6
Jesus' own countrymen rubbished him
And you can read this story in Matthew 13:53-58; Luke 4:16-30
1 Then Jesus and his followers left that place and went back to his home town called Nazareth.
2-3 On the next Jewish rest day, Jesus went to the Jewish meeting house and started to teach the people about God*. A lot of people were really amazed when they heard his words and they said, “Hey, we know this man and we know where he comes from. His mother Mary lives here with his brothers James, Joses and Judas. And his sisters live here too. He just makes things with wood and stone. So where did he learn all these things about God? And who was his teacher? And how come he can do such powerful things for people?” The people in the meeting got really angry with Jesus and would not believe anything he said.
4 Then Jesus said to them, “If God sends a man to give a message to people that don't know him, those people will respect him. But if God tells a man to give his own countrymen a message, they will not respect him. Even his close family and relations will not listen to him.”+
5 The people in his home town did not believe in Jesus, so he could not do any really powerful things for them. But he did touch a few sick people and make them better. 6 He was really shocked that his own people did not trust him, so he left Nazareth, and went to other communities in that country to teach them about God.
Jesus sent out his 12 close followers
And you can read this story in Matthew 10:5-15 and in Luke 9:1-6
7-11 Jesus called his 12 close followers to come to him. He said to them, “I want you to go to all the towns and tell the people my message.+ Do not take a bag, or food, or money, or spare clothes with you. Just take your shoes and a walking stick. When you get to a town, let the people look after you. If the people are happy for you to be there, stay there in one of the houses. Don't move from house to house.
But if the people in that town do not want you to stay, or they will not listen to you, then I want you to leave that town. And when you are leaving that town, shake the dirt off your foot as a warning that they did not take notice of God's words.”+
And Jesus said to his followers, “I am giving you my power to send bad spirits out of people.” Then Jesus split his followers up into 6 teams with 2 men in each team, and he sent them out to do God's work. 12 So they went all over that country, telling everyone to turn around, change their lives and live God's way. 13 The followers sent a lot of bad spirits out of people, and they put olive oil on anyone that was sick and those sick people got better.+
Herod killed John the Baptist
And you can read this story in Matthew 14:1-12 and in Luke 9:7-9
14-29 This is the story of what happened to John the Baptist.
Before this time, King Herod's brother Philip was married to a woman whose name was Her-road-ias (Herodias). But Her-road-ias left her husband and married King Herod. So John said to Herod, “You should not be with your brother's wife. You are breaking God's law!” +
Her-road-ias hated John for saying this and she wanted to kill him. But to stop Her-road-ias from hurting John, Herod sent some men to arrest John and keep him safe in jail.+ King Herod knew that John was a man that told God's messages and he liked talking to him. He respected John but he did not always understand what John was talking about and he was a little bit frightened of him too.
On his birthday, Herod had a party. He invited all the leaders of his army, all the important government workers and community leaders from Galilee. At this party Her-road-ias got her chance to get back at John.
Her-road-ias' daughter came in and danced at the party. Everyone liked her dancing so much that Herod said to her, “You have danced really well, and I want to give you a present. I promise you that you can ask for anything you want, even if I have to give you half of my country.”
The girl did not know what to ask for, so she went outside and said to her mother, “King Herod wants to give me a present. What will I ask for?”
Her mother said, “Go back in and ask for the head of John the Baptist.”
Straight away the girl went back to the party and said to Herod, “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a big plate and I want it right now!”
Herod was really sad to hear these words. But he did not want to break his promise and be shamed in front of all the people at the party. So he sent a man to cut off John's head and bring it back on a big plate.
The man went to the jail. He cut off John's head and then he took it back to the party. Herod gave it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.
When John's friends heard the bad news, they came and took his body away and buried it.
Herod was worried about Jesus
Everywhere in that country, people were talking about Jesus and all the powerful things he was doing. Some people said Jesus was that old man from a long time ago named Elijah. Other people said that Jesus was like those men from a long time ago who told people God's messages. But some people reckoned that Jesus was really John the Baptist come back to life.
