Jesus’ followers began to have an argument about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he took a little child and stood the child beside him. Then Jesus said, “Whoever accepts this little child in my name accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me, because whoever is least among you all is really the greatest.”
John answered, “Master, we saw someone using your name to force demons out of people. We told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.”
But Jesus said to him, “Don’t stop him, because whoever is not against you is for you.”
When the time was coming near for Jesus to depart, he was determined to go to Jerusalem. He sent some messengers ahead of him, who went into a town in Samaria to make everything ready for him. But the people there would not welcome him, because he was set on going to Jerusalem. When James and John, followers of Jesus, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy those people?”
But Jesus turned and scolded them. [And Jesus said, “You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to. The Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of people but to save them.”] Then they went to another town.
As they were going along the road, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you any place you go.”
Jesus said to them, “The foxes have holes to live in, and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to rest his head.”
Jesus said to another man, “Follow me!”
But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
But Jesus said to him, “Let the people who are dead bury their own dead. You must go and tell about the kingdom of God.”
Another man said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to my family.”
Jesus said, “Anyone who begins to plow a field but keeps looking back is of no use in the kingdom of God.”
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