Read the Gospels in 40 Days
Parable of the sower
4 Once again Jesus began to teach beside the sea. A huge crowd gathered; so he got into a boat and stationed himself on the sea, with all the crowd on the shore looking out to sea. 2 He taught them lots of things in parables. This is how his teaching went.
3 “Listen!” he said. “Once upon a time there was a sower who went out sowing. 4 As he was sowing, some seed fell beside the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on the rock, where it didn’t have much soil. There was no depth to the ground, so it shot up at once; 6 but when the sun came up it was scorched, and withered away, because it hadn’t got any root. 7 Other seed fell in among thorns; the thorns grew up and choked it, and it didn’t give any crop. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil, and gave a harvest, which grew up and increased, and bore a yield, in some cases thirtyfold, in some sixtyfold, and in some a hundredfold.”
9 And he added, “If you’ve got ears, then listen!”
10 When they were alone, the people who were around Jesus, with the Twelve, asked him about the parables.
11 “The mystery of God’s kingdom is given to you,” he replied, “but for the people outside it’s all in parables, 12 so that ‘they may look and look but never see, and hear and hear but never understand; otherwise they would turn and be forgiven.’
13 “Don’t you understand the parable?” he said to them. “How are you going to understand all the parables?
14 “The sower sows the word. 15 The ones by the path are people who hear the word, but immediately the Accuser comes and takes away the word that has been sown in them. 16 The ones sown on the rock are those who hear the word and accept it with excitement, 17 but don’t have any root in themselves. They are short-term enthusiasts. When the word brings them trouble or hostility they quickly become disillusioned. 18 The others—the ones sown among thorns—are those who hear the word, 19 and the worries of the present age, and the deceit of riches, and desire for other kinds of things, come in and choke the word, so that it produces no fruit. 20 But the ones sown on good soil are the people who hear the word and receive it, and produce fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold.”
A lamp on its stand
21 Jesus said to them, “When you bring a lamp into a room, do you put it under a bucket, or under a bed? Of course not! It goes on a lampstand. 22 No: nothing is secret except what’s meant to be revealed, and nothing is covered up except what’s meant to be uncovered. 23 If you have ears, then listen!
24 “Be careful with what you hear,” he went on. “The scales you use will be used for you, and more so. 25 If you have something, you’ll be given more; but if you have nothing, even what you have will be taken away.”
More seed parables
26 “This is what God’s kingdom is like,” said Jesus. “Once upon a time a man sowed seed on the ground. 27 Every night he went to bed; every day he got up; and the seed sprouted and grew without him knowing how it did it. 28 The ground produces crops by itself: first the stalk, then the ear, then the complete corn in the ear. 29 But when the crop is ready, in goes the sickle at once, because harvest has arrived.
30 “What shall we say God’s kingdom is like?” he said. “What picture shall we give of it? 31 It’s like a grain of mustard seed. When it’s sown on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. 32 But when it’s sown, it springs up and becomes the biggest of all shrubs. It grows large branches, so that ‘the birds of the air make their nests’ within its shade.”
33 He used to tell them a lot of parables like this, speaking the word as much as they were able to hear. 34 He never spoke except in parables. But he explained everything to his own disciples in private.
Jesus calms the storm
35 That day, when it was evening, Jesus said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”
36 They left the crowd, and took him with them in the boat he’d been in. There were other boats with him too.
37 A big windstorm blew up. The waves beat on the boat, and it quickly began to fill. 38 Jesus, however, was asleep on a cushion in the stern. They woke him up.
“Teacher!” they said to him, “We’re going down! Don’t you care?”
39 He got up, scolded the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Shut up!”
The wind died, and there was a flat calm. 40 Then he said to them, “Why are you scared? Don’t you believe yet?”
41 Great fear stole over them. “Who is this?” they said to each other. “Even the wind and the sea do what he says!”
The healing of the demoniac
5 So they came over the sea to the land of the Gerasenes. 2 When they got out of the boat, they were suddenly confronted by a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He was emerging from a graveyard, which was where he lived. Nobody had been able to tie him up, not even with a chain; 4 he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he used to tear up the chains and snap the shackles. No one had the strength to tame him. 5 On and on, night and day, he used to shout out in the graveyard and on the hillside, and slash himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus a long way away, he ran and threw himself down in front of him.
