The Man with a Paralyzed Hand

¹Then Jesus went back to the synagogue, where there was a man who had a paralyzed hand.

²Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong; so they watched him closely to see whether he would cure the man on the Sabbath.

³Jesus said to the man, “Come up here to the front.”

⁴Then he asked the people, “What does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save someone's life or to destroy it?” But they did not say a thing.

⁵Jesus was angry as he looked around at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it became well again.

⁶So the Pharisees left the synagogue and met at once with some members of Herod's party, and they made plans to kill Jesus.

A Crowd by the Lake

⁷Jesus and his disciples went away to Lake Galilee, and a large crowd followed him. They had come from Galilee, from Judea,

⁸from Jerusalem, from the territory of Idumea, from the territory on the east side of the Jordan, and from the region around the cities of Tyre and Sidon. All these people came to Jesus because they had heard of the things he was doing.

⁹The crowd was so large that Jesus told his disciples to get a boat ready for him, so that the people would not crush him.

¹⁰He had healed many people, and all the sick kept pushing their way to him in order to touch him.

¹¹And whenever the people who had evil spirits in them saw him, they would fall down before him and scream, “You are the Son of God!”

¹²Jesus sternly ordered the evil spirits not to tell anyone who he was.

Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles

¹³Then Jesus went up a hill and called to himself the men he wanted. They came to him,

¹⁴and he chose twelve, whom he named apostles. “I have chosen you to be with me,” he told them. “I will also send you out to preach,

¹⁵and you will have authority to drive out demons.”

¹⁶These are the twelve he chose: Simon (Jesus gave him the name Peter);

¹⁷James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee (Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means “Men of Thunder”);

¹⁸Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Patriot,

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

Jesus and Beelzebul

²⁰Then Jesus went home. Again such a large crowd gathered that Jesus and his disciples had no time to eat.

²¹When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, “He's gone mad!”

²²Some teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem were saying, “He has Beelzebul in him! It is the chief of the demons who gives him the power to drive them out.”

²³So Jesus called them to him and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?

²⁴If a country divides itself into groups which fight each other, that country will fall apart.

²⁵If a family divides itself into groups which fight each other, that family will fall apart.

²⁶So if Satan's kingdom divides into groups, it cannot last, but will fall apart and come to an end.

²⁷“No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

²⁸“I assure you that people can be forgiven all their sins and all the evil things they may say.

²⁹But whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, because he has committed an eternal sin.”

³⁰(Jesus said this because some people were saying, “He has an evil spirit in him.”)

Jesus' Mother and Brothers

³¹Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside the house and sent in a message, asking for him.

³²A crowd was sitting around Jesus, and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, and they want you.”

³³Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”

³⁴He looked at the people sitting around him and said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers!

³⁵Whoever does what God wants is my brother, my sister, my mother.”

The Parable of the Sower

¹Again Jesus began to teach beside Lake Galilee. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it. The boat was out in the water, and the crowd stood on the shore at the water's edge.

²He used parables to teach them many things, saying to them:

³“Listen! Once there was a man who went out to sow grain.

⁴As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn't deep.

⁶Then, when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up.

⁷Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants, and they didn't bear grain.

⁸But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants sprouted, grew, and bore grain: some had thirty grains, others sixty, and others one hundred.”

⁹And Jesus concluded, “Listen, then, if you have ears!”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰When Jesus was alone, some of those who had heard him came to him with the twelve disciples and asked him to explain the parables.

¹¹“You have been given the secret of the Kingdom of God,” Jesus answered. “But the others, who are on the outside, hear all things by means of parables,

¹²so that, ‘They may look and look, yet not see; they may listen and listen, yet not understand. For if they did, they would turn to God, and he would forgive them.’”

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Sower

¹³Then Jesus asked them, “Don't you understand this parable? How, then, will you ever understand any parable?

¹⁴The sower sows God's message.

¹⁵Some people are like the seeds that fall along the path; as soon as they hear the message, Satan comes and takes it away.

¹⁶Other people are like the seeds that fall on rocky ground. As soon as they hear the message, they receive it gladly.

¹⁷But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once.

¹⁸Other people are like the seeds sown among the thorn bushes. These are the ones who hear the message,

¹⁹but the worries about this life, the love for riches, and all other kinds of desires crowd in and choke the message, and they don't bear fruit.

²⁰But other people are like seeds sown in good soil. They hear the message, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred.”

A Lamp under a Bowl

²¹Jesus continued, “Does anyone ever bring in a lamp and put it under a bowl or under the bed? Isn't it put on the lampstand?

²²Whatever is hidden away will be brought out into the open, and whatever is covered up will be uncovered.

²³Listen, then, if you have ears!”

²⁴He also said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear! The same rules you use to judge others will be used by God to judge you—but with even greater severity.

²⁵Those who have something will be given more, and those who have nothing will have taken away from them even the little they have.”

The Parable of the Growing Seed

²⁶Jesus went on to say, “The Kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed in his field.

²⁷He sleeps at night, is up and about during the day, and all the while the seeds are sprouting and growing. Yet he does not know how it happens.

²⁸The soil itself makes the plants grow and bear fruit; first the tender stalk appears, then the head, and finally the head full of grain.

²⁹When the grain is ripe, the man starts cutting it with his sickle, because harvest time has come.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰“What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?” asked Jesus. “What parable shall we use to explain it?

³¹It is like this. A man takes a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world, and plants it in the ground.

³²After a while it grows up and becomes the biggest of all plants. It puts out such large branches that the birds come and make their nests in its shade.”

³³Jesus preached his message to the people, using many other parables like these; he told them as much as they could understand.

³⁴He would not speak to them without using parables, but when he was alone with his disciples, he would explain everything to them.

Jesus Calms a Storm

³⁵On the evening of that same day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”

³⁶So they left the crowd; the disciples got into the boat in which Jesus was already sitting, and they took him with them. Other boats were there too.

³⁷Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water.

³⁸Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don't you care that we are about to die?”

³⁹Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, “Be quiet!” and he said to the waves, “Be still!” The wind died down, and there was a great calm.

⁴⁰Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹But they were terribly afraid and began to say to one another, “Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

A Prayer for Victory

¹May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble! May the God of Jacob protect you!

²May he send you help from his Temple and give you aid from Mount Zion.

³May he accept all your offerings and be pleased with all your sacrifices.

⁴May he give you what you desire and make all your plans succeed.

⁵Then we will shout for joy over your victory and celebrate your triumph by praising our God. May the Lord answer all your requests.

⁶Now I know that the Lord gives victory to his chosen king; he answers him from his holy heaven and by his power gives him great victories.

⁷Some trust in their war chariots and others in their horses, but we trust in the power of the Lord our God.

⁸Such people will stumble and fall, but we will rise and stand firm.

⁹Give victory to the king, O Lord; answer us when we call.