Luke 9

₁Jesus called his 12 disciples and He gave them the power to chase_evil_spirits_out of people and to heal the sick people. ₂He sent them to tell people about God who is King and that He rules, and that they had to go and heal sick people. ₃He told them not to take a staff with them, or food or a bag or any money or extra clothes. ₄Jesus also said: ‘If people invite you to come and stay in their home, you must stay there until you go away from that town. ₅If people do not welcome you, leave that town and clean the sand and dust from that town off your feet. Shake it off. That will be a warning to them that God will punish them.’

₆The disciples went to all the towns and they told the people the Good_News and they healed people everywhere.

₇They told King Herod about all the things that had happened and he was worried because some people said that Jesus was John the Baptist who had started to live again. ₈Some people said Jesus was Elijah and other people said Jesus was a prophet. They said He was one of the prophets who had lived long before and now lived again. ₉But King Herod said: ‘No, I told them to cut off John the Baptist's head, but I don't know who this Man is.’ King Herod wanted to see Jesus.

₁₀When the apostles came back, they told Jesus everything that they had done. Then Jesus told them to go with Him to the town of Bethsaida so that they could be alone. ₁₁But some other people heard where they were going and they also went there. Jesus welcomed them and He started to tell them about God who is King and that He rules. Jesus healed all the people who were sick. ₁₂Late in the afternoon, Jesus' disciples came to Him and they said: ‘It is very late now and we are far from a town. Tell the people to go away to the farms and towns so they can buy food to eat and get a place to sleep.’ ₁₃But Jesus said: ‘No, you must give them food to eat.’ The disciples said: ‘We have only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. We can not give food to all these people. We will have to go and buy food.’

₁₄There were a lot of people. The men were about 5 000. Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Tell the people to sit together in groups of about 50 people in each group.’ ₁₅The disciples did that and they told the people to sit. ₁₆Then Jesus took the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 fish and He looked up to heaven. He praised God and thanked Him for the food. Then He broke the bread into pieces and He gave it to his disciples and they gave it to the people. ₁₇Everyone had enough to eat. When all the people had finished eating, the disciples picked up 12 big baskets of bread and fish that the people had not eaten.

₁₈One day Jesus was alone. He was praying. His disciples came to Him and Jesus asked them: ‘What do the people say? Who am I?’ ₁₉The disciples said to Jesus: ‘Some people say You are John the Baptist and some people say You are Elijah. Some people say You are one of the prophets who lived long ago and who has now started to live again.’

₂₀Then Jesus asked them: ‘But you, what do you say? Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered Him and said: ‘You are the Christ that God has sent.’ ₂₁Jesus said to his disciples that they must not tell other people that He was the Christ. ₂₂He also said the family leaders, the chief_priests and teachers_of_the_Laws would do very bad things to Him, the Son of man. They would not accept Him, and they would kill Him, but on the 3rd day, God would raise Him and He would live again.

₂₃Jesus said to all the people: ‘If someone wants to come with Me, then he must forget about himself. He must live like a person who knows that he will die on a cross. That is how he must follow Me every day. ₂₄Because if you want to save yourself, then you will lose your life. But if you have to die because you love Me, then you will save your life. ₂₅If you get everything in the world, but you lose your life, then you will have nothing. ₂₆If someone does not want to know Me and he does not want to believe what I say, then I will not say that I, the Son of man, know him. I will not want to know him when I come with the holy angels, when I am King as my Father is King. ₂₇I tell you this and it is sure: Some people who are standing here now will see that God is King. They will see it before they die.’

₂₈About 8 days after Jesus said that, He took Peter, John and James with Him. They went to a high mountain to pray. ₂₉While Jesus was praying, his face changed and his clothes started to shine. They were very white. ₃₀When they looked again, there were 2 men who were talking to Jesus. They were Moses and Elijah ₃₁and they looked like kings. They talked about how Jesus would die in Jerusalem a few days later. ₃₂Peter, John and James started to sleep and when they woke up later, they saw the glory of Jesus and the 2 men standing with Him. ₃₃When Moses and Elijah started to go away from Jesus, Peter said to Jesus: ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. Can we put up 3 shelters, one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah?’

