. The seed sown by the roadside represents those who hear the message, and then the devil comes and takes it away from their hearts so that they cannot believe it and be saved. That sown on the rock represents those who accept the message with great delight when they hear it, but have no real root. They believe for a little while but when the time of temptation comes, they lose faith. And the seed sown among the thorns represents the people who hear the message and go on their way, and with the worries and riches and pleasures of living, the life is choked out of them, and in the end they produce nothing. But the seed sown on good soil means the men who hear the message and accept it with good and honest heart, and go on steadily producing a good crop.
Truth is not a secret to be hidden but a gift to be used
16-17 “Nobody lights a lamp and covers it with a basin or puts it under the bed. No, a man puts his lamp on a lamp-stand so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden now which will not become perfectly plain and there are no secrets now which will not become as clear as daylight.”
18 “So take care how you listen—more will be given to the man who has something already, but the man who has nothing will lose even what he thinks he has.”
19-20 Then his mother and his brothers arrived to see him, but could not get near him because of the crowd. So a message was passed to him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting to see you.”
21 To which he replied, “My mother and my brothers? That means those who listen to God’s message and obey it.”
Jesus’ mastery of wind and water
22 It happened on one of these days that he embarked on a boat with his disciples and said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.”
23-25 So they set sail, and when they were under way he dropped off to sleep. Then a squall of wind swept down upon the lake and they were in grave danger of being swamped. Coming forward, they woke him up, saying. “Master, master, we’re drowning!” Then he got up and reprimanded the wind and the stormy waters, and they died down, and everything was still. Then he said to them, “What has happened to your faith?” But they were frightened and bewildered and kept saying to each other, “Who ever can this be? He gives orders even to the winds and waters and they obey him.”
Jesus encounters and heals a dangerous lunatic
26-28 They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes which is on the opposite side of the lake to Galilee. And as Jesus disembarked, a man from the town who was possessed by evil spirits met him. He had worn no clothes for a long time and did not live inside a house, but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he let out a howl and fell down in front of him, yelling, “What have you got to do with me, you Jesus, Son of the most high God? Please, please, don’t torment me.”
29 For Jesus was commanding the evil spirit to come out of the man. Again and again the evil spirit had taken control of him, and though he was bound with chains and fetters and closely watched, he would snap his bonds and go off into the desert with the devil at his heels.
30-37 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion!” he replied. For many evil spirits had gone into him, and were now begging Jesus not to order them off to the bottomless pit. It happened that there was a large herd of pigs feeding on the hill-side, so they implored him to allow them to go into the pigs, and he let them go. And when the evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs, the whole herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and were drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they took to their heels, pouring out the story to the people in the town and countryside. These people came out to see what had happened, and approached Jesus. They found the man, whom the evil spirits had left, sitting down at Jesus’ feet, properly clothed and quite sane. That frightened them. Those who had seen it told the others how the man with the evil spirits had been cured. And the whole crowd of people from the district surrounding the Gerasenes’ country begged Jesus to go away from them, for they were thoroughly frightened. Then he re-embarked on the boat and turned back.
38-39 The man who had the evil spirits kept begging to go with Jesus, but he sent him away with the words, “Go back home and tell them all what wonderful things God has done for you.” So the man went away and told the marvellous story of what Jesus had done for him, all over the town.
40 On Jesus’ return, the crowd welcomed him back, for they had all been looking for him.
Jesus heals in response to faith
41-42 Then up came Jairus (who was president of the synagogue), and fell at Jesus’ feet, begging him to come into his house, for his daughter, an only child about twelve years old, was dying.
43-44 But as he went, the crowds nearly suffocated him. Among them was a woman, who had a haemorrhage for twelve years and who had derived no benefit from anybody’s treatment. She came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak, with the result that her haemorrhage stopped at once.
45 “Who was that who touched me?” said Jesus. And when everybody denied it, Peter remonstrated, “Master, the crowds are all round you and are pressing you on all sides ....”
46 But Jesus said, “Somebody touched me, for I felt the power went out from me.”
47 When the woman realised that she had not escaped notice she came forward trembling, and fell at his feet and admitted before everybody why she had to touch him, and how she had been instantaneously cured.
48 “Daughter,” said Jesus, “It is your faith that has healed you—go in peace.”
49 While he was still speaking, somebody came from the synagogue president’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead—there is no need to trouble the master any further.”
50 But when Jesus heard this, he said to him, “Now don’t be afraid, go on believing and she will be all right.”
51-52 Then when he came to the house, he would not allow anyone to go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s parents. All those already there were weeping and wailing over her, but he said, “Stop crying! She is not dead, she is fast asleep.”
53-54 This drew a scornful laugh from them, for they were quite certain that she had died. But he turned them all out, took the little girl’s hand and called out to her, “Wake up, my child!”
55-56 And her spirit came back and she got to her feet at once, and Jesus ordered food to be given to her. Her parents were nearly out of their minds with joy, but Jesus told them not to tell anyone what had happened.
Jesus commissions the twelve to preach and heal
9 1-5 Then he called the twelve together and gave them power over all evil spirits and the ability to heal disease. He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick, with these words, “Take nothing for your journey—neither a stick nor a purse nor food nor money, nor even extra clothes! When you come to stay at a house, remain there until you go on your way again. And where they will not welcome you, leave that town, and shake the dust off your feet as a protest against them!”
6 So they set out, and went from village to village preaching the Gospel and healing people everywhere.
Herod’s uneasy conscience after his execution of John
7-8 “All these things came to the ears of Herod the tetrarch and caused him acute anxiety, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, some maintaining that the prophet Elijah had appeared, and others that one of the old-time prophets had come back.
