Mark 9:28-47

²⁸Later, when Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him in private, “Why couldn't we drive the evil spirit out?”

²⁹“This kind can't be driven out except by prayer,” Jesus told them.

³⁰They left and passed through Galilee. Jesus didn't want anyone to know where he was

³¹because he was teaching his disciples. “The Son of man will be betrayed to human authorities,” he told them. “They will kill him, but three days later he will rise again.”

³²They didn't understand what he meant and were too afraid to ask him about it.

³³They arrived at Capernaum, and once they were inside the house where they were staying, Jesus asked them, “What were you talking about on the way?”

³⁴But they didn't say anything because they had been arguing over who was the most important.

³⁵Jesus sat down and called the twelve disciples together. “If anyone wants to be first, he has to be the very last, the servant of everyone else,” he told them.

³⁶He took a small child and had the child stand right in the middle of them. Then he picked up and hugged the child, and told them,

³⁷“Whoever welcomes a child like this in my name, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me doesn't welcome me but the one who sent me.”

³⁸John said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we saw someone driving out demons in your name. We tried to stop him because he wasn't one of us.”

³⁹“Don't stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who is doing miracles in my name can curse me at the same time.

⁴⁰Anyone who is not against us is for us.

⁴¹Anyone who gives a cup of water to you in my name, because you belong to Christ, won't lose their reward, believe me.

⁴²But if anyone leads one of these little ones who trust in me into sin, it would be better for them if they were thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around their neck.

⁴³If your hand leads you to sin, cut it off! It's better to enter eternal life as a cripple than to go with both hands into Gehenna, into the fire that can't be put out.

⁴⁵If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It's better to enter eternal life lame than to be thrown into Gehenna still having two feet.

⁴⁷If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out! It's better to enter the kingdom of God with just one eye than to be thrown into Gehenna still having both eyes,