Mark 3

¹Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there whose hand was shriveled. ²They were watching Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might bring a formal charge against him. ³He said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up here in the middle.” ⁴Then he said to them, “Is it permitted on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?” But they remained silent. ⁵After looking around at them with anger, deeply grieved by the calloused insensitivity of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the partisans of Herod against him, plotting how they might destroy him.

⁷Jesus withdrew with his disciples toward the sea, and a large multitude from Galilee followed. Also from Judea, ⁸Jerusalem, Idumea, the region beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon—a large multitude, hearing all that he was doing, came to him. ⁹He told his disciples to have a small boat kept ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. ¹⁰For he had healed many, with the result that all who had scourging diseases were lunging at him to touch him. ¹¹Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down before him and scream, “You are the Son of God!” ¹²But he strictly warned them not to make him known.

¹³He went up on the mountain and summoned those he himself wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴He appointed twelve—whom he also named apostles—so that they might be with him, and so that he might send them out to herald the message ¹⁵and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); ¹⁷James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder”); ¹⁸Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananaean, ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who also handed him over.

²⁰Then he went into a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat a meal. ²¹When his family heard about it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, “He is out of his mind.” ²²The legal experts who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

²³Summoning them, he spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; he has come to his end. ²⁷But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his possessions without first tying up the strong man; then he will plunder his house.

²⁸Truly I tell you, the children of humanity will be forgiven for all their sins and whatever slanders they utter. ²⁹But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.” ³⁰He said this because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹Then his mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent word to him, calling for him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³He answered them, “Who is my mother, or who are my brothers?” ³⁴Looking around at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers. ³⁵For whoever does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.”