Mark 9:2-43

²6 days later Jesus got Peter, James and John and they went by themselves up to the top of a big hill. While they were there Jesus started to look different.

³His clothes got really shiny and white. Nobody could wash them enough to make them properly white like that.

⁴And Peter, James and John saw 2 men that lived a long time ago. They were Moses, the man that was a leader of God’s people, and Elijah, the man that told God’s message to people. They were there, and they talked to Jesus.

⁵Peter, James and John were very frightened and they didn’t know what to say, but Peter talked anyway. He said to Jesus, “Teacher, this is great. We have to put up special bush shades, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

⁷Then a cloud covered them all and God talked to them from the cloud and said, “This is my son. I love him very much. You have to listen to him.”

⁸Then Peter, James and John looked around for those old men, but they couldn’t see them any more. They were gone. Only Jesus was there with them.

⁹Then they all started to come down from the hill, and as they walked along Jesus told them really straight, “Don’t tell anyone what you just saw. You have to wait till after I die. I’m God’s special man, and I will die and then come back alive again. After that you can talk about what you saw.”

¹⁰So Peter, James and John kept quiet about it. They didn’t tell anyone, but they talked to each other about the words Jesus said, “I will die and then come back alive again.” They wondered what Jesus meant.

¹¹And they asked Jesus about the Jewish law teachers. They said, “Those law teachers say that first of all a man from long ago has to come back, that man called Elijah, and after that God will send his special man.”

¹²Jesus said, “Those law teachers are teaching the true message. A man did come, and he told them God’s message just like Elijah did long ago. That man got things ready for me, but bad people killed him. And they will do the same to me, God’s special man from heaven. They will turn their backs and laugh at me, and they will not listen to my message. All of this is already in God’s book.”

¹⁴After they came back down the hill they found the other followers of Jesus arguing with the Jewish law teachers. There were lots of people standing around.

¹⁵They looked up and saw Jesus and they were surprised, and they all ran to him and said hello to him.

¹⁶Jesus asked them, “What are you mob all arguing about?”

¹⁷One of the men there said to Jesus, “Teacher, my son has a bad spirit inside him and it stops him from talking.

¹⁸It pushes the boy down on to the ground, his body goes stiff and he rubs his teeth together and spit comes out of his mouth. I asked your followers, ‘Please force that bad spirit out of him.’ But they can’t do it.”

¹⁹Jesus said, “How come you mob that are alive today can’t believe? Do I have to always stay here and do everything for you? Bring the boy here to me.”

²⁰The people brought the boy to Jesus. As soon as that bad spirit saw Jesus it shook the boy and pushed him down so that he wriggled around on the ground, and a lot of spit came out of his mouth.

²¹Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has your boy been like this?” The man said, “For a long time, from when he was little kid.

²²Lots of times the bad spirit pushes him into fires and into water. That bad spirit is trying to kill him. Please feel sorry for us and help him if you can.”

²³Jesus said, “You said to me, ‘If you can.’ Don’t you know that God is strong enough to do anything if you trust him to do it?”

²⁴That boy’s father yelled out, “I believe God can do it. But please help me believe more.”

²⁵Jesus looked around and saw a big mob of people coming to watch, so he growled at the bad spirit. He said, “Hey. You bad spirit that stops people from talking and hearing, I’m telling you now, come out of this little boy, and stay out of him. You can never go back into him.”

²⁶Then the bad spirit screamed and forced the boy to take another bad fit and fall down on the ground, then it went out of the boy. The boy looked like he was dead, and a lot of people said, “Poor boy, he is finished.”

²⁷But Jesus just got hold of the boy’s hand and helped him stand up. Then his father took the boy home.

²⁸After that Jesus and his followers went into a house, and his followers asked him quietly, “Why couldn’t we force that bad spirit out of the boy?”

²⁹Jesus told them, “The only way you can force that kind of bad spirit out of anyone is to pray and get God to force it out.”

³⁰Later Jesus and his followers left that place and went through Galilee country. As they walked along he was teaching his followers. He didn’t want everyone to know where he was going, so they went along secretly and quietly. He told them about what was going to happen to him. He said, “I’m God’s special man from heaven, but bad men will grab me, and they will kill me. But after 3 days I will come alive again.”

³²The followers of Jesus couldn’t understand what he was talking about, but they felt too ashamed to ask him any more questions.

³³While they walked along the road Jesus’s followers argued with each other about which one of them was the most important. After they got to Capernaum they went into the house that they were going to camp in, and Jesus asked them what they were arguing about on the road. His followers were ashamed and said nothing.

³⁵Jesus sat down and said, “If anyone wants to be the leader, that person has to think to himself, ‘I’m not important at all.’ And he has to be a workman for everybody else.”

³⁶There was a young kid in that house and Jesus picked him up and said, “Look at this little kid. If you follow me and you are friendly to little kids like this one and you help them, well really, you are friendly to me too. And if you are friendly to me, well really, you are friendly to my Father in heaven too. He is the one that sent me here.”

³⁸John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a man using your power by saying your name to send bad spirits out of people. He’s not one of our mob, so we told him to stop.”

³⁹But Jesus said, “No. Don’t stop him. If somebody uses my power by saying my name to do good and powerful things for people, he can’t soon turn around and say bad things about me.

⁴⁰You see, if somebody is not trying to block us, well really, he is on our side.

⁴¹And if somebody knows you are my follower, and so he tries to help you, even if he just gives you a drink of water, God will be sure to pay him with something good for that good thing he did.

⁴²But, if a little one trusts me and somebody gets him to do something bad, God will properly punish that person. Suppose somebody will get a big rock and tie it to that person’s neck and throw him into the sea and drown him, that will be bad for him, but not as bad as the trouble God will give him for getting that little one to go wrong.

⁴³And if there is something that gets you to go wrong, you have to do something about it. If your hand gets you to do something bad you have to stop it, like as if you cut off your hand. It is better for you to live for ever with only one hand than go to hell with 2 hands. That fire in hell never goes out.