Gospel according to Mark 10

¹ Leaving there, he came to the district of Judaea and the far side of the Jordan. And again crowds gathered round him, and again he taught them, as his custom was.

² Some Pharisees approached him and asked, ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’ They were testing him.

³ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’

⁴ ‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’

⁵ Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you.

⁶ But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female.

⁷ This is why a man must leave father and mother,

⁸ and the two become one body.[*a] They are no longer two, therefore, but one body.

⁹ So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’

¹⁰ Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this,

¹¹ and he said to them, ‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her.

¹² And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.’

¹³ People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away,

¹⁴ but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

¹⁵ I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’

¹⁶ Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.

¹⁷ He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

¹⁸ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.

¹⁹ You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’

²⁰ And he said to him, ‘Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days’.

²¹ Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’

²² But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

²³ Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’

²⁴ The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, ‘My children,’ he said to them ‘how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵ It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’

²⁶ They were more astonished than ever. ‘In that case’ they said to one another ‘who can be saved?’

²⁷ Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he said ‘it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.’

²⁸ Peter took this up. ‘What about us?’ he asked him. ‘We have left everything and followed you.’

²⁹ Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel

³⁰ who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life

³¹ ‘Many who are first will be last, and the last first.’

³² They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze, and those who followed were apprehensive. Once more taking the Twelve aside he began to tell them what was going to happen to him:

³³ ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans,

³⁴ who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again.’

³⁵ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. ‘Master,’ they said to him ‘we want you to do us a favour.’

³⁶ He said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’

³⁷ They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory’.

³⁸ ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I must be baptised?’

³⁹ They replied, ‘We can’. Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I must drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I must be baptised you shall be baptised,

⁴⁰ but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted’.

⁴¹ When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John,

⁴² so Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt.

⁴³ This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant,

⁴⁴ and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all.

⁴⁵ For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

⁴⁶ They reached Jericho; and as he left Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road.

⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me’.

⁴⁸ And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me’.

⁴⁹ Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him here’. So they called the blind man. ‘Courage,’ they said ‘get up; he is calling you.’

⁵⁰ So throwing off his so cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus.

⁵¹ Then Jesus spoke, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Rabbuni,'[*b] the blind man said to him ‘Master, let me see again.’

⁵² Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has saved you’. And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.