II. Jesus' Ministry in Galilee (1:14;6:29)
Mark 1
14 Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus
went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News.
15 “The time promised by God has come at
last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and
believe the Good News!”
16 One day as Jesus was walking along the
shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net
into the water, for they fished for a living.
17 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow
me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”
18 And they left their nets at once and
followed him.
19 A little farther up the shore Jesus saw
Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets.
20 He called them at once, and they also
followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.
21 Jesus and his companions went to the
town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and
began to teach.
22 The people were amazed at his teaching,
for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.
23 Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was
possessed by an evil spirit began shouting,
24 “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus
of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of
God!”
25 Jesus cut him short. “Be quiet! Come out
of the man,” he ordered.
26 At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw
the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him.
27 Amazement gripped the audience, and they
began to discuss what had happened. “What sort of new teaching is this?” they
asked excitedly. “It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey his orders!”
28 The news about Jesus spread quickly
throughout the entire region of Galilee.
29 After Jesus left the synagogue with
James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew’s home.
30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in
bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away.
31 So he went to her bedside, took her by
the hand, and helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a
meal for them.
32 That evening after sunset, many sick and
demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus.
33 The whole town gathered at the door to
watch.
34 So Jesus healed many people who were
sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons
knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak.
35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus
got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.
36 Later Simon and the others went out to
find him.
37 When they found him, they said,
“Everyone is looking for you.”
38 But Jesus replied, “We must go on to
other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.”
39 So he traveled throughout the region of
Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.
40 A man with leprosy came and knelt in
front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and
make me clean,” he said.
41 Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out
and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!”
42 Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and
the man was healed.
43 Then Jesus sent him on his way with a
stern warning:
44 “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead,
go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in
the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a
public testimony that you have been cleansed.”
45 But the man went and spread the word,
proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon
surrounded Jesus, and he couldn’t publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to
stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.
Mark 2
1 When Jesus returned to Capernaum several
days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home.
2 Soon the house where he was staying was
so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door.
While he was preaching God’s word to them,
3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed
man on a mat.
4 They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because
of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they
lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus.
5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the
paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the teachers of religious
law who were sitting there thought to themselves,
7 “What is he saying? This is blasphemy!
Only God can forgive sins!”
8 Jesus knew immediately what they were
thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts?
9 Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man
‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’?
10 So I will prove to you that the Son of
Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the
paralyzed man and said,
11 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go
home!”
12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat,
and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised
God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”
13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore
again and taught the crowds that were coming to him.
14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of
Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,”
Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.
15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his
disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and
other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’
followers.)
16 But when the teachers of religious law
who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they
asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum? ”
17 When Jesus heard this, he told them,
“Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not
those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
18 Once when John’s disciples and the
Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your
disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?”
19 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast
while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the
groom is with them.
20 But someday the groom will be taken away
from them, and then they will fast.
21 “Besides, who would patch old clothing
with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth,
leaving an even bigger tear than before.
22 “And no one puts new wine into old
wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins
would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”
23 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking
through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to
eat.
24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look,
why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”
25 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever
read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
26 He went into the house of God (during
the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred
loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to
his companions.”
27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath
was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements
of the Sabbath.
28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the
Sabbath!”
Mark 3
1 Jesus went into the synagogue again and
noticed a man with a deformed hand.
2 Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies
watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of
working on the Sabbath.
3 Jesus said to the man with the deformed
hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.”
4 Then he turned to his critics and asked,
“Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil?
Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him.
5 He looked around at them angrily and was
deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your
hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!
6 At once the Pharisees went away and met
with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
7 Jesus went out to the lake with his
disciples, and a large crowd followed him. They came from all over Galilee,
Judea,
8 Jerusalem, Idumea, from east of the
Jordan River, and even from as far north as Tyre and Sidon. The news about his
miracles had spread far and wide, and vast numbers of people came to see him.
9 Jesus instructed his disciples to have a
boat ready so the crowd would not crush him.
10 He had healed many people that day, so
all the sick people eagerly pushed forward to touch him.
11 And whenever those possessed by evil
spirits caught sight of him, the spirits would throw them to the ground in
front of him shrieking, “You are the Son of God!”
12 But Jesus sternly commanded the spirits
not to reveal who he was.
