Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a
withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal
him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to
the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them,
“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life
or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them
with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the
man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was
restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with
the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd
followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from
beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great
crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told
his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had
diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean
spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are
the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him
known.
And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he
desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he
also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might
send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He
appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James
the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave
the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip,
and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of
Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot,
who betrayed him.
Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they
could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to
seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is
possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out
the demons.” And he called them to him and said to them in
parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided
against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is
divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And
if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot
stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's
house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.
Then indeed he may plunder his house.
“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of
man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes
against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an
eternal sin”—for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they
sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and
they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside,
seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my
brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of
God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
