Luke 6:1-19

1On a Jewish day of rest, Jesus and his disciples were walking through some fields where wheat was growing. His disciples began to pick some of the wheat. They were rubbing it between their hands and eating the seeds.

2Some of the Pharisees were walking with them. They said, ‘You should not be doing that on our day of rest. It is against God's Law.’

3Jesus replied, ‘You have certainly read about what David did one day. He and the men who were with him were hungry.

4He went into the temple. He took the special bread that was there. It is against God's Law for anyone except the priests to eat that bread. But David ate some of it. He gave some of the bread to his men to eat as well.’

5Then Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man has authority over the Law about the day of rest.’

6On another Jewish day of rest, Jesus went into the Jewish meeting place and he taught the people. A man was there. His right hand had become small and weak and he could not use it.

7Some teachers of God's Law and some Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. They wanted to find a reason to say that he was doing something wrong. So they watched Jesus to see if he would make the man well on the day of rest.

8But Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he said to the man, ‘Get up and stand in front of everyone.’ The man got up and he stood there.

9Then Jesus said to the people, ‘Let me ask you something. Is it right for us to do good things on our day of rest? Or should we do bad things? Should we save a person's life? Or should we destroy their life?’

10Jesus looked round at everyone. Then he said to the man, ‘Lift up your hand.’ When the man lifted his hand, it became well. He could use it again.

11Then the Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law were very angry. They began to talk to each other about what they could do to Jesus.

12One day Jesus went up a mountain to pray. He remained there all night and he was praying to God.

13In the morning, he asked all his disciples to come to him. Then he chose 12 of them and he called them his apostles. These are their names:

14Simon (Jesus gave him the name ‘Peter’), Andrew (he was Simon's brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,

15Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,

16Judas, son of James, Judas Iscariot, who later gave Jesus to his enemies.

17After Jesus had chosen these 12 men, they all came down the mountain. He stopped and he stood on a flat place. A large crowd of his disciples stood around him. There were also many people from Jerusalem, and from other towns of Judea, and from places on the coast near Tyre and Sidon.

18These people had all come to hear Jesus teach. Those people who were ill wanted him to make them well. He also made well those people who had bad spirits.

19All the people were trying to touch him, because he was using great power to make each person well.