9 “I beheaded John,” said Herod. “Who can this be that I hear all these things about?” And he tried to find a way of seeing Jesus.”
The twelve return and tell their story
10 Then the apostles returned, and when they had made their report to Jesus of what they had done, he took them with him privately and retired into a town called Bethsaida.
Jesus welcomes the crowds, teaches, heals and feeds them
11-12 But the crowds observed this and followed him. And he welcomed them and talked to them about the kingdom of God, and cured those who were in need of healing. As the day drew to its close the twelve came to him and said, “Please dismiss the crowd now so that they can go to the villages and country round about and find some food and shelter, for we’re quite in the wilds here.”
13-14 “You give them something to eat!” returned Jesus. “But we’ve nothing here,” they replied, “except five loaves and two fish, unless you want us to go and buy food for all this crowd?” (There were approximately five thousand men there). Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Get them to sit down in groups of about fifty.”
15-17 This they did, making them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looked up to Heaven, blessed them, broke them into pieces and passed them to his disciples to serve to the crowds. Everybody ate and was satisfied. Afterwards they collected twelve baskets full of broken pieces which were left over.
Jesus asks a question and receives Peter’s momentous answer
18 Then came this incident. While Jesus was praying by himself, having only the disciples near him, he asked them this question: “Who are the crowd saying that I am?”
19 “Some say that you are John the Baptist,” they replied. “Others that you are Elijah, and others think that one of the old-time prophets has come to life again.”
20 Then he said, “And who do you say that I am?” “God’s Christ! said Peter.
Jesus foretells his own suffering: the paradox of losing life to find it
21-22 But Jesus expressly told them not to say a word to anybody, at the same time warning them of the inevitability of the Son of Man’s great suffering, of his repudiation by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and of his death and of being raised to life again on the third day.
23-27 Then he spoke to them all. “If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me. For the man who wants to save his life will lose it, but the man who loses his life for my sake will save it. For what is the use of a man gaining the whole world if he loses or forfeits his own soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels. I tell you the simple truth—there are men standing here today who will not taste death until they have seen the kingdom of God!”
Peter, John and James are allowed to see the glory of Jesus
28-35 About eight days after these sayings, Jesus took Peter, James and John and went off to the hill-side to pray. And then, while he was praying, the whole appearance of his face changed and his clothes became white and dazzling. And two men were talking with Jesus. They were Moses and Elijah—revealed in heavenly splendour, and their talk was about the way he must take and the end he must fulfil in Jerusalem. But Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep and it was as they struggled into wakefulness that they saw the glory of Jesus and the two men standing with him. Just as they were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is wonderful for us to be here! Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. While he was still talking, a cloud overshadowed them and awe swept over them as it enveloped them. A voice came out of the cloud, saying “This is my Son, my chosen! Listen to him!”
36 And while the voice was speaking, they found there was no one there at all but Jesus. The disciples were reduced to silence, and in those days never breathed a word to anyone to what they had seen.
Jesus heals an epileptic boy
37-40 Then on the following day, as they came down the hill-side, a great crowd met him. Suddenly a man from the crowd shouted out, “Master, please come and look at my son! He’s my only child, and without any warning some spirit gets hold of him and he calls out suddenly. Then it convulses him until he foams at the mouth, and only after a fearful struggle does it go away and leave him bruised all over. I begged your disciples to get rid of it, but they couldn’t.”
41 “You really are an unbelieving and difficult people,” replied Jesus. “How long must I be with you, how long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.”
42-43a But even while the boy was on his way, the spirit hurled him to the ground in a dreadful convulsion. Then Jesus reprimanded the evil spirit, healed the lad and handed him back to his father. And everybody present was amazed at this demonstration of the power of God.
The realism of Jesus in the midst of enthusiasm
43b-44 And while everybody was full of wonder at all the things they saw him do, Jesus was saying to the disciples, “Store up in your minds what I tell you nowadays, for the Son of Man is going to be handed over to the power of men.”
45 But they made no sense of this saying—something made it impossible for them to understand it, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
Jesus and “greatness”
46-48 Then an argument arose among them as to who should be the greatest. But Jesus, knowing what they were arguing about, took a little child and made him stand by his side. And then he said to them, “Anyone who accepts a little child in my name is really accepting me, and the man who accepts me is really accepting the one who sent me. It is the humblest among you all who is really the greatest.”
49 Then John broke in, “Master, we saw a man driving out evil spirits in your name, but we stopped him, for he is not one of us who follow you.”
50 But Jesus told him, “You must not stop him. The man who is not against you is on your side.”
He sets off for Jerusalem to meet inevitable death
51-54 Now as the days before he should be taken back into Heaven were running out, he resolved to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers in front of him. They set out and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him. But the people there refused to welcome him because he was obviously intending to go to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Master, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and burn them all up?”
55-56 But Jesus turned and reproved them, and they all went on to another village.
57 As the little company made its way along the road, a man said to him, “I’m going to follow you wherever you go.”
58 And Jesus replied, “Foxes have earths, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere that he can call his own.”
59 But he said to another man, “Follow me.” And he replied, “Let me go and bury my father first.”
60 But Jesus told him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. You must come away and preach the kingdom of God.”
61 Another man said to him, “I am going to follow you, Lord, but first let me bid farewell to my people at home.”
62 But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts his hand to the plough and then looks behind him is useless for the kingdom of God.”
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.