Months later, the apostles returned from their ministry tour and told Jesus all the wonders and miracles they had witnessed. Jesus, wanting to be alone with the Twelve, quietly slipped away with them toward Bethsaida. Crowds soon found out about it and took off after him. When they caught up with Jesus, he graciously welcomed them all, taught them more about God’s kingdom, and healed all who were sick.
As the day wore on, the Twelve came to Jesus and told him, “It’s getting late. You should send the crowds to the surrounding villages and farms to get something to eat and find shelter for the night. There’s nothing to eat here in the middle of nowhere.”
Jesus responded, “You have the food to feed them.”
They replied, “All we have are these five small loaves of bread and two dried fish. Do you really expect us to go buy food for all these people? There are nearly five thousand men here, with women and children besides!”
He told his disciples, “Have them all sit down in groups of fifty each.”
After everyone was seated, Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, and gazing into the heavenly realm he gave thanks for the food. Then, in the presence of his disciples, he broke off pieces of bread and fish, and kept giving more to each disciple to give to the crowd. It was multiplying before their eyes! So everyone ate until they were filled, and afterward the disciples gathered up the leftovers—it came to exactly twelve baskets full!
One time, Jesus was praying in a quiet place with his disciples nearby. He went to them and asked, “Who do people think I am?”
They answered, “Some are convinced you’re the prophet John who has returned. Others say you are Elijah, or perhaps one of the Jewish prophets brought back from the dead.”
Jesus asked them, “But who do you believe that I am?”
Peter said, “You are the Anointed One, God’s Messiah!”
Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone yet, saying, “The Son of Man is destined to experience great suffering and face complete rejection by the Jewish leaders and religious hierarchy. He will be killed and raised back to life on the third day.”
Jesus said to all of his followers, “If you truly desire to be my disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace my ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to my ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for my glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep. Even if you gained all the wealth and power of this world, and all the things it could offer you, yet lost your soul in the process, what good is that? So why then are you ashamed of being my disciple? Are you ashamed of the revelation-truth I give to you?
“I, the Son of Man, will one day return in my radiant brightness, with the holy angels and in the splendor and majesty of my Father. On that day I will be ashamed of everyone who has been ashamed of me.
“I promise you this: there are some of you standing here right now who will not die until you have witnessed the presence and the power of God’s kingdom realm.”
Eight days later, Jesus took Peter, Jacob, and John and climbed a high mountain to pray. As he prayed, his face began to glow until a blinding glory streamed from him. A radiant glory illuminated his entire body. His brightness became so intense that it made his clothing blinding white, as multiple flashes of lightning.
All at once, two men appeared in glorious splendor: Moses and Elijah. They spoke with Jesus about his soon departure from this world and the things the Father destined him to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had become very drowsy, but they became fully awake when they saw the glory and splendor of Jesus standing there and the two men with him.
As Moses and Elijah were about to return to heaven, Peter impetuously blurted, “Master, this is amazing to see the three of you together! Why don’t we stay here and set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah?”
While Peter was still speaking, a radiant cloud of glory formed above them and overshadowed them. As the glory cloud enveloped them, they were struck with fear. Then the voice of God thundered from within the cloud, “This is my Son, my Beloved One. Listen carefully to all he has to say.”
When the thunderous voice faded away and the cloud disappeared, Jesus was standing there alone. Peter, Jacob, and John were awestruck. But they didn’t say a word to anyone about what they had seen.
The next day, a massive crowd was waiting at the foot of the mountain to meet them. A man in the crowd shouted desperately, “Please, Teacher, I beg of you, do something about my son, my only son. An evil spirit possesses him and makes him scream out in torment, and hardly ever leaves him alone. It throws him into convulsions and he foams at the mouth. When it finally does leave him, he’s left with horrible bruises. I begged your disciples to drive it out of him, but they didn’t have enough power to do it.”
Jesus responded, “You are an unbelieving people with no faith! You twist your lives with lies that have turned you away from doing the right things. How much longer should I remain here, offering you hope?” Then he said to the man, “Bring your son to me.”
As the boy approached, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into violent convulsions. Jesus sternly commanded the demon to come out of the boy, and it left immediately. Jesus healed the boy of his injuries and returned him to his father, saying, “Here is your son.”
Everyone was awestruck and stunned to see such power and the majesty of God flow through Jesus. Everyone marveled, trying to process what they had just witnessed. Jesus then turned to his disciples and said, “Listen carefully and let these words sink into your hearts. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed and surrendered to the authority of men.”
But the disciples could not grasp the meaning of what he was saying, for it was a veiled mystery to them, and they were too embarrassed to ask him to explain it.
The disciples began to argue and became preoccupied over who would be the greatest one among them. Fully aware of their innermost thoughts, Jesus called a little child to his side and said to them, “If you tenderly care for this little child on my behalf, you are tenderly caring for me. And if you care for me, you are honoring my Father who sent me. The one who is least important in your eyes is actually the most important one of all.”
The disciple John said, “Master, we found someone casting out demons using your name and we tried to stop him, because he doesn’t follow you as we do.”
Jesus responded, “You shouldn’t have hindered him, for anyone who is not against you is your friend.”
Jesus let nothing distract him from departing for Jerusalem because the time for him to be lifted up drew near, and he was full of passion to complete his mission there. So he sent messengers ahead of him as envoys to a village of the Samaritans. But as they approached the village, the people turned them away. They would not allow Jesus to enter, for he was on his way to worship in Jerusalem.
When the disciples Jacob and John realized what was happening, they returned to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you wanted to, you could command fire to fall down from heaven, just as Elijah did and destroy all these wicked people.”
Jesus rebuked them sharply, saying, “Don’t you realize what spews from your hearts when you say that? The Son of Man did not come to destroy life, but to bring life to the earth.”
So they went to another village instead.
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