Jesus Heals a Man's Crippled Hand

3   ¹Another time Jesus went into the synagogue.* In the synagogue there was a man with a crippled hand. ²Some Jews there wanted to see Jesus do something wrong so that they could accuse him. So those people watched him closely. They wanted to see if Jesus would heal the man on a Sabbath day.* ³Jesus said to the man with the crippled hand, "Stand up here so that all the people can see you." ⁴Then Jesus asked the people, "Which thing is right to do on the Sabbath day: to do good, or to do evil? Is it right to save a life or to destroy one?" The people said nothing to answer Jesus. ⁵Jesus looked at the people. He was angry. But he felt very sad because they were stubborn. Jesus said to the man, "Let me see your hand." The man put his hand out for Jesus, and it was healed. ⁶Then the Pharisees* left and made plans with the Herodians* about a way to kill Jesus.

Many People Follow Jesus

⁷Jesus went away with his followers to the lake. Many people from Galilee followed him. ⁸Many, many people also came from Judea, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from the area across the Jordan River, and from the area around Tyre and Sidon.* These people came because they heard about all the things Jesus was doing. ⁹Jesus saw the many people. So he told his followers to get a small boat and make it ready for him. Jesus wanted the boat so that the many, many people would not push against him. ¹⁰Jesus had healed many people. So all the sick people were pushing toward him to touch him. ¹¹Some people had evil spirits [from the devil] inside them. When the evil spirits saw Jesus, they bowed before him and shouted, "You are the Son of God!" ¹²But Jesus commanded the spirits strongly not to tell people who he was.

Jesus Chooses His Twelve Apostles

¹³Then Jesus went up on a hill. Jesus told some men to come to him. These were the men Jesus wanted. These men went up to Jesus. ¹⁴Jesus chose twelve men and called them apostles.* Jesus wanted these twelve men to be with him, and he wanted to send them to other places to tell people [God's message]. ¹⁵And Jesus wanted these men to have the power to force demons* out of people. ¹⁶These are the names of the twelve men Jesus chose: Simon (Jesus gave him the name Peter); ¹⁷James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Jesus gave them the name Boanerges. This name means "Sons of Thunder"); ¹⁸Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,* ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot. Judas is the one that gave Jesus [to his enemies].

synagogue(s) Synagogues were places where Jews gathered for prayer, study of the Scriptures, and other public meetings. Sabbath day The seventh day of the Jewish week. It was a special religious day for the Jews. Pharisees The Pharisees were a Jewish religious group that claimed to follow carefully all Jewish laws and customs. Herodians A Jewish political group. Tyre and Sidon Towns in Lebanon where bad people lived. apostles The men Jesus chose to be his special helpers. demon(s) Demons are evil spirits from the devil. Zealot Zealots were a Jewish political group.