8
“There Were About Four Thousand Men”
1 About this time there gathered, once again, a large crowd, and since they didn’t have anything to eat, Jesus called the disciples over to himself and said to them,
2 “My heart goes out to this crowd, because they have already been here with me three days and don’t have anything to eat.
3 Yet if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will give out on the way; some of them have come from very far away.”
4 “Where in the world could anyone get enough bread to feed these people way out here in the wilderness?” his disciples asked him in response.
5 “How many loaves of bread,” he asked them, “do ᵖyou have?”
“Seven,” they replied.
6 So Jesus directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And when he had taken the seven small round loaves and had given thanks, he broke them and kept giving them to his disciples to serve to the crowd, and they did so.
7 They also had a few small cooked fish. When Jesus had given thanks for them, he told his disciples to serve to the people, too, these fish.
8 They ate as much as they wanted. Then the disciples received back from the people what was left of the broken pieces—seven large baskets full.
9 Now there were about four thousand men. Then Jesus dismissed the crowd.
10 And without delay he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.
“Why Does This Generation Demand a Sign?”
11 The Pharisees came and began arguing with Jesus, demanding from him a definitive sign from heaven, to test him.
12 With an intense groan from deep within, Jesus said, “Why does this generation demand a sign? Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I give this generation a sign.”
13 Leaving them, he got into the boat again and went to the other side of the lake.
“Be on Your Guard against the Yeast of the Pharisees and Yeast of Herod!”
14 The disciples had forgotten to bring along any bread; they had with them in the boat only a single loaf.
15 “Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!”
16 So the disciples began talking the matter over with one another, thinking he had said this because they didn’t have any bread.
17 Aware of what they were saying, Jesus said to them, “Why are ᵖyou talking about not having any bread? Do ᵖyou disciples still not understand or comprehend? Are ᵖyour hearts really so calloused?
18 Though ᵖyou have eyes, do you not see? And though you have ears, do you not hear? Surely ᵖyou remember, don’t you?
19 When I broke for the five thousand those five loaves, how many baskets full of leftover pieces did you receive back from the people?”
“Twelve,” they answered.
20 “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of leftover pieces did you receive back from the people?”
“Seven,” they replied.
21 “Do ᵖyou still not understand?” he asked them.
“Some People Brought a Blind Man to Jesus”
22 Then they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch the man.
23 Taking the blind man by the hand, Jesus led him outside of the village, and after spitting on the man’s eyes, he placed his hands on him and asked him, “Do you see anything at all?”
24 Having regained some sight, the man said, “I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.”
25 Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes once again. The man opened his eyes wide; his sight was restored and he could clearly see everything!
26 Then Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t go back into the village.”
“Who Is It You Say I Am?”
27 Then Jesus set out with his disciples for the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, “Exactly who do people say I am?”
28 “Some say John the Baptizer,” they replied, “but others, Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 “And what about ᵖyou disciples? Who is it you say I am?” he asked them.
“You are the Messiah,” Peter answered.
30 Then Jesus gave them stern orders not to tell anyone about him.
31 He began teaching them that it was God’s will for the Son of Man to suffer many, many things; and to be “examined and rejected as worthless”+ by the elders and the chief priests and the Torah-experts; and to be killed; and then after three days, to rise to life.
32 He was speaking about the matter quite openly. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But as Jesus turned his back to Peter and looked at his other disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “For your mind is set not on the interests of God, but the interests of men!”
34 Then calling the crowd and his disciples over to himself, Jesus said to them, “If someone wants to be a disciple of mine, he must deny himself and take up his cross and continue coming along with me.
35 If someone is set on saving his life, you see, he will lose it. If someone is prepared to lose his life because of me and the gospel, however, he will save it.
36 Is it really worth it for a person to gain all the riches in the world and yet forfeit his life?
37 Indeed, what can a person give in return for his life?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and these words of mine in this adulterous and sinful generation, you see, the Son of Man, likewise, will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”