(We have not yet translated 12:1-15a. You can read those stories and messages in Mark 2:23—3:6.)
12
One of God’s men wrote about Jesus
15 Big mobs of people followed Jesus. Some of them were sick, and he made them better.
16 But he told them straight, “Don’t go and tell other people about me.”
17 A long time ago, God got his man called Isaiah to write about this, and it is in God’s book. It happened just like Isaiah said. This is what he wrote,
18 “This is the man that God picked to work for himself.
God loves him, and he makes God very happy.
God will put his spirit in him,
and he will tell the people in other nations that God is right and fair.
19 He will not fight with anyone or shout at people.
Nobody will hear him shouting in the streets.
20 Some people are weak, like a bit of grass that is almost broken,
and some people can’t help themselves, like a candle wick that has almost gone out.
He will not forget those people, but he will help them to get strong.
He will keep on being right and fair to everyone,
until people are fair to each other too.
21 And people everywhere will believe that he can save them.”
(We have not yet translated 12:22-37. You can read those stories and messages in Mark 3:20-30 and Luke 6:43-45.)
The Pharisee mob asked Jesus to do something powerful
38 One day, some Jewish law teachers, and some of the Pharisee mob, that were strong for the Jewish law, they went to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want to see you do something powerful. That will show us that God sent you.”
39 Jesus said, “You mob that are alive today are really bad. You turned away from God. But now you want me to show you something powerful, right? No. I will not do that. The only powerful thing you will see is the same thing that God did to Jonah. He was one of God’s men.
40 Think about that story from a long time ago. A big fish swallowed Jonah, and he stayed inside that fish for 3 days. And just like that, I will stay in the ground for 3 days. I am God’s special man from heaven.
41 Jonah went to the people that lived in the city called Nineveh, and he told them God’s message. Those people listened to him, and they stopped doing bad things and turned to God. Well, later, on the day when God will judge everyone, that Nineveh mob will get up and tell you mob here that you are wrong. You see, that Nineveh mob listened to Jonah. And I am greater than Jonah, but you mob don’t listen properly to me. You don’t turn to God, and you don’t stop doing bad things.
42 And think about the story about the woman from Sheba. She was the big boss over that country. One day, she heard about Solomon. He was the big boss over our country. She heard that he was a very wise man, so she came here to listen to the good things he said. Well, later, on the day when God will judge everyone, that woman will get up and tell you mob here that you are stupid. You see, she came a long way from her country just to listen to Solomon. And I am more wise than Solomon, but you mob don’t want to listen to me.”
Bad spirits come back
43 And Jesus said, “When a bad spirit goes out of a person, it goes around in dry country looking for a new place to live. But it doesn’t find a good place.
44 So it says to itself, ‘I will go back to the place where I lived before.’ Then it goes back to that person, and it finds the place is good, empty, and clean.
45 Then the bad spirit goes out and gets 7 other bad spirits that are worse than itself. And they all go into the person, and they live there. Then that person has more bad spirits than before, so that person is worse than before. Listen, I’m talking about you mob here today. You don’t listen to me, so you are worse now than you were before I came.”
(We have not yet translated 12:46—13:23. You can read those stories and messages in Mark 3:31-35; 4:1-20.)