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1Jesus left Capernium in Galilee and went south, through Judea to the country on the east side of the Jordan River. A lot of people went to him there, and he taught them God’s word, the same as he always did.
2Some of the Pharisee mob also went to Jesus. They were strong for the Jewish law, and they tried to trick Jesus with a hard question. They said, “Is it all right for a man to break up his marriage, and send his wife away?”
3Jesus said, “What did Moses write in the law part of God’s book?”
4The Pharisee mob said, “Moses wrote a law like this, ‘A man can split up from his wife. That man has to write a divorce letter to say she is not his wife any more. He has to give that letter to his wife, and then he can force her to go away.’ ”[#Deuteronomy 24:1-4; Matthew 5:31]
5Jesus said to them, “You people have closed ears, and you will not listen to God, so Moses had to write those words for you like that.
6But God tells us in his book that he made people and everything else. His book says,
‘He made them man and woman.’
7And he tells us,
‘A man will leave his mother and father and marry a woman. The man and his wife will join with each other, and their bodies will be like one body again.’
8So they are not 2 people any more. They are like just one body.[#Genesis 2:24]
9You see, God joined them together like that, so don’t let anyone split them up.”
10After that, Jesus went back to the house with just his followers, and they asked him more about the things he said.
11Jesus said to them, “If a man splits up from his wife, and then if he marries another woman, he is sleeping with the wrong woman as if she is his proper wife. But she is not, and he is breaking God’s law, and he is doing wrong to his proper wife.
12And if a woman splits up from her husband, and then if she marries another man, she is sleeping with the wrong man as if he is her proper husband. But he is not, and she is breaking God’s law, and she is doing wrong to her proper husband.”[#Matthew 5:32; 1 Corinthians 7:10-11]
13Some time later, some people took their kids to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on them, and ask God to be good to them. But Jesus’s followers got angry with those people and told them to take their kids away.
14Jesus saw his followers stopping the kids from coming to him, and he got upset. He said, “Don’t stop those kids. Let them come to me. They are the sort of people God wants. You see, if you are like these little kids, God will let you join his family.
15You know, little kids know they are weak and not important, so they trust their mothers and fathers and do what they say. Well, I’m telling you straight, you have to be like those kids. You have to trust God and let him be your boss. If you can’t do that, you can’t be in God’s family.”[#Matthew 18:3]
16Then Jesus held those kids in his arms, and he prayed for God to be good to them.
17After that, Jesus started to leave that place. Then a man ran up to him and got down on his knees to show Jesus respect. The man said, “Teacher, you are a good man. Tell me, what can I do so that I will live with God for ever?”
18Jesus said, “You call me good, but think about it. Only God is properly good.
19You know God’s laws,
– Don’t murder anyone.
– Don’t sleep with a woman that is not your wife, as if you are married to her.
– Don’t steal things that belong to other people.
– Don’t tell lies about anybody.
– Don’t trick people to get something from them.
– You always have to respect your father and your mother.”
20That man said, “Teacher, I always do all those things. I always lived like that, from when I was a boy.”
21Jesus looked at him, and he loved him. And Jesus said, “There is still one more thing you have to do. Go and sell all your things to get some money, and give all that money to people that haven’t got anything. After you do that, God will be really happy with you. And later, in heaven, he will give you lots of other good things. So go and do what I told you, then come with me, and follow me.”
22That man heard what Jesus said, and he got really sad. He was a rich man, but Jesus told him to give all his things away. That made him very sad, and he just walked away with his eyes looking down.
23After that man left, Jesus looked around at his followers, and he said, “It’s really hard for rich people to join God’s family and to let him be their boss.”
24-25This shocked Jesus’s followers. So he told them more. He said, “It is hard for anyone to let God be their boss. Think about a big camel. Do you reckon it can go through the little hole in a needle? No, it can’t. But I’m telling you, it’s more easy for a big camel to get through that little hole, than for a rich person to get into God’s family. Rich people find it really hard to let God be the boss over their lives.”
26This shocked Jesus’s followers, and they said to each other, “Is there anyone that God will save and take into his family? Maybe nobody.”
27Jesus looked straight at them and said, “Nobody is good enough to get into God’s family. But God can make people good enough. God can do anything.”
28Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you. What about us?”
