New Testament in a Year

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve^(A)

9 Jesus^[a] called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. ² Then he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. ³ He told them, “Don’t take anything along on your trip—no walking stick, traveling bag, bread, money, or even an extra shirt.^{[b] 4} When you visit a home and stay there, and go out from there, ⁵ if people don’t welcome you, when you leave that city, shake its dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” ⁶ So they left and went from village to village, spreading the good news and healing diseases everywhere.

Herod Tries to See Jesus^(B)

⁷ Now Herod the tetrarch heard about everything that was happening. He was puzzled because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, ⁸ by others that Elijah had appeared, and by still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. ⁹ Herod said, “I beheaded John. But who is this man I’m hearing so much about?” So Herod^[c] kept trying to see Jesus.^[d]

Jesus Feeds More than Five Thousand People^(C)

¹⁰ The apostles came back and told Jesus^[e] everything they had done. Then he took them away with him privately to a city called Bethsaida. ¹¹ But the crowds found out about this and followed him. He welcomed them and began to speak to them about the kingdom of God and to heal those who needed healing.

¹² As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away to the neighboring villages and farms so they can rest and get some food, because we are here in a deserted place.”

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

They replied, “We have nothing more than five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all these people.”

¹⁴ Now there were about 5,000 men. So he told his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about 50.” ¹⁵ They did this and got all of them seated. ¹⁶ Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves in pieces and kept giving them to the disciples to pass on to the crowd. ¹⁷ All of them ate and were filled. When they collected the leftover pieces, there were twelve baskets.