Read the Gospels in 40 Days

The healing of the centurion’s servant

7 When Jesus had finished saying all these words in the hearing of the people, he went into Capernaum.

² There was a centurion who had a slave who was particularly precious to him. This slave was ill, at the point of death. ³ The centurion heard about Jesus, and sent some Jewish elders to him, to ask him to come and rescue his slave. ⁴ They approached Jesus and begged him eagerly.

“He deserves a favor like this from you,” they said. ⁵ “He loves our people, and he himself built us our synagogue.”

⁶ Jesus went with them.

When he was not far off from the house, the centurion sent friends to him with a further message.

“Master,” he said, “don’t trouble yourself. I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof. ⁷ That’s why I didn’t think myself worthy to come to you in person. But—just say the word, and my slave will be healed. ⁸ You see, I’m used to living under authority, and I have soldiers reporting to me. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another one, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

⁹ When Jesus heard this he was astonished.

“Let me tell you,” he said, turning to the crowd that was following him, “I haven’t found faith of this kind, even in Israel.”

¹⁰ The people who had been sent to him went back to the house. There they found the slave in good health.

The raising of the widow’s son

¹¹ Not long afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples went with him, and so did a large crowd. ¹² As he got near to the gate of the city, a young man was being carried out dead. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. There was a substantial crowd of the townspeople with her.

¹³ When the master saw her, he was very sorry for her. “Don’t cry,” he said to her. ¹⁴ Then he went up and touched the bier, and the people carrying it stood still.

“Young fellow,” he said, “I’m telling you—get up!” ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him to his mother.

¹⁶ Terror came over all of them. They praised God.

“A great prophet has risen among us!” they said. “God has visited his people!”

¹⁷ This report went out about him in the whole of Judaea and the surrounding countryside.

Jesus and John the Baptist

¹⁸ The disciples of John the Baptist told him about all these things. John called two of these followers ¹⁹ and sent them to the master with this message: “Are you the Coming One, or should we expect someone else?”

²⁰ The men arrived where Jesus was. “John the Baptist,” they said, “has sent us to you to say, ‘Are you the Coming One, or should we expect someone else?’ ”

²¹ Then and there Jesus healed several people of diseases, plagues and possession by unclean spirits; and he restored the sight of several blind people. ²² Then he answered them: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, people with virulent skin diseases are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor hear the gospel. ²³ And a blessing on the person who isn’t shocked by me!”

²⁴ So off went John’s messengers.

Jesus then began to talk to the crowds about John. “Why did you go out into the desert?” he asked. “What were you looking for? A reed swaying in the breeze? ²⁵ Well then, what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in silks and satins? See here, if you want to find people wearing fine clothes and living in luxury, you’d better look in royal palaces. ²⁶ So what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes indeed, and more than a prophet. ²⁷ This is the one of whom the Bible says, ‘Look: I send my messenger before my face; he will get my path ready ahead of me.’

²⁸ “Let me tell you this,” he went on. “Nobody greater than John has ever been born of women. But the one who is least in God’s kingdom is greater than he is.”

²⁹ When all the people, and the tax-collectors, heard that, they praised God for his faithfulness; they had been baptized with John’s baptism. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the lawyers, who had not been baptized by John, rejected God’s plan for them.

³¹ “What picture can I use,” Jesus continued, “for the people of this generation? What are they like? ³² They’re like children sitting in the square and calling this old riddle to each other:

³³ “When John the Baptist came, he didn’t eat bread or drink wine, and you say, ‘He’s got a demon!’ ³⁴ When the son of man came, eating and drinking, you say, ‘Look! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!’ ³⁵ Well, wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Jesus anointed by a sinful woman

³⁶ A Pharisee asked Jesus to dine with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. ³⁷ A woman from the town, a known bad character, discovered that he was there at table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸ Then she stood behind Jesus’ feet, crying, and began to wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with her hair, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

³⁹ The Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw what was going on.

“If this fellow really was a prophet,” he said to himself, “he’d know what sort of a woman this is who is touching him! She’s a sinner!”

⁴⁰ “Simon,” replied Jesus, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” he replied.

