Luke 9:37-48

EasyEnglish Bible

Jesus makes a boy well

³⁷ The next day Jesus came down from the mountain with the three disciples. A large crowd met him. ³⁸ A man from the crowd shouted to him. ‘Teacher, please, I ask you to help my son. He is my only child. ³⁹ Sometimes a bad spirit takes hold of him and then he screams. The spirit throws his body first one way then another and water comes out of his mouth. The spirit gives him a lot of pain and it does not leave him alone very much. ⁴⁰ I asked your disciples to send the bad spirit out of him. But they could not do it.’

⁴¹ Jesus said, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. You have turned away from him. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you.’ Then Jesus said to the man, ‘Bring your son here.’

⁴² While the boy was coming, the bad spirit threw him to the ground. It threw the boy first one way and then the other. ‘Stop!’ Jesus said to it. He then made the boy well and he gave him back to his father.

⁴³ Everybody was very surprised at what they saw. They knew that God was very powerful.

Jesus speaks again about his death

The people were still thinking with surprise about everything that Jesus was doing. Then he began to talk to his disciples. ⁴⁴ He said to them, ‘Do not forget what I am telling you now. Soon they will deliver the Son of Man to powerful people to kill him.’ ⁴⁵ But they did not understand what Jesus had said. Its meaning was a secret to them, so they could not understand. But they were afraid to ask Jesus, ‘What do you mean?’

Who will be the most important?

⁴⁶ Then the disciples began to argue with each other. They argued about which of them was the most important. ⁴⁷ Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he took a child and he made him stand there at his side. ⁴⁸ Jesus said, ‘If someone accepts this child because of me, then he also accepts me. And anyone who accepts me also accepts my Father God, who sent me. The person who makes himself the least important among you is really the greatest.’^[a]