Mark 3:1-12

1Another time, Jesus went into the Jewish meeting place. A man was there. His hand was very small and weak, so he could not use it.

2Some Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. They wanted to find a reason to say that Jesus was doing wrong things. It was the Jewish day of rest. So the Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would make the man well on this day.

3Jesus said to the man, ‘Stand here in front of everyone.’

4Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘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 kill people?’ Nobody said anything.

5Jesus looked round at everybody. He felt angry with them. He also felt sad because they did not want to learn. Then he said to the man, ‘Lift up your hand.’ The man lifted his hand and it became well. He could use it again.

6The Pharisees left the meeting place immediately. They went to meet with some other people who were friends with the ruler, Herod. The Pharisees talked with them about how they could kill Jesus.

7Jesus left that place and he went away to Lake Galilee with his disciples. A large crowd of people from Galilee followed them.

8Many people also came to him from Judea, from Jerusalem and from a region of Israel called Idumea. They also came from places on the other side of the Jordan River, and from the towns called Tyre and Sidon. Many people had heard about the things that Jesus was doing. That is why all these people came to him.

9The crowd was very large. So Jesus asked his disciples to prepare a small boat for him. They did this so that the people would not push against him.

10Sick people were pushing to the front, because they were trying to touch him. They knew that he had made many people well.

11Often, a person with a bad spirit saw Jesus. Then, the spirit caused the person to fall down on the ground in front of Jesus. The spirit caused that person to shout out, ‘You are the Son of God.’

12Jesus often had to say to the bad spirits, ‘You must not tell anyone who I am.’