“What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus asked.
“My rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
And Jesus said to him,
“Go, for your faith has healed you.”
Instantly the man could see,
and he followed Jesus down the road.
…Jesus once more began to describe everything
that was about to happen to him.
“Listen,” he said, we’re going up to Jerusalem,
where the son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests
and the teachers of religious law.
they will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans.
They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip,
and kill him,
but after three days he will rise again.”
One day some parents brought their children to Jesus
so he could touch and bless them.
But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.
When Jesus saw what was happening,
he was angry with his disciples.
He said to them,
“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them!
For the Kingdom of God belongs to those
who are like these children.
I tell you the truth,
anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child
will never enter it.”
…He said to them,
“The Son of Man is going to be betrayed
into the hands of his enemies.
He will be killed,
but three days later he will rise from the dead.”
They didn’t understand what he was saying, however,
and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
“…Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked.
“Anything is possible if a person believes.”
The father instantly cried out,
“I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
Jesus and his disciples left Galilee
and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi.
As they were walking along, he asked them,
“Who do people say I am?”
“Well,” they replied, some say John the Baptist,
some say Elijah,
and others say you are one of the other prophets.”
Then he asked them,
“But who do you say I am?”…
Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said,
“Why are you arguing about having no bread?
Don’t you know or understand even yet?
Are your hearts too hard to take it in?
‘You have eyes—can’t you see?
You have ears—can’t you hear?’
Don’t you remember anything at all?
When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread,
how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
“And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves,
how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
“Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
But Jesus spoke to them at once.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said.
“Take courage! I am here!”
Then he climbed into the boat,
and the wind stopped.
They were totally amazed.
When Jesus woke up,
he rebuked the wind and said to the waves,
“Silence! Be Still!”
Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.
Then he asked them,
“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
The disciples were absolutely terrified.
“Who is this man?” they asked each other.
“Even the wind and waves obey him!”
