The women who looked after Jesus and his disciples
1Jesus went to a lot of towns and cities, telling people the Good_News about God who is King. His 12 disciples went with Him and 2there were women with them. Jesus had healed these women before when they were sick and when He chased_evil_spirits_out of them. One of the women was Mary Magdalene. She had had 7 demons in her. 3Another woman was Joanna, the wife of Chuza. He was the head of the people who worked in King Herod's palace. There were also Susanna and a lot of other women who were with Jesus and his disciples. They used their money to care for Jesus and his disciples.
The parable of the sower
4A lot of people came to Jesus from all the towns and then Jesus told them this parable. He said:
5‘A farmer went to sow seeds. He was a sower. As he sowed, some seeds fell onto the path in the wheat_field. People walked on the seeds and the birds came and they ate all the other seeds. 6Some of the seeds fell into rocky_ground. The ground was not deep and the seeds started to grow, but the plants soon dried up because there was no water in the ground. 7Some of the seeds fell among weeds. The weeds grew faster and they stopped the plants from growing. 8Some of the seeds fell into good ground. The plants came up and grew and there was a lot of wheat on them, 100 times more than the grains_of_wheat that the man had sown.’
When Jesus had finished telling this parable, He said: ‘If anyone can understand what I say, he must do what I tell him.’
Jesus says why He tells parables
9The disciples asked Jesus what the parable meant. 10Jesus said: ‘God has helped you to understand the secret that He is King and that He rules over all. But the people who do not belong to Me do not understand that. I use parables, and
“that is why they will look and look,
but they will not see.
They will hear and hear,
but they will not understand.” ’
Jesus says what the parable of the sower means
11Jesus said to his disciples:
‘This is what the parable means: The seeds are the message of God. 12The seeds that fell onto the path are like God's message that people hear, but the devil comes and he takes the message away out of their hearts. They do not start believing and God does not save them. 13The seeds that fell into rocky_ground are the people who are happy when they hear the message and they believe it immediately. But when people oppress them and they suffer because they believe in God, they stop believing.
14The seeds that fell among weeds are the people who hear the message but they start to worry about the things of this_life on earth. They think only about money and they want to get rich. The things of this world are like weeds that grow over the plants and the plants can not grow. Other things are more important to these people than the message of God. That is why the message can not turn their lives to God. They are like plants that have no fruit. 15But the seeds that fell into good ground are the people who listen to the message and believe it with all their hearts and they become honest. They remember the message and they do good things like plants that always have good fruit.’
The parable of the lamp
16Jesus said:
‘You do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl or put it away under the bed. No one does that. No, you put a lamp on the table and the light shines so that everyone in the house can see. 17God is King and no person can hide this like a secret. Everyone will know this and everyone will see it. 18You must listen carefully to the message of God, because if someone understands it and he tells everyone about God who is King, then God will help him to understand more and understand it better. But if someone does not understand the message of God, then God will not let him understand other things that he thinks he understands.’
Who is the mother of Jesus? Who are his brothers?
19Jesus' mother and brothers came to see Him. They could not come near Him because there were too many people around Him. 20Someone told Jesus: ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside. They want to talk to You.’
21But Jesus said to them: ‘My mother and my brothers are the people who listen to the message of God and do what God wants.’
Jesus calms the storm
22One day Jesus and his disciples got into a boat. Jesus said to them: ‘We must go over to the other side of the lake.’
They went but 23before they got there, Jesus started to sleep. A strong storm wind started to blow and the waves of the lake became so high that the water came into the boat. 24The disciples went to Jesus and woke Him up. They said: ‘Lord, help us. We are going to drown.’
When Jesus woke up, He rebuked the wind and the big waves. The wind stopped and everything became calm. 25Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Why don't you believe?’ But the disciples were afraid. They were surprised. They asked each other: ‘Who is this Man? He tells the wind and the water that they must be calm and they listen to Him.’
Jesus chases_evil_spirits_out of a man
26Jesus and his disciples went to the other side of Lake Galilee into the land of the Gerasenes, east of Galilee. 27When Jesus got out of the boat, a man from one of those towns came to Him. The man was full of demons. He was mad, he did not have any clothes and he did not live in a house. He lived in the graveyard. 28-29When the man saw Jesus, he shouted_loudly and fell to the ground in front of Jesus. The impure_spirit often attacked the man. The people tried to tie his hands and feet with chains and guard him. But the man always broke the chains and then the devil chased the man into the desert. Jesus told the impure_spirit to go out of the man. Then the spirit shouted and said: ‘What do You want from me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I ask you: Please do not hurt me.’
30Jesus asked him: ‘What is your name?’ He answered: ‘My name is Legion.’ He had this name because there were a lot of demons in him. 31The demons begged Jesus not to send them to hell. 32There were a lot of pigs that were eating on the side of the mountain. The demons begged Jesus to send them into the pigs. Jesus said they could go. 33The demons went out of the man and they went into the pigs. The pigs started to run down the mountain and they all fell into the lake and drowned. 34When the people who looked after the pigs saw what had happened, they ran to the town and to the farms and they told everyone. 35The people came to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had had the demons in him. He was sitting at the feet of Jesus and he was wearing clothes. There were no more demons in him and he was not mad anymore. The people were afraid. 36The people who saw how Jesus saved the man who was full of demons, and saw how Jesus healed him, told everyone. 37Then the people from the land of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to go away because they were all afraid. Jesus got into the boat and they went away. 38The man who had had the demons in him begged Jesus to let him go with Him, but Jesus said no. Jesus told him: 39‘Go back to your house and tell the people what God has done for you.’
The man went away and he told everyone in the town what Jesus had done for him.
Jesus heals a girl and a woman
40Jesus came back to Galilee. A lot of people came to Him. They had been waiting for Him to come. 41A man came to Jesus. His name was Jairus. He was an important man in the synagogue. He came to Jesus and knelt in front of Him and he begged Jesus to come to his house. 42Jairus had only one daughter who was 12 years old. She was very sick and she was dying. Jesus went to her and there were so many people who went with Him that they pushed against Jesus.
43One of the people was a woman who had been sick for 12 years. Blood was coming out of her all the time. She gave all her money to pay the doctors, but no one could heal her. 44The woman came from behind and she touched Jesus' clothes. Her bleeding stopped immediately. 45Jesus asked: ‘Who touched Me?’ Everyone said they had not touched Him and Peter said: ‘Lord, there are a lot of people here who are pushing against You.’ 46But Jesus said: ‘Someone touched Me. I felt power going out from Me.’
47The woman realised that Jesus knew it was she who had touched Him. She trembled and she came to Jesus and knelt in front of Him. Then she told all the people why she had touched Him and that she had been healed immediately. 48Jesus said to her: ‘You are well now because you believe in Me. Now you can go in peace.’
49While Jesus was speaking, one of Jairus' people came from his home. He told Jairus: ‘Your daughter is dead. Don't ask the Teacher to come anymore.’ 50But Jesus heard this and He said to Jairus: ‘Do not be afraid. Just believe that God will save your daughter.’
51When Jesus came to Jairus' house, He did not want other people to go with Him. He asked only Peter, John and James and the parents of the child to go with Him. 52The other people were crying and mourning because the girl was dead. But Jesus said: ‘Do not cry. The girl is not dead. She is sleeping.’ 53The people laughed at Jesus because they knew that the girl was dead. 54Then Jesus took her hand and He said: ‘Child, get up.’ 55The girl started to live again and she got up immediately. Jesus then told her parents to give her some food to eat. 56Her parents were very happy, but Jesus said they must not tell anyone what had happened.