Peter said that because he did not know what to say. ₃₄While Peter was speaking, a cloud came over them. They were in the cloud and the 3 disciples were afraid. ₃₅The disciples heard God speaking from the cloud. He said: ‘This is my Son. I chose Him and you must do what He says.’

₃₆When God had finished speaking, the 3 disciples saw only Jesus. The disciples did not speak about this for a long time. They did not tell the other disciples what they had seen.

₃₇The next day Jesus and the 3 disciples came down from the mountain and a lot of people came to Him. ₃₈One man shouted and said: ‘Teacher, I beg You, please help my son. He is my only son. ₃₉There is an evil_spirit that attacks my son and then he starts to shout. The evil_spirit makes him fall onto the ground, then there is foam that comes out of his mouth and he kicks and shakes. The spirit does not go away and he wants to kill my son. ₄₀I have asked your disciples to chase_the_spirit_out, but they could not do it.’ ₄₁Jesus said to them: ‘You people do not believe Me. How long must I stay with you? How long do I have to be patient with you? Bring the boy to Me.’

₄₂When the boy came to Jesus, the devil made him fall onto the ground and he started to kick and shake. Jesus rebuked the evil_spirit and He chased_him_out of the boy. Jesus healed the boy and He gave him back to his father. ₄₃All the people were amazed because God is so strong and can do everything.

All the people were amazed at what Jesus had done. But Jesus told his disciples: ₄₄‘You must listen carefully to what I tell you. I am the Son of man. My God will give Me over to the people so that they can kill Me.’

₄₅The disciples did not understand what Jesus said. God had not yet shown them what these words meant and they could not understand them. They were afraid to ask Jesus what these words meant.

₄₆The disciples argued with each other about which one of them was the most important. ₄₇Jesus knew what they were thinking. He took a child and He let the child stand with Him. ₄₈Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If you welcome one of my children, you welcome Me. And if you welcome Me, then you welcome my Father who sent Me. The one who is the most humble is the most important to God.’

₄₉John said to Jesus: ‘Teacher, we saw someone who used your name to chase_demons out of people. We tried to stop him because he is not here with us and with You.’ ₅₀But Jesus told John: ‘Don't stop him, because if he is not against you, then he is helping you.’

₅₁It was almost time for Jesus to go to heaven. He decided to go to Jerusalem. ₅₂He sent people to a town in Samaria to get food and a place to sleep. ₅₃But the people did not want Jesus to go to them because someone had told them that Jesus wanted to go to Jerusalem. ₅₄James and John, 2 of Jesus' disciples, saw what happened and they asked Jesus: ‘Lord, may we pray that fire will come from heaven and burn these people?’ ₅₅But Jesus looked at James and John and He rebuked them. ₅₆Then Jesus and his disciples went to another town.

₅₇Jesus and his disciples were going to Jerusalem. A man came to Jesus and said to Him: ‘I will go with You to any place where You go.’ ₅₈Jesus said to him: ‘Wild animals have their place to sleep and birds live in nests, but I, the Son of man, do not have a place that is my home.’

₅₉Jesus said to another man: ‘Come with Me.’ But the man said: ‘Lord, I want to go with You, but I first have to wait until my father has died and I have buried him, then I will go with You.’ ₆₀Jesus said to him: ‘It is more important to follow Me than to wait until your father has been buried. You must go and tell people about God who is King.’

₆₁Then someone said to Jesus: ‘I will go with You, but I first want to go to my family to say goodbye to them.’ ₆₂Jesus said to him: ‘A man who ploughs a field has to look in front of him. If he looks back all the time, he can not plough well. Someone like that is not good enough to work for God who is King.’