⁴¹ “Once upon a time there was a moneylender who had two debtors. The first owed him five hundred dinars, the second fifty. ⁴² Neither of them could pay him, and he let them both off. So which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ “The one he let off the more, I suppose,” replied Simon.

“Quite right,” said Jesus.

⁴⁴ Then, turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, “You see this woman? When I came into your house, you didn’t give me water to wash my feet—but she has washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You didn’t give me a kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet from the moment I came in. ⁴⁶ You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

⁴⁷ “So the conclusion I draw is this: she must have been forgiven many sins! Her great love proves it! But if someone has been forgiven only a little, they will love only a little.”

⁴⁸ Then he said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ “Who is this,” the other guests began to say among themselves, “who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ “Your faith has saved you,” said Jesus to the woman. “Go in peace.”

The parable of the sower

8 Soon afterwards, Jesus went about in person, with the Twelve, through the towns and villages, announcing and proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom. ² They were accompanied by various women who had been healed from evil spirits and diseases: Mary who was called “Magdalene,” from whom seven demons had gone out, ³ Joanna the wife of Chouza (Herod’s steward), and Susanna, and many others. They looked after the needs of Jesus and his companions out of their own pockets.

⁴ A large crowd came together, and people came to him from town after town. He spoke to them in parables: ⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some fell by the road, and was trodden on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶ Other seed fell on stony ground, and when it came up it withered, because it didn’t have any moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell in among thorns, and when the thorns grew up they choked it. ⁸ Other seed again fell into good soil, and came up, and gave a yield of a hundredfold.”

As he said this, he called out: “If you’ve got ears to hear, then hear!”

⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable was about.

¹⁰ “You are being let in on the secrets of God’s kingdom,” he said, “but to the rest it happens in parables, so that ‘they may see but not perceive, and hear but not understand.’

¹¹ “This is the parable: the seed is the word of God. ¹² Those by the roadside are people who hear, but then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they won’t believe it and be saved. ¹³ Those on the stony ground are those who hear the word and receive it with delight—but they don’t have any root, and so they believe only for a time, and then, when a time of testing comes, they draw back. ¹⁴ The seed that falls in among thorns represents people who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and they don’t bear proper, ripening fruit. ¹⁵ But those in the good soil are the ones who hear the word and hold on to it with an upright and good heart, and who patiently produce fruit.”

Jesus calms the storm

¹⁶ “Nobody lights a lamp,” continued Jesus, “and then hides it under a pot or a bed. They put it on a lampstand, so that people who come in can see the light. ¹⁷ You see, nothing is hidden which won’t become visible. Nothing is concealed that won’t come to light.

¹⁸ “So be careful how you listen. If you’ve got something, more will be given to you; if you haven’t, even what you imagine you have will be taken away from you.”

¹⁹ His mother and brothers came to him, and couldn’t get near him because of the crowd. ²⁰ So they sent a message to him: “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

²¹ “Mother and brothers, indeed?” replied Jesus. “Here are my mother and brothers—people who hear God’s word and do it!”

²² One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and suggested that they cross to the other shore. So they set off. ²³ As they were sailing, he fell asleep. A violent wind swept down on the lake, and the boat began to fill dangerously with water.

²⁴ “Master, Master!” shouted the disciples, coming and waking him up. “Master, we’re lost!”

He got up and scolded the wind and the waves. They stopped, and there was a flat calm.

²⁵ “Where’s your faith?” he asked them.

They were afraid and astonished. “Who is this, then,” they asked one another, “if he can give orders to wind and water, and they do what he says?”

The healing of the demoniac

²⁶ They sailed to the land of the Gerasenes, which is on the other side from Galilee. ²⁷ As he got out on land, a demon-possessed man from the town met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he didn’t live in a house but among the tombs. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus he screamed and fell down in front of him.

“You and me, Jesus—you and me!” he yelled at the top of his voice. “What is it with you and me, you son of the Most High God? Don’t torture me—please, please don’t torment me!” ²⁹ Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times over it had seized him, and he was kept under guard with chains and manacles; but he used to break the shackles, and the demon would drive him into the desert.

³⁰ “What’s your name?” Jesus asked him.

“Regiment!” replied the man—for many demons had entered him. ³¹ And they begged him not to order them to be sent into the pit.

