Mark 6:12-39

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.”

³⁰Some time later the 12 close followers of Jesus came back from telling his message to all the communities. They stood around Jesus and told him everything they did and what they taught the people in the communities.

³¹While they were talking, lots of other people were coming up to Jesus all the time, so Jesus and his followers didn’t get a chance to eat any food. Jesus was worried for his followers, so he said to them, “Let’s go to a quiet place out bush so that you can rest for a while.”

³²So Jesus and his followers got into a boat and started to go across the lake to a quiet place away from all the people. But lots of people saw them leave.

³³They were from a lot of different communities, but they knew the place that Jesus and his close followers were going to. They ran around the side of the lake and got there first, before the boat.

³⁴Jesus and his close followers came to that place and got out of the boat. Jesus looked at the mob of people waiting for him and he felt sad inside for them. They didn’t have anyone looking after them. They were like a mob of sheep that had no boss to take care of them. So Jesus started to teach them lots of things.

³⁵At the end of the day, the close followers of Jesus went to him and said, “It’s nearly time for the sun to go down and we are way out here in the bush.

³⁶You have to send the people away from here so that they can find some food. They can go to a nearby farm or community to buy some food to eat.”

³⁷Jesus said to them, “You mob give them some food to eat.” But they said, “What? We haven’t got that much food. Do you want us to go and buy a lot of bread for them? That will cost thousands of dollars.”

³⁸Jesus said to his followers, “How much food have you got? Go and have a look.” They came back to him and said, “We’ve got 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.”

³⁹Jesus told his followers to get the people to sit on the green grass in groups, maybe about 50 people or about 100 people in each group.