When King Herod heard these stories he said, “I got a man to cut off John's head. So Jesus must be John the Baptist come back to life again! That is how he does all those powerful things.”
Jesus gave more than 5,000 people something to eat
And you can read this story in Matthew 14:13-21 in Luke 9:10-17 and in John 6:1-14
30 Some time later, Jesus' 12 close followers came back from teaching people in the towns they visited. They were standing around him and they told him all the things they had done.
31 While they were talking, a lot of other people were coming to see Jesus too. Jesus and his followers were so busy that they did not get a chance to eat anything, so Jesus said, “Let's go away from everyone to a quiet place, and have a rest.”
32-33 So they got into a boat and started to go across the lake to that quiet place. But a lot of people saw them leave, and they knew where they were going. The people ran around the side of the lake, and got there first.
34 When Jesus and his followers got out of the boat, Jesus looked at all the people waiting for him on the sand, and he was sad for them. They looked like a mob of sheep that had no-one to look after them. So he started to teach them a lot of things about God.+
35 At the end of the day, Jesus' followers went to him and said, “It's nearly time for the sun to go down, and nobody lives here. 36 We think you should send the people away so that they can go to a farm or to a town, to buy some food.”
37 Jesus said to them, “No. I want you to give them something to eat.”
But they said, “What? We would have to work for more than half a year to feed this mob!”
38 Jesus said to them, “Go and see how much food you've got.”
They came back and said, “We have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.”
39-40 Jesus said to his followers, “Tell the people to sit down on the green grass.”
The people sat down in groups of 50 and 100.
41 When everyone was sitting down, Jesus picked up the bread and the fish. He looked up to the sky and said, “Thank you God for this bread and for this fish.” He broke up the bread and the fish, and gave the food to his followers to share with all the people.
42-44 All the 5,000 men and their families had a good feed that day, and later on Jesus' followers picked up all the food that was left over and they filled 12 big baskets.
45 Straight away, Jesus said to his followers, “I want you to get into the boat and row across the lake to Beth-say-da (Bethsaida). I will see you later.”
Then he said to the people, “It is time for you to go home now.” 46 He said goodbye to them and then he went up into the hills to pray.
Jesus walked on the water
47 When night time came, the boat was only half-way across the lake, and Jesus was still back on the land.
48 A strong wind was blowing across the lake and Jesus saw that the men were having a hard time rowing the boat. Just before the sun came up, Jesus walked to them on the water, but it looked like he was going to walk past them.
49-50 When they saw Jesus walking on the water, they thought he was a ghost. They were so frightened that they screamed. But Jesus said to them, “Don't be frightened, it's me, Jesus.”
51-52 Jesus got into the boat and straight away the wind stopped blowing. The men were shocked. They had seen what Jesus did with the bread and the fish the day before, but they still did not understand. It was too hard!
Jesus made a lot of sick people better
53 They came to the country called Gen-ez-a-ret (Gennesaret), and they tied up the boat. 54 As soon as the people saw them get out of the boat, they knew that it was Jesus. 55 So everywhere Jesus went in that country the people ran to get all the sick people, and then they carried them on mats to Jesus. 56 Jesus went to little towns, and to big towns. And everywhere he went, the people carried their sick friends and put them on the ground in the middle of the town. The sick people asked Jesus if they could touch his clothes, and everyone that touched his clothes got better.
* 6:2-3 A Jewish meeting house is called a Syn-a-gog (Synagogue). + 6:4 John 4:44 + 6:7-11 Mark 3:13-15 + 6:7-11 Luke 10:4-11; Acts 13:51 + 6:13 James 5:14 + 6:14-29 Matthew 16:14; Mark 8:28; Luke 3:19-20; 9:19 + 6:14-29 Mark 1:14 + 6:34 Numbers 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; 2 Chronicles 18:16; Ezekiel 34:5; Matthew 9:36