29-30Jesus said, “Listen, if anyone leaves anything, so that they can tell people God’s good news, they will get back more than they leave. If somebody leaves their home, or their brothers, or their sisters, or their mother, or their father, or their kids, or their land, so that they can follow me and tell people God’s good news, they will get a much better life. They will get a lot more homes, a lot more brothers and sisters, a lot more mothers, a lot more kids, and a lot more land. But I have to tell you this too. If they do this work for me, they will get trouble from other people. But later they will live with God for ever.
31People that are important leaders today will find out later that they are nothing. God will make them workers for everybody. And people that are just workers today will be the important leaders later.”[#Matthew 20:16; Luke 13:30]
32Then Jesus and his followers walked along the road towards Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of his followers. Jesus’s special workers were shocked because there were people in Jerusalem that wanted to make big trouble for Jesus, but he wanted to go there anyway. And his other followers were frightened too.
Then Jesus stopped walking, and he took his 12 special workers away from the other people, and he told them what was going to happen to him later.
33Jesus said, “We are all going to Jerusalem, and after we get there, somebody will change sides, and he will help the other mob catch me. That other mob are the bosses of our Jewish ceremonies and our law teachers. I’m God’s special man from heaven, but those Jewish leaders will grab me and take me to the Roman bosses. The Jewish leaders will say that I’m guilty, and they will tell the Romans to kill me.
34Then the Romans will make fun of me, and spit on me. They will hit me with whips, and then they will kill me. I will be dead for 2 nights, then on the 3rd day I will come alive again.”
35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, went up to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to do something good for us. Will you do what we ask you?”
36Jesus asked them, “What do you want me to do?”
37They said, “Later you will be the most important leader. Can you make us the next most important? Can you let one of us sit on one side of you, and the other one sit on the other side of you?”
38Jesus said, “You 2 don’t understand what you are asking me. People will give me a really hard time. Do you reckon you can stay strong for God even when people give you a really hard time? I will have really bad pain. It’s like I will have to drink really bad drink, like poison. I will even die.”[#Luke 12:50]
39James and John said, “Yes. We can do that.”
So Jesus said, “You are right. You will get the same hard time as me, and you will get bad pain like I will get.
40But I can’t give you what you want. God is the one that picks the people that will be the important leaders, and he picks the people that will sit beside me later on.”
41Jesus’s other 10 special workers heard what James and John asked for, and they got angry.
42So Jesus called them all together and said, “You know what government people are like here in this world. They like to be bosses over everybody. It is like that everywhere in this world, the leaders boss everyone around, and the big bosses like to show everyone that they are strong.
43-44But I don’t want you to be like that. If you want to be a leader of my people, you have to really want to help them, so you have to work hard for them, and don’t think about pay. And if you want to be the most important person, you have to be a worker for everyone.[#Matthew 23:11; Mark 9:35; Luke 22:25-26]
45You see, all the leaders of my people have to be like that. They have to be just like me. I’m God’s special man from heaven, but I didn’t come here to be bossy and get people to work for me. I came here to work for other people. And I came here to die for a lot of people. I will let God punish me instead of them. He will punish me for the bad things that they did.”
46Jesus and his followers kept going towards Jerusalem, and they walked through a town called Jericho. As they left Jericho, a big mob of people walked with them along the road.
A blind man was sitting at the side of that road, asking people to give him money so that he could buy some food. He was called Bartimayus. His father’s name was Timayus.
47Bartimayus heard that Jesus from Nazareth was coming along the road, so he started to yell out, “Jesus, you belong to David’s family, and you are the man that God promised to send to us. Please feel sorry for me, and help me.”
48A lot of the people there told him to be quiet, but he kept on yelling out even louder, “You belong to David’s family, and you are the man that God promised to send to us. Please feel sorry for me, and help me.”
49Jesus stopped and said, “Tell him to come to me.”
So they called out to the blind man, and they said, “Listen, Jesus is calling out for you. So you can be happy now. Get up and go to him.”
50That blind man jumped up. He didn’t worry about his coat. He left it behind on the ground. He just got up and walked to Jesus.
51Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
That blind man said, “Teacher, I just want to see again.”
52Jesus said to him, “You believe in me, so now you can see again. You can go home now.” Straight away, Bartimayus could see again, and he joined in with the other people and followed Jesus along that road.