Luke 9:16-37

¹⁶Then he took the five small loaves and the two fish. He looked up towards heaven and thanked God for them. Then he broke them into pieces and gave them to the disciples so that they would distribute them to the crowd.

¹⁷All the people in the crowd ate until they all had enough to eat. Then the disciples collected twelve baskets full of the broken pieces that were left over!

¹⁸One day Jesus was praying in a place where only the disciples were with him. He asked them, “The crowds of people, who do they say that I really am?”

¹⁹They replied, “ Some people say that you are John the Baptizer, who has come back to life again. Others say that you are the prophet Elijah, who has returned from heaven as God promised. Others say that you are one of the other prophets who lived long ago, who has come back to life again.”

²⁰He asked them, “What about you (pl)? Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You (sg) are the Messiah, who has come from God.”

²¹Then Jesus warned them strongly not to tell that to anyone yet.

²²Then he said, “ Even though I am the one who came from heaven, it is necessary that I suffer very much. It is also necessary that I be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the men who teach the Jewish laws {that the Jewish elders and the chief priests and the men who teach the Jewish laws will reject me}. It is necessary that I be killed {that people will kill me}. Then on the third day after that, I will become alive again.”

²³Then he said to all of them, “If any one of you wants to be my disciple, you must not do only what you yourself desire to do. Specifically, you must be willing each day MET to let others hurt you and disgrace you. That is like what is done to criminals who are forced to carry MET crosses to the place where they will be executed. That is what anyone who wants to be my disciple must do.

²⁴You must do that, because those who try to save their lives by denying that they belong to me when people want to kill them for believing in me will not live eternally, but those who are killed because of being my disciples will live forever with me.

²⁵People might get everything that they want in this world, but ◄they are really gaining nothing if they do not get eternal life by becoming my disciples!/are they really gaining anything if they do not get eternal life by becoming my disciples?► RHQ

²⁶Those who reject my message and refuse to say that they belong to me, I, the one who came from heaven, will also refuse to say that they belong to me when I come back with the holy angels, and have the glorious brightness that my Father has.

²⁷But listen carefully! Some of you (pl) who are here now will see God ruling MET in many powerful ways. You will see it before you die!”

²⁸About a week after Jesus said those things, he took Peter, James, and James' brother John and led them up a mountain so that he could pray there.

²⁹As he was praying, his face appeared very different to them. His clothes became as bright as lightning.

³⁰Suddenly, two men appeared who had the brightness of heaven surrounding them. They were prophets who had lived long ago, Moses and Elijah. They started talking with Jesus about how he would accomplish what God had planned when he died EUP very soon in Jerusalem.

³²Peter and the other disciples who were with him were sound asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus' brightness. They also saw the two men standing with him.

³³As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is wonderful for us to be here! Allow us to make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah!” But he really did not realize what he was talking about.

³⁴As he was saying that, a bright cloud appeared and covered them all. The disciples were afraid as the cloud surrounded them.

³⁵God MTY/EUP spoke to them from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son. He is the one whom I have chosen to do a great work for me. So you must listen to him!”

³⁶After God MTY/EUP finished saying that, the three disciples saw that only Jesus was there. They did not tell anyone what they had seen until much later.

³⁷The next day, after they had come down from the mountain, a large crowd of people met Jesus.