³² A sizable herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, and the demons begged him to allow them to go into them. He gave them permission. ³³ The demons went out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake and was drowned.

³⁴ The herdsmen saw what had happened. They took to their heels and spread the news in town and country, ³⁵ and people came out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting there at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind. They were afraid. ³⁶ People who had seen how the demoniac had been healed explained it to them. ³⁷ The whole crowd, from the surrounding country of the Gerasenes, asked him to go away from them, because great terror had seized them. So he got into the boat and returned.

³⁸ The man who had been demon-possessed begged Jesus to let him stay with him. But he sent him away. ³⁹ “Go back to your home,” he said, “and tell them what God has done for you.” And he went off round every town, declaring what Jesus had done for him.

Jairus’s daughter and the woman with chronic bleeding

⁴⁰ Jesus returned. A large crowd was waiting for him, and welcomed him back. ⁴¹ A man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell down in front of his feet. He pleaded with him to come to his house, ⁴² because he had an only daughter, twelve years old, who was dying. So they set off, and the crowd pressed close in around him.

⁴³ There was a woman who had had an internal hemorrhage for twelve years. She had spent all she had on doctors, but had not been able to find a cure from anyone. ⁴⁴ She came up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his robe. Immediately her flow of blood dried up.

⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” asked Jesus.

Everybody denied it. “Master,” said Peter, “the crowds are crushing you and pressing you!”

⁴⁶ “Somebody touched me,” said Jesus. “Power went out from me, and I knew it.”

⁴⁷ When the woman saw that she couldn’t remain hidden, she came up, trembling, and fell down in front of him. She told him, in front of everyone, why she had touched him, and how she had been healed instantly.

⁴⁸ “Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

⁴⁹ While he was still speaking, someone arrived from the synagogue-ruler’s house. “Your daughter’s dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any longer.”

⁵⁰ “Don’t be afraid,” said Jesus when he heard it. “Just believe, and she will be rescued.”

⁵¹ When they got to the house, he didn’t let anyone come in with them except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵² Everyone was weeping and wailing for her.

“Don’t cry,” said Jesus. “She isn’t dead; she’s asleep.” ⁵³ They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.

⁵⁴ But he took her by the hand. “Get up, child,” he called. ⁵⁵ Her spirit returned, and she got up at once. He told them to give her something to eat. ⁵⁶ Her parents were astounded, but he told them to tell nobody what had happened.

The Twelve sent out and the feeding of the five thousand

9 Jesus called together the Twelve, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. ² He sent them out to announce God’s kingdom and cure the sick.

³ “Don’t take anything for the journey,” he said to them, “no stick, no bag, no bread, no money, no second cloak. ⁴ Whenever you go into a house, stay there and leave from there. ⁵ If anyone won’t receive you, go out of that town and wipe the dust off your feet as evidence against them.”

⁶ So off they went, and traveled through the villages, announcing the good news and healing people everywhere.

⁷ Herod the Tetrarch heard what was going on, and was very puzzled. Some people were saying that John had been raised from the dead. ⁸ Others were saying that Elijah had appeared; still others, that one of the old prophets had arisen.

⁹ “I beheaded John,” said Herod, “but I keep hearing all these things about this other fellow. Who is he?” And he tried to get to see him.

¹⁰ The apostles returned and told Jesus what they had done. He took them off and went away privately to a town called Bethsaida. ¹¹ When the crowds discovered, they followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed it.

¹² As the day wore on, the Twelve came to Jesus.

“Send the crowd away,” they said, “so that they can go into the villages and countryside nearby, find somewhere to stay, and get something to eat. We’re in quite a lonely spot here.”

¹³ “You give them something to eat,” he replied.

“All we’ve got here,” they said, “is five loaves and a couple of fishes—unless you mean we should go ourselves and buy food for all these people?” ¹⁴ (There were about five thousand men.)

“Get them to sit down,” Jesus said to them, “in groups of around fifty each.”

¹⁵ They did so, and everyone sat down. ¹⁶ Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven, blessed the food, divided it, and gave it to the disciples to pass around the crowd. ¹⁷ Everyone ate, and was satisfied. They took up twelve baskets of broken bits left over.

Peter’s declaration of Jesus’ messiahship

¹⁸ When Jesus was praying alone, his disciples gathered around him.