7 “Why you and me, Jesus?” he shouted at the top of his voice. “Why you and me, son of the High God? By God, stop torturing me!”— 8 this last, because Jesus was saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of him!”
9 “What’s your name?” Jesus asked him.
“Legion,” he replied. “That’s my name—there are lots of us!” 10 And he implored Jesus not to send them out of the country.
11 It so happened that right there, near the hillside, was a sizable herd of pigs. They were grazing.
12 “Send us to the pigs,” begged the spirits, “so that we can enter them.”
13 So Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea—about two thousand of them!—and were drowned.
14 The herdsmen fled. They told it in the town, they told it in the countryside, and people came to see what had happened. 15 They came to Jesus; and there they saw the man who had been demon-possessed, who had had the “legion,” seated, clothed and stone-cold sober. They were afraid. 16 The people who had seen it all told them what had happened to the man—and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to leave their district.
18 Jesus was getting back into the boat, when the man asked if he could go with him. 19 Jesus wouldn’t let him.
“Go back home,” he said. “Go to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he had pity on you.”
20 He went off, and began to announce in the Ten Towns what Jesus had done for him. Everyone was astonished.
Jairus’s daughter and the woman with chronic bleeding
21 Jesus crossed over once more in the boat to the other side. There a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the seashore.
22 One of the synagogue presidents, a man named Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus he fell down at his feet.
23 “My daughter’s going to die! My daughter’s going to die!” he pleaded. “Please come—lay your hands on her—rescue her and let her live!”
24 Jesus went off with him. A large crowd followed, and pressed in on him.
25 A woman who had had internal bleeding for twelve years heard about Jesus. 26 (She’d had a rough time at the hands of one doctor after another; she’d spent all she had on treatment, and had got worse rather than better.) 27 She came up in the crowd behind him and touched his clothes. 28 “If I can just touch his clothes,” she said to herself, “I’ll be rescued.” 29 At once her flow of blood dried up. She knew, in her body, that her illness was cured.
30 Jesus knew at once, inside himself, that power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see this crowd crushing you,” said the disciples, “and you say ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 He looked round to see who had done it. 33 The woman came up; she was afraid and trembling, but she knew what had happened to her. She fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth.
34 “My daughter,” Jesus said to her, “your faith has rescued you. Go in peace. Be healed from your illness.”
The raising of Jairus’s daughter
35 As he said this, some people arrived from the synagogue president’s house.
“Your daughter’s dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Jesus overheard the message. “Don’t be afraid!” he said to the synagogue president. “Just believe!”
37 He didn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James and James’s brother John. 38 They arrived at the synagogue president’s house, and saw a commotion, with a lot of weeping and wailing. 39 Jesus went inside.
“Why are you making such a fuss?” he said. “Why all this weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s asleep.” 40 And they laughed at him.
He put them all out. Then he took the child’s father and mother, and his companions, and they went in to where the child was. 41 He took hold of her hand, and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Time to get up, little girl!” 42 At once the girl got up and walked about. (She was twelve years old.) They were astonished out of their wits. 43 Then he commanded them over and over not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
A prophet in his own town
6 Jesus went away from there, and came to his home region. His disciples followed him. 2 On the sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue. When they heard him, lots of people were astonished.
“Where does he get it all from?” they said. “What’s this wisdom he’s been given? How does he get this kind of power in his hands? 3 Isn’t he the builder, Mary’s son? Isn’t he the brother of James, Joses, Judah and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” They took offense at him.
4 “Prophets have honor everywhere,” said Jesus, “except in their own country, their own family, and their own home.”
5 He couldn’t do anything remarkable there, except that he laid hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6 Their unbelief dumbfounded him.
He went round the villages, teaching.
The Twelve sent out
7 Jesus called the Twelve, and began to send them out in pairs, giving them authority over unclean spirits. 8 These were his instructions: they were not to take anything for the road, just one staff; no bread, no bag, no cash in the belt; 9 to wear sandals, and not to wear a second tunic.
10 “Whenever you go into a house,” he told them, “stay there until you leave the district. 11 If any place doesn’t welcome you, or won’t listen to you, go away and wipe the dust from your feet as evidence against them.”
