1Jesus left Capernaum in Galilee and went down south. They walked all through Judaea and the country on the east side of the Jordan River. A lot of people gathered around him and he taught them God’s word, the same as he always did.
2Some of the Jewish law men called Pharisees went to Jesus and tried to trick him with a hard question. They said, “Is it all right for a man to break up his marriage and send his wife away?”
3Jesus answered, “What did Moses write down in the law part of God’s book?”
4The Jewish law men said, “Moses wrote down a law like this, ‘A man can split up from his wife. That man has to write on a paper that she is not his wife any more. He has to give that paper to his wife, and then he can force her to go away.’”
5Jesus said to them, “You people have closed ears and you will not listen to God, so Moses had to write those words for you like that.
6But God’s book tells us that God made everything, and it says that he made a man and a woman at that time.
7It tells us, ‘A man and woman will each leave their father and mother and join up to each other.’
8Then they are not 2 people any more. They are like just one body.
9You see, God joined them together like that, so don’t let anyone split them up.”
10After that Jesus went back to their house with just his followers and they asked him to explain this a bit more.
11Jesus said to them, “If a man divorces his wife and then marries another woman, he is sleeping with the wrong woman. She is not his proper wife. He is breaking God’s law and doing wrong to his proper wife.
12And if a woman divorces her husband and then marries another man, she is sleeping with the wrong man. Hei is not her proper husband. She is breaking God’s law and doing wrong to her proper husband.”
13Some time later some people took their kids to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hand on them and ask God to be good to them. But Jesus’s followers growled at those people and told them to take their kids away.
14Jesus saw his followers block the kids from coming to him and he got angry. He said, “Don’t block those kids. Let them come to me. They are the kind of people God wants. If you are like these little kids, God will have you in his family.
15I’m telling you straight. Just look at the way kids trust their father and mother. You mob have to trust me just like those kids trust their parents. If you can’t trust like that, you can’t be in God’s family.”
16Then Jesus held those kids in his arms and prayed for God to be good to them.
17After that Jesus started to leave that place. Then a man ran up to him and got down on his knees, to show him respect, and said, “Good teacher, what can I do so that I will live a good life for ever?”
18Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? You know that only God is good. What are you thinking about me?
19You know God’s laws, – Don’t murder anyone. – Don’t sleep with a woman like she is your wife, if you are not married her. – Don’t steal things that belong to other people. – Don’t tell lies about anybody. – Don’t trick people to get anything from them. – You always have to respect your father and your mother.”
20That man said, “Teacher, I have always done all those things. I started to live that way while I was a little boy.”
21Jesus looked at him, loved him, and felt sorry for him. Jesus said, “There is still one more thing you have to do. Go and sell all your things to get some money and give all that money to people that have nothing. After you do this, God will be really happy with you and later, in heaven, he will give you lots of other good things. So go and do what I told you, then come with me, and follow me.”
22That man heard what Jesus said and he got really sad. He was a rich man, but Jesus told him to give all his things away. He got very sad and just walked away with his eyes looking down.
23After that man left Jesus looked around at his followers and said, “Rich people don’t like to join God’s family and let God be their boss. It is really hard for them.”
24His followers heard this and they were shocked. So he told them more, he said, “It is hard for anyone to let God be their boss. Think about a big camel. Do you reckon it can go through the little hole in a needle? No, it can’t. But I’m telling you, a big camel has got more chance to get through that little hole than a rich person has a chance to get into God’s family. Rich people find it really hard to let God be the boss of their lives.”
26The followers of Jesus got more shock, and they said to each other, “Is there anyone that God will save and take into his family? Maybe nobody.”
27Jesus looked straight at them and said, “Nobody is good enough to get into God’s family. But God can make people good enough. God can do anything.”
28Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you. What about us?”
29Jesus said, “If anyone leaves anything so that they can tell people God’s good news, they will get back more than they leave. If somebody leaves their home, or brothers and sisters, or mother and father, or kids, or land, so that they can follow me and tell people God’s good news, they will get a much better life. They will get many more homes, many more brothers and sisters, lots more mothers, lots more kids and lots more land. But I have to tell you this too, if they do this work for me they will get trouble from other people. But later they will live for ever with God in heaven.
31People that are important leaders today will find out later that they are nothing. God will change their job and they will be working men for everybody. And people that are just working men today will be the important leaders later.”
32Jesus and his followers kept going along the road to Jerusalem. Jesus went ahead of all the others. His close followers were shocked. They knew that they could get big trouble in Jerusalem. The other followers were frightened too. Jesus stopped walking and took his 12 close followers away from the other people and told them what was going to happen to him later.
33Jesus said, “We are all going to Jerusalem and there somebody will change sides and help the other mob catch me. That other mob are the leaders of the Jewish ceremony and the law teachers. I’m God’s special man from heaven, but the Jewish leaders will grab me and take me to the Roman bosses. They will say that I’m guilty and tell them to kill me.
34The Roman soldiers will rubbish me and spit on me. They will hit me with whips, and then they will kill me. But 3 days later I will get up alive again.”
35James and John (the sons of Zebedee) asked Jesus to do something good for them.
36Jesus asked them, “What do you want me to do?”
37They said, “You will be the most important leader later. Can you make us the next most important? Can you let one of us sit on one side of you and the other one sit on your other side?”
38Jesus said, “You 2 don’t understand what you are asking me. Do you reckon you can go through the really hard time that I will go through? I will have really bad pain. It’s like I will have to drink really bad drink, like poison. I will go through a really hard time.”
39James and John said, “We reckon we can.” So Jesus said, “You are right. You will go through the same hard time as me, and you will have bad pain like I will have.
40But I can’t give you what you want. God is the one that picks the people that will be the important leaders, and he picks the ones that will sit beside me in heaven.”
41The other 10 close followers heard what James and John asked for, and they got angry.
42So Jesus called them all together and said, “You know what government people are like here in this world. They like to be bosses over everybody. It is like that everywhere in this world, the leaders boss everyone around and the big bosses like to show everyone that they are strong.
43But I don’t want you to be like that. If you want to be a leader of my people you have to really want to help them, so you will work hard for them and not think about pay. And if you want to be the most important person you have to be a workman for everyone.
45You see, all the leaders of my people have to be like that, just like me. I’m like that too. I’m God’s special man from heaven, but I didn’t come here to be bossy and get people to work for me. I came to work for other people. And I came here to take the payback from God for people that did bad things. I came to die for big mobs of people.”
46Jesus and his followers kept going to Jerusalem, and they walked through a town called Jericho. As they left Jericho a big mob of people walked with them along the road. A blind man was sitting at the side of that road, asking people to give him money so that he could buy some food. He was called Bartimaeus (his father’s name was Timaeus).
47Bartimaeus heard that Jesus, from Nazareth, was coming along the road, so he started to yell out, “Jesus, you belong to David’s family, so you ae the one God promised to send. Please, be sorry for me and help me.”
48A lot of people growled at him and told him to shut up, but he kept yelling out even louder, “Jesus, you belong to David’s family and I know you will become our boss like he was. So please be good to me and help me.”
49Jesus stopped and said, “Tell him to come to me.” So they called out that blind man, “Bartimaeus, you can be happy now. Get up. Jesus is calling out for you.”
50That blind man jumped up and walked to Jesus. He even left his coat behind.
51Jesus asked him, “What now? What can I do for you?” That blind man said, “Oh, Teacher, I just want to see again.”
52Jesus said to him, “You believe in me, so now you can see again. You can go home now.” Straight away Bartimaeus could see again, and he joined in with the other people and followed Jesus along that road.
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