“Who do the crowds say I am?” he asked them.

¹⁹ “John the Baptist,” they responded. “And others say Elijah. Others say that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.”

²⁰ “What about you?” said Jesus. “Who do you say I am?”

“God’s Messiah,” answered Peter.

²¹ He gave them strict and careful instructions not to tell this to anyone.

²² “The son of man,” he said, “must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the legal experts. He must be killed, and raised up on the third day.”

²³ He then spoke to them all. “If any of you want to come after me,” he said, “you must say no to yourselves, and pick up your cross every day, and follow me. ²⁴ If you want to save your life, you’ll lose it; but if you lose your life because of me, you’ll save it. ²⁵ What good will it do you if you win the entire world, but lose or forfeit your own self? ²⁶ If you’re ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of you, when he comes in the glory which belongs to him, and to the father, and to the holy angels.

²⁷ “Let me tell you,” he concluded, “there are some standing here who won’t experience death until they see God’s kingdom.”

The transfiguration

²⁸ About eight days after this conversation, Jesus took Peter, John and James and went up a mountain to pray. ²⁹ And, as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became shining white. ³⁰ Two men appeared, talking with him: it was Moses and Elijah, ³¹ who appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was going to fulfill in Jerusalem.

³² Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but they managed to stay awake. They saw his glory, and the two men who were standing there with him.

³³ As they were going away from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah!” He didn’t know what he was saying; ³⁴ but as the words were coming out of his mouth a cloud appeared and overshadowed them. They were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ And a voice came from the cloud: “This is my son, my chosen one: listen to him.” ³⁶ As the voice spoke, there was Jesus by himself. They kept silent, and told nobody at that time anything of what they had seen.

³⁷ The next day, as they were going down from the mountain, a large crowd met them. ³⁸ A man from the crowd shouted out, “Teacher! Please, please have a look at my son! He’s my only child, ³⁹ and look what’s happening to him! A spirit seizes him, and suddenly it shrieks and convulses him, so that he foams at the mouth. It goes on savaging him, and it’s almost impossible to get it to leave him. ⁴⁰ I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they couldn’t.”

⁴¹ “You faithless and depraved generation!” said Jesus in reply. “How long shall I be with you and have to put up with you? Bring your son here.”

⁴² While he was on the way, the demon tore at him and threw him into convulsions. Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father. ⁴³ Everyone was astonished at the greatness of God.

While they were all still expressing amazement at everything he had done, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁴ “Let these words go right down into your ears: the son of man is to be given over into human hands.” ⁴⁵ They had no idea what he was talking about. It was hidden from them, so that they wouldn’t perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had said.

The nature of discipleship

⁴⁶ A dispute arose among them about which of them was the greatest. ⁴⁷ Jesus knew this quarrel was going on in their hearts, so he took a child and stood it beside him.

⁴⁸ “If you receive this child in my name,” he said, “you receive me. And anyone who receives me, receives the one who sent me. Whoever is the least among you—that’s the one who is great.”

⁴⁹ “Master,” commented John, “we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We told him to stop, because he wasn’t part of our company.”

⁵⁰ “Don’t stop him,” replied Jesus. “Anyone who isn’t against you is on your side.”

⁵¹ As the time came nearer for Jesus to be taken up, he settled it in his mind to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² He sent messengers ahead of him. They came into a Samaritan village to get them ready, ⁵³ and they refused to receive him, because his mind was set on going to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Master, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and burn them up?” ⁵⁵ He turned and rebuked them, ⁵⁶ and they went on to another village.

⁵⁷ As they were going along the road a man addressed Jesus.

“Wherever you’re going,” he said, “I’ll follow you!”

⁵⁸ “Foxes have lairs,” Jesus replied, “and the birds in the sky have nests; but the son of man doesn’t have anywhere to lay his head.”

⁵⁹ To another person he said, “Follow me.”

“Master,” he replied, “let me first go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰ “Let the dead bury their dead,” said Jesus. “You must go and announce God’s kingdom.”

⁶¹ “I will follow you, Master,” said another, “but first let me say goodbye to the people at home.”

⁶² “Nobody,” replied Jesus, “who begins to plow and then looks over his shoulder is fit for God’s kingdom.”