12 They went off and announced that people should repent. 13 They cast out several demons; and they anointed many sick people with oil, and cured them.
The speculations of Herod
14 Jesus’ name became well known, and reached the ears of King Herod.
“It’s John the Baptist,” he said, “risen from the dead! That’s why these powers are at work in him.”
15 Other people said, “It’s Elijah!”
Others said, “He’s a prophet, like one of the old prophets.”
16 “No,” said Herod when he heard this. “It’s John. I cut off his head, and he’s been raised.”
Herod and John the Baptist
17 What had happened was this. Herod had married Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. 18 John regularly told Herod it wasn’t right for him to take his brother’s wife; so Herod gave the word, arrested him and tied him up in prison. 19 Herodias kept up a grudge against him and wanted to kill him, but couldn’t; 20 Herod knew that John was a just and holy man, and he was afraid of him. So he protected him, and used to listen to him regularly. What he heard disturbed him greatly, and yet he enjoyed listening to him.
21 And then, one day, the moment came. There was a great party. It was Herod’s birthday, and he gave a feast for his leading retainers, militia officers, and the great and good of Galilee. 22 Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, and Herod and his guests were delighted.
“Tell me what you’d like,” said the king to the girl, “and I’ll give it you!”
23 He swore to her, over and over again, “Whatever you ask me, I’ll give it you—right up to half my kingdom!”
24 She went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she replied.
25 So she went back at once to the king, all eager, and made her request: “I want you to give me, right now, on a dish—the head of John the Baptist!”
26 The king was distraught. But his oaths on the one hand, and his guests on the other, meant he hadn’t the guts to refuse her. 27 So he sent a jailer straight away with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 brought the head on a dish, and gave it to the girl. The girl gave it to her mother.
29 When John’s followers heard about it, they came and took his body, and buried it in a tomb.
The feeding of the five thousand
30 The apostles came back to Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. 31 “All right,” he said, “it’s time for a break. Come away, just you, and we’ll go somewhere lonely and private.” (Crowds of people were coming and going and they didn’t even have time to eat.)
32 So they went off privately in the boat to a deserted spot. 33 And . . . crowds saw them going, realized what was happening, hurried on foot from all the towns, and arrived there first. 34 When Jesus got out of the boat he saw the huge crowd, and was deeply sorry for them, because they were like a flock without a shepherd. So he started to teach them many things.
35 It was already getting late when his disciples came to him and said, “Look: there’s nothing here. It’s getting late. 36 Send them away. They need to go off into the countryside and the villages and buy themselves some food.”
37 “Why don’t you give them something?” Jesus replied.
“Are you suggesting,” they asked, “that we should go and spend two hundred dinars and get food for this lot?”
38 “Well,” said Jesus, “how many loaves have you got? Go and see.”
They found out, and said, “Five, and a couple of fish.”
39 Jesus told them to sit everyone down, group by group, on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in companies, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, looked up to heaven, blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples to give to the crowd. Then he divided the two fish for them all. 42 Everyone ate, and had plenty. 43 They picked up the leftovers, and there were twelve baskets of broken pieces, and of the fish.
44 The number of men who had eaten was five thousand.
Jesus walks on water
45 At once Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and set sail across towards Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 He took his leave of them and went off up the mountain to pray.
47 When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the shore. 48 He saw they were having to work hard at rowing, because the wind was against them; and he came to them, in the small hours of the night, walking on the sea. He intended to go past them, 49 but they saw him walking on the sea and thought it was an apparition. They yelled out; 50 all of them saw him, and they were scared stiff.
At once he spoke to them.
“Cheer up,” he said, “it’s me. Don’t be afraid.”
51 He came up to them and got into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were overwhelmed with astonishment. 52 They hadn’t understood about the loaves, because their hearts were hardened.
53 They made landfall at Gennesaret, and tied up the boat. 54 People recognized Jesus as soon as they got out of the boat, 55 and scurried about the whole region to bring sick people on stretchers to wherever they heard that he was. 56 And wherever he went, in villages, towns or in the open country, they placed the sick in the market-places and begged him to let them touch even the hem of his garment. And all who touched it were healed.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.