Mark 6:4-14

⁴Jesus then said to them, “If God gives a man a message, lots of people know he is God’s man and they respect him. But not the people that knew that special man from the time he was a little boy. They don’t respect him. Even his close family and relations don’t listen to him.”

⁵The people of his own community didn’t believe in Jesus, and he was really shocked. So he couldn’t do anything really powerful there. He only touched a few sick people and made them better. Then he left them and went to other little communities, and taught them God’s words.

⁷Jesus called together his 12 close followers. He told them, “You have to go to every community and tell my message to the people. Let them take care of you when you go there. Don’t take a bag, or food, or money or spare clothes with you. Just take your sandals and a walking stick. After you get to a community, and that community is happy for you to stay, you have to camp in only one house. Don’t move around to different houses. But if a community doesn’t want to have you there, and if they will not listen to you, then you have to go away from it. As you leave it, shake the dust off your feet. That will show that mob that they will get trouble. It will be like you are telling them, ‘You didn’t take notice of my message, so God will judge you and punish you.’” And Jesus told his close followers, “I’m giving you my power now to force bad spirits out from people.” Then Jesus split them into 6 teams with 2 men in each team, and sent them out to do God’s work.

¹²The teams did as Jesus told them. They went to other communities and told everyone to turn around, change their lives and come back to God’s way.

¹³Those men sent a lot of bad spirits out of people. And they put olive oil on a lot of sick people, like medicine for them, and those sick people got better.

¹⁴This is the story about what happened to John the Baptiser. The big boss called King Herod had a brother called Philip. Philip had a wife called Herodias. Herodias didn’t want to live with Philip any more, so she left him, and married Herod. John kept on telling Herod, “You are breaking God’s law. You shouldn’t have your brother’s wife.” Herodias hated John for saying this and she wanted to kill him, but Herod sent some soldiers to grab John and keep him in jail, so Herodias couldn’t do anything to him. John was a good man and lived God’s way all the time, so Herod was frightened of him. And Herod liked to talk with John, but John’s words confused him and upset him. Some time later Herod had a birthday party, and Herodias got her chance to hurt John. All the leaders of Herod’s army and the government bosses from Galilee country were there at Herod’s party. The daughter of Herodias danced for them at that party. Everybody was really happy with her dancing, so Herod made a strong promise to her, he told her, “I want to give you a really good present. You can ask for anything. I will give you anything you ask for, even as much as half of this country. This is true. I’m not lying.” That young girl went outside and asked her mother, “What will I ask for?” Her mother said, “Go back in and ask the big boss to send a soldier to cut off John the Baptiser’s head, and give it to you as a present.” The girl ran back into the party and said to King Herod, “I want you to give me John the Baptiser’s head on a big plate, and I want it right now.” When Herod heard these words he was really sad. But he didn’t want to break his promise and be ashamed, so he sent a soldier to cut off John’s head and bring it back to the girl on a big plate. The soldier went to the jail and cut off John’s head and brought it back to the party, and he gave it to the young girl, and then she gave it to her mother. John’s friends heard this bad news. They came and got his body, then they took it away and buried it. Later lots of people heard about what Jesus was doing and they talked about him all the time. Some people said, “Jesus is really Elijah, that old man that told God’s message a long time ago. God made him alive again.” Some other people said, “Jesus is a man talking for God, just like those other men that told God’s message a long time ago.” But some people reckoned, “Jesus is really John the Baptiser. God made John alive again and gave him power to do great things.” King Herod heard these stories and said, “I got my soldiers to cut John’s head off, but this man now, he has to be John the Baptiser. I reckon God made him alive again.”