Mark 6:30 The apostles returned to Jesus from
their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught.
31 Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by
ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so
many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time
to eat.
32 So they left by boat for a quiet place,
where they could be alone.
33 But many people recognized them and saw
them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got
there ahead of them.
34 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped
from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep
without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 Late in the afternoon his disciples came
to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late.
36 Send the crowds away so they can go to
the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”
37 But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With
what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy
food for all these people!”
38 “How much bread do you have?” he asked.
“Go and find out.” They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread
and two fish.”
39 Then Jesus told the disciples to have
the people sit down in groups on the green grass.
40 So they sat down in groups of fifty or a
hundred.
41 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish,
looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into
pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it
to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share.
42 They all ate as much as they wanted,
43 and afterward, the disciples picked up
twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish.
44 A total of 5,000 men and their families
were fed.
45 Immediately after this, Jesus insisted
that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to
Bethsaida, while he sent the people home.
46 After telling everyone good-bye, he went
up into the hills by himself to pray.
47 Late that night, the disciples were in
their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land.
48 He saw that they were in serious
trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock
in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go
past them,
49 but when they saw him walking on the
water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost.
50 They were all terrified when they saw
him. But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take
courage! I am here! ”
51 Then he climbed into the boat, and the
wind stopped. They were totally amazed,
52 for they still didn’t understand the
significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take
it in.
53 After they had crossed the lake, they
landed at Gennesaret. They brought the boat to shore
54 and climbed out. The people recognized
Jesus at once,
55 and they ran throughout the whole area,
carrying sick people on mats to wherever they heard he was.
56 Wherever he went—in villages, cities, or
the countryside—they brought the sick out to the marketplaces. They begged him
to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him
were healed.
Mark 7
1 One day some Pharisees and teachers of
religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.
2 They noticed that some of his disciples
failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating.
3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do
not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by
their ancient traditions.
4 Similarly, they don’t eat anything from
the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many
traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups,
pitchers, and kettles. )
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of
religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old
tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”
6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah
was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship is a farce, for they teach
man-made ideas as commands from God.’
8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute
your own tradition.”
9 Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep
God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.
10 For instance, Moses gave you this law
from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks
disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’
11 But you say it is all right for people
to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to
God what I would have given to you.’
12 In this way, you let them disregard
their needy parents.
13 And so you cancel the word of God in
order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many
others.”
14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come
and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
15 It’s not what goes into your body that
defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart. ”
16
17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away
from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had
just used.
18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked.
“Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you?
19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but
only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this,
he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
20 And then he added, “It is what comes
from inside that defiles you.
21 For from within, out of a person’s
heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit,
lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
23 All these vile things come from within;
they are what defile you.”
24 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north
to the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying
in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret.
25 Right away a woman who had heard about
him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit,
26 and she begged him to cast out the demon
from her daughter. Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia,
27 Jesus told her, “First I should feed the
children—my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
28 She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but
even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s
plates.”
29 “Good answer!” he said. “Now go home,
for the demon has left your daughter.”
30 And when she arrived home, she found her
little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.
31 Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon
before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns.
32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was
brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal
him.
33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so
they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on
his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue.
34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and
said, which means, “Be opened!”
35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly,
and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!
36 Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone,
but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news.
37 They were completely amazed and said
again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to
hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”
Mark 8
1 About this time another large crowd had
gathered, and the people ran out of food again. Jesus called his disciples and
told them,
2 “I feel sorry for these people. They
have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat.
3 If I send them home hungry, they will
faint along the way. For some of them have come a long distance.”
4 His disciples replied, “How are we
supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?”
5 Jesus asked, “How much bread do you
have?” “Seven loaves,” they replied.
6 So Jesus told all the people to sit down
on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, and broke
them into pieces. He gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to
the crowd.
7 A few small fish were found, too, so
Jesus also blessed these and told the disciples to distribute them.
8 They ate as much as they wanted.
Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food.
9 There were about 4,000 people in the
crowd that day, and Jesus sent them home after they had eaten.
10 Immediately after this, he got into a
boat with his disciples and crossed over to the region of Dalmanutha.
11 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had
arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded
that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.
12 When he heard this, he sighed deeply in
his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I
tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.”
13 So he got back into the boat and left
them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.
14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring
any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat.
15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned
them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this they began to argue with each
other because they hadn’t brought any bread.
17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he
said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand
even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in?
18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have
ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all?
19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of
bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?” “Twelve,” they
said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven
loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?” “Seven,” they
said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked
them.
22 When they arrived at Bethsaida, some
people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and
heal him.
23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and
led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands
on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”
24 The man looked around. “Yes,” he said,
“I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking
around.”
25 Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s
eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he
could see everything clearly.
26 Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go
back into the village on your way home.”
27 Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and
went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he
asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the
Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.”
29 Then he asked them, “But who do you say
I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah. ”
30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone
about him.
31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the
Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the
leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but
three days later he would rise from the dead.
32 As he talked about this openly with his
disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such
things.
33 Jesus turned around and looked at his
disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are
seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his
disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from
your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
35 If you try to hang on to your life, you
will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the
Good News, you will save it.
36 And what do you benefit if you gain the
whole world but lose your own soul?
37 Is anything worth more than your soul?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my
message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of
that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 9
1 Jesus went on to say, “I tell you the
truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of
God arrive in great power!”
2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James,
and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched,
Jesus’ appearance was transformed,
3 and his clothes became dazzling white,
far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them.
4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began
talking with Jesus.
5 Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful
for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials —one for you, one for
Moses, and one for Elijah.”
6 He said this because he didn’t really
know what else to say, for they were all terrified.
7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a
voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses
and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.
9 As they went back down the mountain, he
told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen
from the dead.
10 So they kept it to themselves, but they
often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”
11 Then they asked him, “Why do the
teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah
comes? ”
12 Jesus responded, “Elijah is indeed
coming first to get everything ready. Yet why do the Scriptures say that the
Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt?
13 But I tell you, Elijah has already come,
and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.”
14 When they returned to the other
disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of
religious law were arguing with them.
15 When the crowd saw Jesus, they were
overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him.
16 “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus
asked.
17 One of the men in the crowd spoke up and
said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an
evil spirit that won’t let him talk.
18 And whenever this spirit seizes him, it
throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his
teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit,
but they couldn’t do it.”
19 Jesus said to them, “You faithless
people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the
boy to me.”
20 So they brought the boy. But when the
evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he
fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
21 “How long has this been happening?”
Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy.
22 The spirit often throws him into the
fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you
can.”
23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus
asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
24 The father instantly cried out, “I do
believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the crowd of
onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that
makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out
of this child and never enter him again!”
26 Then the spirit screamed and threw the
boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead.
A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and
helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the
house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil
spirit?”
29 Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast
out only by prayer. ”
